Sprinkles Cupcakes
Encyclopedia
Sprinkles Cupcakes is a Beverly Hills, California
-based cupcake
bakery chain established in 2005. It is considered the first cupcakes-only bakery.
, 33, and her husband Charles Nelson, 38, both investment bankers, visited Candace's sister in New York and tried the cupcakes at Magnolia Bakery
. Candace believed that it was "time for cupcakes to stop being the backup dancer to cakes", while Nelson remembered, "I get the cupcake thing; cupcakes are awesome. But we were like, 'The cupcakes aren't that great. They could be so much better and really could taste a lot better'". They took it upon themselves to create a better cupcake; over the next two years, they developed over 20 cupcake recipes.
Although starting a cupcake bakery was a "high-risk venture" and the bakery business was in a four-year no carb
decline, the Nelsons pursued their dream. Their "sleek, minimalistic" store was designed by an architect from Vienna
and the logo and packaging were created by a former Martha Stewart
employee. On April 13, 2005, the Nelsons opened Sprinkles' first store on Little Santa Monica Boulevard in Beverly Hills. The first day, the cupcakes sold out in three hours, and 2,000 cupcakes were sold the first week.
Sprinkles now has 10 locations throughout the United States, with plans to open in 15 more cities including London and Tokyo. The Nelsons also started a traveling "Sprinklesmobile", a Mercedes
Sprinter van designed by Sprinkles architect Andrea Lenardin and built by "Pimp My Ride's" West Coast Customs. In 2007 the company developed a line of cupcake mixes sold exclusively through Sprinkles and Williams-Sonoma
stores in the United States and Canada. In February 2011 Sprinkles released an iPhone
app that features free cupcakes and virtual gifting.
On May 13, 2011, Sprinkles Cupcakes opened its first New York City store.
and gluten-free
cupcakes and even dog-food
cupcakes. The cupcakes are baked daily and are free from preservatives, trans fat
s and artificial flavors.
, Barbra Streisand
, Tyra Banks
, Katie Holmes
, Paris Hilton
, Blake Lively
, Ryan Seacrest
, Tom Cruise
, and Jake Gyllenhaal
are among its customers.
Barbra Streisand was one of Sprinkles' first customers and introduced Oprah Winfrey to the brand by sending her a box of cupcakes. Only eight months after opening Sprinkles, Charles and Candace received a call from Harpo Studios that Oprah needed 300 cupcakes for her studio audience in Chicago
the next morning for Breakfast with Oprah, wherein she showcases her favorite delicacies. The couple managed to catch an overnight flight, and the cupcakes were featured on Oprah's show. Soon after, sales in their Beverly Hills location increased 50%, to 1,500 cupcakes daily.
Sprinkles has also appeared on The Today Show and Nightline
, as well as Entourage
and The Girls Next Door
.
Sprinkles played a role in Tom Cruise
's courtship of Katie Holmes
. During the Christmas of 2007, the Cruises sent out boxes of holiday-themed Sprinkles cupcakes to their close friends and associates.
Beverly Hills, California
Beverly Hills is an affluent city located in Los Angeles County, California, United States. With a population of 34,109 at the 2010 census, up from 33,784 as of the 2000 census, it is home to numerous Hollywood celebrities. Beverly Hills and the neighboring city of West Hollywood are together...
-based cupcake
Cupcake
A cupcake is a small cake designed to serve one person, frequently baked in a small, thin paper or aluminum cup...
bakery chain established in 2005. It is considered the first cupcakes-only bakery.
History
In 2002, Candace NelsonCandace Nelson
Candace Nelson is a pastry chef and judge on the television series Cupcake Wars. She is credited with starting a nationwide cupcake craze with the opening of her store, Sprinkles Cupcakes, in 2005.-Early life:Nelson grew up in Indonesia...
, 33, and her husband Charles Nelson, 38, both investment bankers, visited Candace's sister in New York and tried the cupcakes at Magnolia Bakery
Magnolia Bakery
Magnolia Bakery is a bakery opened in 1996 at 401 Bleecker Street, on the corner of West 11th Street in the West Village neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. An uptown shop opened at 200 Columbus Avenue, on the corner of West 69th Street on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, in January 2008...
