TURNING
PASSION into a PROFIT
Senior Sarah King turns her love of baking into a cupcake and baked goods business written by Vanessa Daves | photos by Grant Kendall Nothing can compare to the way Senior Sarah King’s eyes light up when she talks about food. She loves the bright colors of the produce aisle, the science of the ingredients and the world of pastries that flour, eggs and sugar can create. Because, for her, food is an experience. Food is personal. And most importantly, food makes people happy. “I love cooking and I love baking and it makes me happy,” Sarah said. “And it makes other people happy, too, and that’s an exuberant bonus.” To her, cooking was as easy as breathing, and something she did every day for pleasure. And if you had told her that she would one day turn her favorite hobby into a business, she wouldn’t have believed you. It didn’t seem fair that she could make money doing something that she loved so much. “Cooking is its own art,” Sarah said. “It’s something you get a lot out of, because it plays to all the senses.” She first decided to start her business at the beginning of the school year. She talked it over with her parents, discussing the pros and cons of having her own business and what kind of risk she could be taking. After her parents, John and Kathy, had to sell their restaurant in 2005 due to the unpredictability of the economy, Sarah was hesitant to enter the same risk. But she needed a job, and since she commutes 45 minutes
CUPCAKE
WARS A comparison of the taste, presentation and cost of cupcakes from Cupcake A La Mode, Dolce and Sarah King’s Classy Cakes
10 | FEATURES
every day from Edgerton to East for the I.B. program, it isn’t possible for her to have a regular job like her friends. “A lot of things have really been overwhelming me,” Sarah said. “So this is a way I thought I could make money and do something I enjoy and be able to handle it.” So Sarah opened Classy Cakes, which according to the Facebook page, promises to provide “cupcakes and other joyous confections for birthdays, graduation and awkward family gatherings!” Offering brownies, snickerdoodle blondies, coconut macaroons and any kind of cupcake, everything is sold for $18 a dozen. Sarah researched costs of local bakeries and priced her products much cheaper in the hope that she would draw in more customers. “Food is not an easy way to make money,” Kathy said. “It takes a lot of time, but it is very rewarding because when you give someone good food, you give them joy.” Previously, Sarah was selling her hand-crafted jewelry at Lulu’s. But making jewelry was too time consuming, and only worked as a gift for her friends. So she switched to baking, which she could do on a more flexible schedule and use as a gift for both genders. Food has been her life, her passion, since as long as she can remember. She grew up constantly surrounded by food whether she was strapped to her parents’
back at a Farmers’ Market, helping in their family vegetable garden, or copying down recipes from her favorite cookbook, Bailey Lee’s Dessert Book. Cooking was something she picked up along the way. “I think the idea that I, or anyone, ‘taught her to cook’ is a bit of a misconception,” John said. “If teaching amounts to hanging around answering a few perceptive questions while the student explores one delicious creative avenue after another—with the rare dead end—then I guess I taught her to cook along with her Mom. I would, however, describe Sarah as self-taught. We just help keep the culinary environment vivid and necessary supplies on hand.” Now, Sarah spends at least an hour every day in her kitchen cooking. She makes a homemade, organic meal for herself and her parents every night, as well as her lunch for the following day. For a majority of her dishes, Sarah creates her own recipes; she calls it being “adventurous.” Her inspiration for these new dishes come from the hours she spends watching “America’s Test Kitchen” and researching on allrecipes. com or epicurious.com. She’ll mix recipes like Banana’s Foster and Cinnamon Roll Cupcakes, and come up with something completely new. And when she wants to test it out, she brings it to school for feedback from her classmates. “Everyone was super excited when she
CUPCAKE
A LA MODE
{Bella Nutella} Chocolate cupcake topped with creamy Nutella, chocolate hazelnut buttercream and a truffle and pirrouhette cookie on top Taste: Presentation: Cost: $3.25
DOLCE
BAKING CO
{Vanilla Cream} Pure and simple... vanilla cake and vanilla icing Taste: Presentation: Cost: $2.25
brought treats to our physics class,” Junior Max Duncan said. “She brought cupcakes with cookie dough icing covered in chocolate. I think her business will be successful, she definitely has the skill and yummies, she just needs the publicity.” But before she tries anything new or mixes any recipes, she meticulously reads countless reviews, because nothing irks Sarah more than a recipe gone wrong. “I get really upset because it just seems like such a waste,” Sarah said. “And especially if I’m going to bring it to someone, I’m like, now I can’t make their day happy.” But, as her dad said, Sarah rarely meets dead ends in her experiments. Although Sarah has not yet decided what college she is going to next year, she knows one is for sure—she won’t be studying the culinary arts. She’d rather keep that as something on the side. She plans to keep the business going and expanding what she sells throughout her college years, but she will be studying Art History and Art, with a focus in Archeology and Art Preservation and a minor in math. “It has nothing to do with cooking, which is very upsetting,” Sarah said. “[But] it’s very much a part of my life.” And despite her busy schedule, juggling between her schoolwork and her artwork, Sarah will always make time for cooking. Because, after all, cooking is her art.
To order “classy cakes,” email sardancer@embarqmail.com
SARAH KING’S
CLASSY CAKES {Vanilla}
Vanilla cupcake with pink hued butter cream frosting with marshmallow daisies Taste Presentation: Cost: $18/dozen