Business & Tech
Fresh Cupcakes Come to Canton in a Big Way
Just Baked shops are capitalizing on the steady popularity of cupcakes.
In the month since the Just Baked cupcake store opened on Ford Road across from Ikea, owner Pam Turkin said sales have exceeded expectations.
Who doesn't love a good cupcake?
Turkin said one of the best things about a cupcake is size: They are “portion controlled."
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The store also sells brownies, a kernel-free, sugar-coated popcorn and Caribou coffee. The bakery includes a few bistro chairs for those whose willpower can withstand lingering amid the shop's drool-inducing aroma.
Just Baked offers 65 flavors, including the Fat Elvis, a banana-flavored cupcake topped with peanut-butter butter cream and dipped in chocolate.
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What's selling the most at the new Canton location are red velvet cupcakes and the red velvet cheesecake-flavored cupcakes. But a recent creation may create flavor competition. The shop's new Faygo-flavored cupcakes pay homage to Detroit's historic soft drink company, which based its first bubbly beverage flavors (grape, strawberry and fruit punch) on its own cake frosting recipes.
Another popular item, Turkin said, is the Bumpy Cake cupcake, with “bumps” of white butter cream coated in a deep fudge frosting.
Valentine's Day is a huge time for cupcake sales, Turkin said. Just Baked features a Cupcake Bouquet — 10 tempting cupcakes in a clear floral box tied with a bow. Just Baked has also teamed up with a local floral delivery company and will deliver cupcakes to your door, or to the door of someone else who may need some cheering up in a way that only a delicious cupcake can provide.
Turkin said cupcakes are also increasingly popular at weddings. Instead of a traditional wedding cake, brides and grooms serve cupcakes to offer variety and save money. Turkin said her business averages 400 to 500 weddings a year.
Just Baked offers a hand-built tower of 24 to 400 cupcakes on a base of a 6-inch wedding cake. This makes the reception more “interactive," she said, allowing guests to choose from four or five types of cupcakes being served at the reception, especially if the cupcakes are cut to sample-size pieces.
The Canton store is Turkin's fifth shop in Metro Detroit. She said cupcakes continue to be popular and anticipates sales growing 20 percent during the next five years, outpacing other items in the bakery industry. Other Just Baked stores operate in Livonia, Twelve Oaks Mall in Novi, Royal Oak and Ann Arbor. Two more are scheduled to open this year, in Brighton and Troy, she said.
Turkin said she's happy to be selling cupcakes in Canton and is excited about the growth of the business and loves what the stores are doing.
Just Baked, 41747 Ford Rd., Canton, is open 10 a.m.-9 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Sunday. For more information visit the website, call 734-981-9200.