. Candace believed that it was "time for cupcakes to stop being the backup dancer to cakes", while Nelson remembered, "I get the cupcake thing; cupcakes are awesome. But we were like, 'The cupcakes aren't that great. They could be so much better and really could taste a lot better'". They took it upon themselves to create a better cupcake; over the next two years, they developed over 20 cupcake recipes.
Although starting a cupcake bakery was a "high-risk venture" and the bakery business was in a four-year no carb
No-carbohydrate diet
A no-carbohydrate diet is described as human carnivorism. It excludes dietary consumption of all carbohydrates and suggests fat as the main source of energy with sufficient protein...
decline, the Nelsons pursued their dream. Their "sleek, minimalistic" store was designed by an architect from Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
and the logo and packaging were created by a former Martha Stewart
Martha Stewart
Martha Stewart is an American business magnate, author, magazine publisher, and television personality. As founder of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, she has gained success through a variety of business ventures, encompassing publishing, broadcasting, and merchandising...
employee. On April 13, 2005, the Nelsons opened Sprinkles' first store on Little Santa Monica Boulevard in Beverly Hills. The first day, the cupcakes sold out in three hours, and 2,000 cupcakes were sold the first week.
Sprinkles now has 10 locations throughout the United States, with plans to open in 15 more cities including London and Tokyo. The Nelsons also started a traveling "Sprinklesmobile", a Mercedes
Mercedes-Benz
Mercedes-Benz is a German manufacturer of automobiles, buses, coaches, and trucks. Mercedes-Benz is a division of its parent company, Daimler AG...
Sprinter van designed by Sprinkles architect Andrea Lenardin and built by "Pimp My Ride's" West Coast Customs. In 2007 the company developed a line of cupcake mixes sold exclusively through Sprinkles and Williams-Sonoma
Williams-Sonoma
Williams-Sonoma, Inc. is a high-end American consumer retail company that sells kitchenwares, furniture and linens, as well as other housewares and home furnishings, along with a variety of specialty foods, soaps and lotions...
stores in the United States and Canada. In February 2011 Sprinkles released an iPhone
IPhone
The iPhone is a line of Internet and multimedia-enabled smartphones marketed by Apple Inc. The first iPhone was unveiled by Steve Jobs, then CEO of Apple, on January 9, 2007, and released on June 29, 2007...
app that features free cupcakes and virtual gifting.
On May 13, 2011, Sprinkles Cupcakes opened its first New York City store.
Ingredients
Candace is described as taking a "sophisticated" take on the classic cupcake, using ingredients like sweet buttercream, pure Nielsen-Massey Madagascar Bourbon vanilla, and Callebaut chocolate. She also creates offbeat offerings like veganVeganism
Veganism is the practice of eliminating the use of animal products. Ethical vegans reject the commodity status of animals and the use of animal products for any purpose, while dietary vegans or strict vegetarians eliminate them from their diet only...
and gluten-free
Gluten-free diet
A gluten-free diet is a diet that excludes foods containing gluten. Gluten is a protein found in wheat , barley, rye, malts and triticale. It is used as a food additive in the form of a flavoring, stabilizing or thickening agent, often as "dextrin"...
cupcakes and even dog-food
Dog food
Dog food refers to food specifically intended for consumption by dogs. Though technically omnivorous, dogs exhibit a natural carnivorous bias, have sharp, pointy teeth, and have short gastrointestinal tracts better suited for the consumption of meat...
cupcakes. The cupcakes are baked daily and are free from preservatives, trans fat
Trans fat
Trans fat is the common name for unsaturated fat with trans-isomer fatty acid. Because the term refers to the configuration of a double carbon-carbon bond, trans fats are sometimes monounsaturated or polyunsaturated, but never saturated....
s and artificial flavors.
Celebrity endorsements
Sprinkles has gained many celebrity endorsements. Oprah WinfreyOprah Winfrey
Oprah Winfrey is an American media proprietor, talk show host, actress, producer and philanthropist. Winfrey is best known for her self-titled, multi-award-winning talk show, which has become the highest-rated program of its kind in history and was nationally syndicated from 1986 to 2011...
