Jennifer Allpress made a big change: from being an emergency room technician to owning her own bakery, Simply Sweets. She went from being an emergency room technician to owning her own bakery, Simply Sweets.
“Baking was always my passion,” said Allpress. “I’d bring in giant trays of goodies to work [at the hospital]. People told me I should open a business.”
And that’s exactly what she did.
Starting on a shoestring, Allpress leased a spot from an ice cream shop in Battle Ground, but quickly outgrew that space. Harking back to a childhood memory of watching pizzas being made at a shop in a mall, she approached Westfield Vancouver Shopping Mall management with the idea of a shop where people could watch the creation of their cupcakes and cakes.
“Management was all for it, and made it a realistic goal for me,” said Allpress, who said she only had about a $3,000 budget. “Things snowballed from there.”
Within three weeks of moving to the mall, Allpress said she was “drowning” in business, and hired her first employee – Ilea Dunaway, who is the store’s manager and has an associate’s degree in bakery management from Clark Community College. Since then, Allpress has added four more employees, and will be moving to a twice-as-large space in the Mall on July 1.
“The mall is a good location,” said Dunaway. “There’s foot traffic, then later a birthday will be coming up, and they’ll remember us.”
Simply Sweets provides custom-built cakes and cupcakes in more than 16 cake flavors, a dozen frosting flavors and four fillings. The weekly cupcake menu at the store includes intriguing offerings such as the “Hummingbird,” which is a lightly cinnamon spiced cake with pineapple, banana coconut and pecans topped with a cream cheese buttercream.
“People like crazy combos,” said Dunaway. “One of our most popular cupcakes is a sweet potato cake with caramel butter cream frosting.”
Those with dietary restrictions can order cakes and cupcakes that are free of common allergens such as dairy, gluten and soy.
The cakes and cupcakes created at Simply Sweets show a creative flair that goes way beyond frosting and a few flowers. They use fondant – sweet, pliable dough that can be sculpted into any shape. Dunaway said popular themes currently include anything “Mario” (after the video game character) as well as Sesame Street characters and “Hello Kitty.”
For the do-it-yourselfers, Simply Sweets offers cupcake accessories, such as various colors of sprinkles, themed cupcake liners and cutters.
Allpress said they are solidly booked for the next two weeks, and have cakes ordered as much as a year in advance. She credits her cheerful and hardworking employees for much of the store’s success.
“One of the keys to owning a small business is having an amazing staff,” said Allpress, adding that customers often comment on how she and her co-workers look like they’re having a good time.
Financially, the business is looking pretty sweet: 900 percent revenue growth in 2010 and already up 140 percent in 2011, according to Allpress’ accountant.
Allpress said the financial success of Simply Sweets has enabled her business to support several non-profits in the community, including Katie’s Kause (dedicated to families dealing with cystic fibrosis) and Celebrate Me (birthday parties for kids dealing with cancer in their family).
With hopes of opening a second location in the next year or so, Allpress also stated that she had been approached by a couple other mall management groups about the possibility of franchising her business. However, she has turned them down so far, stating that she wants to grow the business more locally, and also focus on raising her young family.
