Kids' treats led to a rising business
By Susan Selasky • Free Press Test Kitchen Director
February 4, 2009
Pam Turkin's cupcake business evolved from an unlikely source -- s'mores, the campfire treat.
"My kids love s'mores and I made them s'mores cupcakes," says Turkin. "I thought they were good enough and decided to start baking for other people."
Turkin and her husband, Todd Turkin, recently opened Just Baked cupcake shop in Livonia. Flavors include Banana Split, Rocky Road and Oreo.
Pam Turkin says she doesn't use a lot of frosting and most of her cupcakes have a cookie-crust bottom.
"Everyone always wants to eat the top, but now you can eat the bottom because there is good stuff on the bottom," says Turkin, 47. "They are all topped with something like the Rocky Road, with homemade brownie bites and marshmallows, walnuts and it's drizzled with ganache."
Turkin, a Farmington Hills mother of five with a marketing background, started off baking cupcakes for private clients and some small grocery stores such as the Market Basket in Franklin and Johnny Pomodoro's Fresh Market in Farmington Hills.
At Just Baked, gourmet cupcakes are $2 each, $10 for six and $18 for a dozen. Turkin bakes the large cupcakes in an oversized cupcake tin.
Standard cupcakes (what Turkin calls mini) are $1.50 each, $8 for six and $15 for a dozen.
"We make everything fresh including our own buttercream -- we only use butter, cream and sugar -- and I use a granola for a trail mix cupcake and we make our own granola," she says.