Baking like nobody's business

When the housing market took a wallop, two real estate colleagues found a recipe for sweet success in a totally different field: making gourmet cupcakes.

"We're two years strong, doubled our sales last year," said Joe Barbato, the non-baking half of the mix at Frostings Etc. "If you make it four years, you're strong."

Business partner Sharon Tabasco, he is quick to point out, "is the creative genius behind the whole company." And it was also her persistence that sparked the mom-and-pop business two years ago.

"He thought I was crazy," Tabasco said.

"She was bugging me for months and months," said Barbato, convinced it was a viable recession-proof business only after a batch of her cupcakes were a huge hit at a party. "People were freaking out," Barbato said

With years of experience as a venture capitalist, broker of real estate, mortgages and stocks, Barbato, 52, applied for a Small Business Administration loan, tossed in his last $25,000 and borrowed the balance from his father.

They leased 1,000 square feet in the 500 SoHo Plaza shopping center, a former ice cream parlor already outfitted with the bureaucratic food-service requirements, like fireproof walls, a mop sink and pricey grease trap.

Most importantly, the existing kitchen accommodated Sharon's white thumb and room to prepare her 200 cupcake recipes. It also became a test kitchen for experimenting, creating new recipes around select toppings or candies.

Her original toppings include fresh raspberries, strawberries and the like, but some call for unique ingredients like Guinness beer, port wine or vodka-soaked cranberries. The shop's signature creation: Champagne Pear Bellini.

The only daughter in an Italian New Jersey family with four sons, Tabasco learned baking from her mother, who, for years, made cakes for restaurants, weddings and other celebrations.

"I've baked all my life. I can bake like nobody's business," said the 52-year-old, who, before real estate, worked as a cocktail waitress and blackjack and roulette croupier in Atlantic City and Las Vegas. Her first job, in 1981, was as a bunny-tailed blackjack dealer at the defunct Playboy Hotel & Casino, Atlantic City.

Word-of-mouth advertising has fueled growth at Frostings Etc.

"We knew we weren't going to make it on onesies and twosies," selling a $3.50 cupcake here, another there, said Barbato, whose regular customers call him Joey B. "But the walk-in business leads to other things," he discovered.

Joey B. tells of the Hyde Park lawyer who popped in one afternoon "just jonesing for a cupcake." He later phoned: "Your cupcakes are amazing," he said, ordering 250 for his upcoming holiday party. He reordered the following December.

Another time, Barbato, a Connecticut native and former pro golfer, recognized a first-time customer as a Tampa Bay Lightning player.

"Do you play hockey?" he inquired of the Bolts' Marc-Andre Bergeron, who had discovered Frostings Etc. cupcakes when the wife of teammate Adam Hall brought them to a party given by a fellow Bolt, Vinny Lecavalier.

With the ability to print and affix edible-icing logos and more on cupcakes, Frostings Etc. is marketing its wares to those seeking a personalized dessert for company functions. A recent order: 350 cupcakes bearing the IBM logo.

"That's where the business is," Barbato said. "Every time a box (of cupcakes) goes somewhere, we get customers off of them," Tabasco adds. Three top awards, including "best chocolate cupcake" at this year's three-day Festival of Chocolate at the Museum of Science & Industry attracted future customers from as far as Lakeland, she said.

The partners are working to become the preferred vendor of area hotels and restaurants, especially ones popular for wedding receptions, like the Rusty Pelican. And, after many brides purchasing cupcakes inquired where to turn for a wedding cake, Tabasco hired a cake decorator to help with full-size versions of her many recipes.

Unlike many business owners, Barbato doesn't dream of franchising - too much would be lost in translation. "I like what we've developed here," he said. "We have uniqueness here with Sharon and her touch."

He does envision expanding to 10 workers a payroll that now includes a couple part-time employees, and possibly leasing a second site for baking more cupcakes.

He said SBA loans like the one he was granted are critical. "Without that, we wouldn't have gotten started," he said. "In order for this economy to turn around, they have to see an increase in small businesses. We're creating jobs."

Economically, perhaps, that takes the cake.