This is a great opportunity for Sweet Charity’s that should bring in a little more business. But on top of work, school, being a mom and soon to be wife- I don’t want to much business.

The more I keep this up to date and have to report my lack of progress maybe the more willing I’ll be to get things done.

Til then-

Peace, Love & Cupcakes

This summer we will be at the Ogden Farmer’s Market selling our gourment cupcakes starting July 17th. I’m hoping to build our client base and get more Sweet Charity’s addicts.

I’m working on adding gourment sugar cookies to our menu. Who doesn’t love a wonderful soft cookie with buttercream frosting.

Make sure you come and visit us this summer at Ogden’s 25th Street Farmer’s Market.

Remember,

Peace, Love & Cupcakes

Also I had Cat Palmer (www.catpalmer.com) come and take pics of my cupcakes and of me (of course). I should get my pics this Saturday. So stoked. Cat is so fun to work with and does amazing pics. In return I get to make her some fun cupcakes for her family reunion and then her Halloween Baby Shower… how fun is that.

It looks like I won’t be at the Washington Heights Craft Fair this year. They changed the rules for food vendors. It’s all good. My boyfriend will be moving here soon from Rapid City and will keep me busy for a while. Plus I have to teach him the art of cup-caking so he too can help in the kitchen. I’ll keep you posted with up coming shows and the status of my business… submitted my recipes 2 months ago and still no word. Very irritated but can’t do much since there’s only one person working on cottage licenses for all of Utah.

In the meantime call/email me for orders… 1 dozen 1 flavor $20 w/ cute fun decorations add$5.

Here’s my flavors:

Lime w/Lemon Frosting

Pumpkin w/Cinnamon Frosting

Chocolate w/Chocolate Frosting

Vanilla w/Vanilla Bean Frosting

Cinnamon w/Cinnamon Frosting

Orangecicle w/Orange Frosting

Strawberry w/Lemon Frosting

Plus any other fun combination you can think of.

Also two good friends of my Dawn & Dawn have kids the go to Davis Prep Academy. I made them each themed cupcakes for their art auction this evening. Dawn even order a dozen cupcakes for the ladies setting up so they can first had experience the amazingness (is that a word) of my cupcakes.

Hopefully soon I’ll hear how both events went. I’ll keep you updated. In the meantime enjoy my pictures.

Diploma Cupcakes

Coconut Graduation Caps

Chocolate Peanut Butter U of U

Chocolate Peanut Butter Dr. Seuss

... Brand can't wait to eat some cupcakesLemon, Oreo and Strawberry Lemon Cupcakes

Lemon, Oreo and Strawberry Lemon Cupcakes

I had the privilege of doing cupcakes for Alison and Eric Lambert. It was such and honor and I was so excited they turned out so well. It showed that yes I can bake 17 dozen cupcakes in one day and not be stressed. I think this was the most carefree event I done so far. I used the cake stands my dad built and they were beautiful. He did such an awesome job… and they hold exactly 15 dozen cupcakes.

Congratulations Eric & Alison (Wynne)

The top tier is lemon cupcakes with lemon buttercream, with Oreo below and vanilla buttercream and on the bottom is Strawberry Lemon with lemon and strawberry swirled buttercream

Then I did some Strawberry Lemon (Summer Dream)for a BUNCO night. I also did a cupcake photo shoot.

Sweet Charity’s Cupcakery
by JC Coquillard

Sweet Charity’s Cupcakery is a local business based in Ogden, Utah. The owner Charity Coquillard has been making custom cupcakes for the past three years. She started out by baking for friend’s birthday parties and special occasions. She would experiment and bring them into her work an after a while people started telling her that she could really make money selling them. Soon after, her friends started giving her name out to others friends and family members for their upcoming important events. Not long after she began making her gourmet cupcakes, Charity started being known as “The Cupcake Lady.”
Finding the right name for her business was an all-out effort from Charity’s family and friends. She has a large following that she draws from when it comes to getting ideas and input from. She is always open to suggestions and is willing to try anything and goes to extreme lengths to makes someone’s order extra special.
As of right now, Charity is the only employee for Sweet Charity’s Cupcakery, other than the occasional driver. The business is privately owned and is a sole proprietorship. It has only been a registered business with the City of Ogden and the State of Utah for a few months now, even though Charity has been slaving in front of her stove for a couple of years.
Sweet Charity’s Cupcakery is currently based out of Charity’s two bedroom condo. Armed with a home baking license she is the main supplier of cupcakes to local birthday parties, weddings and craft fairs in the Ogden area. She bakes anywhere from a couple dozen a week for a birthday party to 400 on a weekend for the local craft fair.
Using her friends and family as guinea pigs she tries to come up with new flavors and combinations every week, like last week’s Lime Ricky cupcakes which consisted of a lime cupcake with grape frosting ended up tasting like grape cough syrup. She accepts praise as well as criticism since she knows her business is a work in progress.
Every recipe in her arsenal of cupcakes has been created in her kitchen using fresh ingredients. It took two years to create the perfect combination of ingredients for the simple vanilla cupcake. She says “because the cupcake is so small you can taste the favor of everything you put in it unlike a normal cake”.
Her business is based on the simple technique of advertising by word of mouth. She gets an average of two to three baking gigs for every craft fair she does (Oh, how woman love their sweets). She is also part of a cupcake internet community. The group posts ideas as well as the struggles that they are having with their cupcake business. Charity also has a blog at www.sweetcharitys.blogspot.com which she posts regularly with her new designs and flavors.
With Ogden, Utah being a hipster town it thrives off of local businesses. The college community seems to really support anything local. For right now, the closest thing to a cupcakery that Utah has is in Provo which is about 70 miles away. There currently is talk about a cupcake shop being built in Ogden City, which would put a big dent in Charity’s business but she is still determined to maintain the title of “The Cupcake Lady.”
She is currently focusing on getting her cupcakes into some of the local coffee shops and bakeries. Right now, the cupcakery’s orders are not steady, so this would be a good way for her to have a steady income and to grow her business. She has already contacted a few businesses and has had offers made. She is currently working out the best way to package her orders so that they remain unique and fresh. There is a lot of food regulation when it comes to retailing food items.
The feedback that she has gotten from many people is that her unique flavor combinations make Sweet Charity’s Cupcakery unforgettable. The last craft fair she attended there were people coming in just to buy her cupcakes. And why wouldn’t you when you have a slogan like “Peace, Love and Cupcakes”. The downside is that she has no storefront so people have to either order by the dozen or wait for a craft fair to taste the beautifully and unforgettable made cupcakes.
The interview was conducted with the owner of Sweet Charity’s Cupcakery, Charity Coquillard. When asked how much she gets paid, she just laughs. The company is still in the beginning stages and everything she makes just goes right back into the company. She stated that it is hard to start a company without a business loan. If it wasn’t for the love of baking, she would have gotten out of it a long time ago. Her goal is to be able to make her house payment off cupcake sales by the end of the summer.