A little more than nine years ago when Smallcakes opened its first location in Kansas City, founder Jeff Martin was always thinking of new ways to set his brand apart during the “cupcake boom” and differentiate Smallcakes from the competition. “I believe what we started out with was good, but we’ve really accelerated the past 3 years,” Martin says. Smallcakes has seen tremendous growth in its number of stores and store sales over the past three years and Martin believes it’s all about menu innovation, as well as letting store owners have a voice and help create new products. Martin says, “A lot of our competitors got stuck on cupcakes only and we knew as every year went on we had to make sure our customers knew we were thinking longterm and thinking of new ideas to keep them interested.”
Smallcakes first major new product was the cupcake infused ice cream, which was created to increase sales during the summer and offer a ice cream product unlike the same old hard ice cream companies. “We really wanted to create a unique and different ice cream and we did just that by making it in small batches, ensuring it’s fresh and creamy and then using unique flavors and ingredients,” says Martin. Flavors include Cookies n Cream, Red Velvet, Salted Caramel, Spicy Sriracha, Spiked Sundae and Frozen Hot Chocolate just to name a few.
But Martin didn’t stop there, he built on the ice cream and introduced their very popular Smallcakes Smash, which was recently listed as one of the Top Things to try in Chicago! It’s a cupcake of your choice with two scoops of your favorite cupcake infused ice cream, all smashed together. Martin has seen sales of this product sky-rocket this past year and has the potential to become the most popular product in the stores.
Martin is always thinking of the next big thing to add to the menu to increase sales and to keep Smallcakes viable for many years to come. With 30 new stores in production for this year in the US and internationally, Smallcakes really is trying to accomplish its # tag of “Baking over the World”.
Smallcakes was founded by Jeff Martin of Kansas City in 2008 and has grown to over 160 locations including International locations in Dubai and Saudi Arabia, offering specialty cupcakes baked fresh daily and small batch ice cream. Martin and Smallcakes have received national recognition with his three appearances on the Food Network’s Cupcake Wars, a feature on the morning television show The View, catering cupcakes to star- studded events such as the MTV Video Music Awards, and being listed as one of the Top Ten Cupcake Places to try in the country by USA
Today. Smallcakes was also named one of the top 50 fastest growing companies in 2015 and has fans all across the country. For more information visit Smallcakes online at www.smallcakescupcakery.com and on Facebook and Instagram.
