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Cupcake craze makes its Charleston debut
By Kathleen Dayton
Staff Writer
They’re soft, small and even pretty, but don’t underestimate the power of the cupcake.
Not just for children anymore, the cupcake has recently taken on more adult-oriented flavors—anyone for a mojito cupcake?—and the growing popularity of these frosted pompoms has become the nation’s latest food trend.
As with many trends, the cupcake craze has just made its Charleston debut after taking over bakeries in New York City and Los Angeles.
On King Street, a 700-square-foot shop called Cupcake opened in March after owner Kristin Kuhlke observed New York’s cupcake mania enough to spy a niche business in the making.
“I’m always doing little cupcake tours when I’m in New York,” said Kuhlke, a Clemson University graduate who lived in the Big Apple for a year.
“In New York, cupcake places are open late-night. Magnolia’s is the most popular, and they have a line around the building. They were on an episode of ‘Sex in the City’ and that was huge press for them. Now they’re a destination.”
Cupcakes were not a whim for Kuhlke, who is not a baker but a businesswoman armed with a degree in financial management.
The 34-year-old entrepreneur grew up all over the country and spent weekends in Charleston while attending Clemson. When in New York, Kuhlke scrutinized a number of businesses whose concepts she thought would work in Charleston and ruled out those she thought would require larger volumes of people.
She had been researching different businesses for months when she started down the cupcake path.
Trendy upper King Street and the cupcake phenomenon soon became intertwined in Kuhlke’s business plan.
“To me this spot is perfect because it’s kind of a new idea and all these new places are opening up down here,” Kuhlke said. “I wanted to be in the heart, in downtown, because I wanted the foot traffic. I wanted the tourists, I wanted the students, I wanted the shoppers.”
So far, Kuhlke said her clientele is more diverse than she had expected.
“I thought it would be mainly women,” Kuhlke said. “I have a couple of older gentlemen that came in and got a cup of coffee and talked about business, and the next week they came in and each got a cupcake.”
College of Charleston student Allison O’Dell recently visited the shop for the first time around 5 p.m. while en route to her second job.
“It’s not quite dinner time. It’s kind of a good snack,” O’Dell said. She walked out with a chocolate raspberry cupcake and said the shop was a college girl’s dream.
Special orders have picked up since the shop opened, Kuhlke said, and are about 35% of the store’s business. She expects special orders to eventually make up 60% to 70% of her sales. A recent order for three dozen cupcakes totaled around $90. That cost is another reason King Street’s upscale shopping district attracted Kuhlke.
“I’d like to open up more of them, but I definitely wanted the first to be in downtown because it’s a sophisticated cupcake,” Kuhlke said. “It’s not a 50-cent cupcake, it’s a $2.75 cupcake.”
Flavors include banana butterscotch, red velvet, praline and mint chocolate chip. Ingredients include Madagascar Bourbon vanilla, named for the former Bourbon Island off the coast of Africa, not the liquor.
Nine of the bakery’s 30 flavors are available daily. Kuhlke said she often sells out on Fridays and Saturdays, but leftover treats go to local children’s homes or to Seacoast Community Church, which Kuhlke attends.
Marketing strategist Britt Beemer, founder and CEO of Charleston-based America’s Research Group, said he was surprised Charleston is ahead of Orlando, Fla., in the cupcake trend.
Beemer, who lives in Orlando, said he was not aware of any cupcake cafes in the town.
“Orlando’s got every scheme in the world,” Beemer said.
Beemer likened the current infatuation with cupcakes to the nation’s love affair with Starbucks coffee.
“Who would have thought a cupcake store? But who would have thought, 10 years ago, there would be coffee stores? The whole yogurt business was started that way, too,” Beemer said. “Coffee has got a broader audience than cupcakes, but it depends on how she expands the business.
“Are kids going to want to go there to have cupcakes for birthday parties? A takeout business will be viable, but you couldn’t rely on people coming in and just buying one or two. It’s certainly a niche business and there certainly is probably not room for three in Charleston, but there’s room for one and what kind of extensions she can create.”
Kathleen Dayton is a staff writer for the Business Journal. E-mail her at kdayton@charlestonbusiness.com.
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