There’s a wildly popular, new dessert concept coming to Minnesota – decadent, gourmet cupcakes and cupcake-infused ice cream! Smallcakes Cupcakery and Creamery, an established international cupcake brand, will be opening its first Minnesota location in March at 15624 Pilot Knob Road in Apple Valley, which is part of the Cobblestone Lake neighborhood community.
Smallcakes was founded by Jeff Martin in Kansas City in 2008 and has grown to over 150 locations in 22 different states. The stores offer specialty cupcakes, which are baked fresh daily and small batch ice creams made on-site. 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.
Kerri Hall is a former sales manager in the petroleum industry. She started baking about 7 years ago and created a hobby-baking business outside of her fulltime career in the fuel business. Her goal was to pursue a bigger opportunity with baking once her kids were through school. Kerri received Jeff Martin’s cookbook, entitled Buttercream Dreams, last August. After reading the preface about living the American dream, she came to the realization that it was time for her to do the same. She reached out to Jeff and decided to partner with him to bring the first Smallcakes Cupcakery and Creamery shop to Minnesota. Kaelin, Kerri’s daughter, immediately jumped on-board as General Manager and is working hand-in-hand with her mom to launch the concept.
“We are beyond thrilled to have Kerri and Kaelin open the first Smallcakes location in the State of Minnesota. And, to be able to launch the store right in their home community of Apple Valley is awesome,” says Martin. “Their enthusiasm for creating sweet treats and their focus on the overall customer experience, will be evident when you walk through the doors.”
The newest offering at Smallcakes is cupcake-infused ice cream. “We take our take our amazing cupcakes and incorporate them into our old fashioned ice cream mix to create delicious and unique ice cream flavors,” Martin says. Ice cream flavors include Red Velvet, 24 Karrot, Butter Pecan, Vanilla Bean, Snickers and Salted Caramel.
The store’s daily menu features 12 signature cupcake flavors – Birthday Cake, Caramel Crunch, Chocolate Cream, Chocoholic, Cookies N Crème, Hot Fudge Sundae, Lemon Drop, Peanut Butter Cup, Pink Chocolate, Pink Vanilla, Red Velvet and Vanilla-N-Chocolate – as well as a rotation of over 250 specialty flavors such as Maple Bacon, Fat Elvis, Cannoli, Wedding Cake, Tiramisu, Apple Stuffed French Toast and Mimosa. Smallcakes will also offer gluten-free options on select days. And don’t worry about getting a day old cupcake; at the end of each day, everything not sold is donated to one of several local charities, churches or people/places in-need. This allows Kerri and Kaelin to give back to their community, and underscores their promise to bake your cupcakes fresh daily.
The Apple Valley location will be open 7 days a week, Monday-Saturday from 10 a.m.-8 p.m. and Sunday from noon-6 p.m. Hours will vary in the summer months. For more information, visit Smallcakes online at Smallcakes: A Cupcakery and Creamery
