Cake in a Cup


Cake in a Cup is a cupcake shop, located in Toledo, Ohio. Owned by friends Lori Jacobs and Dana Iliev, Cake in a Cup is Toledo's first and only specialty cupcake shop. The shop opened Valentines Day 2008.

History

Lori Jacobs and Dana Iliev met while working at Grumpy's, a deli restaurant in Toledo. After living in New York City, Jacobs did not like the gourmet cupcake shops found in the city but thought that a cupcake shop would be a good addition in Toledo. Agreeing with Jacobs, the two bought a cupcake book, started making recipes, and developed their own business plan. Before opening the shop, the two sold cupcakes out of Iliev's kitchen, neither one having any formal training. In order to get publicity for the new business, Jacobs and Iliev appeared on the radio, on blogs, and delivered cupcake samples and menus to high end hair salons and other establishments.

Cupcakes

The shop has more than thirty flavors in all, but only have certain flavors available each month. The shop also has a daily menu with five flavors rotating every day. Chocolate, vanilla, and red velvet are sold every day. Every cupcake is made from scratch with fresh ingredients. Cupcakes are sold for $2.50 each or $25 a dozen. The shop also does catering for weddings and other events in addition to walk in customers. Cake in a Cup usually sells 400-800 cupcakes on the weekdays and up to 1,500 on weekends.The goal each day is to sell out, however when they do not, the shop offers something called leftover alerts in which fans can get a discounted price on cupcakes by accessing the Facebook page and being the first to call into the shop.

Television

The shop was featured on the Food Network television show Cupcake Wars and won the top $10,000 prize. The episode's theme was the art and film of director Tim Burton. Their winning cupcake was a chocolate cupcake with stout beer, frosted with chocolate ganache, and topped with lime green buttercream. It was decorated with upside down white chocolate chips so it would look like a mushroom, a common symbol in Tim Burton's artwork. Other cupcakes presented on the show were a blood orange and currant jam cupcake symbolizing blood, a red velvet cupcake with a red fondant heart to represent the Queen of Hearts from Alice in Wonderland, and a lemon blueberry cupcake drawing from the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory character, Violet.