, Barbra Streisand
Barbra Streisand
Barbra Joan Streisand is an American singer, actress, film producer and director. She has won two Academy Awards, eight Grammy Awards, four Emmy Awards, a Special Tony Award, an American Film Institute award, a Peabody Award, and is one of the few entertainers who have won an Oscar, Emmy, Grammy,...
, Tyra Banks
Tyra Banks
Tyra Lynne Banks is an American model, media personality, actress, occasional singer, author and businesswoman. She first became famous as a model, but television appearances were her commercial breakthrough...
, Katie Holmes
Katie Holmes
Katherine Noelle "Katie" Holmes is an American actress who first achieved fame for her role as Joey Potter on The WB television teen drama Dawson's Creek from 1998 to 2003. Her movie roles have included the blockbuster Batman Begins along with art house films such as The Ice Storm and thrillers...
, Paris Hilton
Paris Hilton
Paris Whitney Hilton is an American businesswoman, heiress, and socialite. She is a great-granddaughter of Conrad Hilton . Hilton is known for her controversial participation in a sex tape in 2003, and appearance on the television series The Simple Life alongside fellow socialite and childhood...
, Blake Lively
Blake Lively
Blake Christina Lively is an American actress and model who stars as Serena van der Woodsen in the television teen drama series Gossip Girl...
, Ryan Seacrest
Ryan Seacrest
Ryan John Seacrest is an American radio personality, television host, network producer and voice actor. He is the host of On Air with Ryan Seacrest, a nationally syndicated Top 40 radio show that airs on KIIS-FM in Los Angeles and throughout the United States and Canada on Premiere Radio Networks,...
, Tom Cruise
Tom Cruise
Thomas Cruise Mapother IV , better known as Tom Cruise, is an American film actor and producer. He has been nominated for three Academy Awards and he has won three Golden Globe Awards....
, and Jake Gyllenhaal
Jake Gyllenhaal
Jacob Benjamin "Jake" Gyllenhaal is an American actor. The son of director Stephen Gyllenhaal and screenwriter Naomi Foner, Gyllenhaal began acting at age ten...
are among its customers.
Barbra Streisand was one of Sprinkles' first customers and introduced Oprah Winfrey to the brand by sending her a box of cupcakes. Only eight months after opening Sprinkles, Charles and Candace received a call from Harpo Studios that Oprah needed 300 cupcakes for her studio audience in Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
the next morning for Breakfast with Oprah, wherein she showcases her favorite delicacies. The couple managed to catch an overnight flight, and the cupcakes were featured on Oprah's show. Soon after, sales in their Beverly Hills location increased 50%, to 1,500 cupcakes daily.
Sprinkles has also appeared on The Today Show and Nightline
Nightline
Nightline, or ABC News Nightline is a late-night news program broadcast by ABC in the United States, and has a franchised formula to other networks and stations elsewhere in the world. It airs weeknights, usually for 31 minutes. Created by Roone Arledge, the program featured Ted Koppel as its main...
, as well as Entourage
Entourage (TV series)
Entourage is an American comedy-drama television series that premiered on HBO on July 18, 2004 and concluded on September 11, 2011, after eight seasons...
and The Girls Next Door
The Girls Next Door
The Girls Next Door, also known as The Girls of the Playboy Mansion, is an American reality television series broadcast on the E! cable television network...
.
Sprinkles played a role in Tom Cruise
Tom Cruise
Thomas Cruise Mapother IV , better known as Tom Cruise, is an American film actor and producer. He has been nominated for three Academy Awards and he has won three Golden Globe Awards....
's courtship of Katie Holmes
Katie Holmes
Katherine Noelle "Katie" Holmes is an American actress who first achieved fame for her role as Joey Potter on The WB television teen drama Dawson's Creek from 1998 to 2003. Her movie roles have included the blockbuster Batman Begins along with art house films such as The Ice Storm and thrillers...
. During the Christmas of 2007, the Cruises sent out boxes of holiday-themed Sprinkles cupcakes to their close friends and associates.
External links
- Official site
- Candace Nelson on The Oprah Winfrey ShowThe Oprah Winfrey ShowThe Oprah Winfrey Show is an American syndicated talk show hosted and produced by its namesake Oprah Winfrey. It ran nationally for 25 seasons beginning in 1986, before concluding in 2011. It is the highest-rated talk show in American television history....
- Sprinkles Cupcakes on The Today Show