Just Baked rides the cupcake wave

Cupcakes.

The word alone makes your mouth water in anticipation, doesn't it? Fresh, just-right bites of sweetness, they offer a limited portion of dessert that satisfies without leaving you in the throes of an "I can't believe I ate the whole thing" moment.

Pam Turkin believes in the power of cupcakes, and with good reason. The Michigan entrepreneur has gone from baking them in her kitchen to turning out truckloads from a commercial bakery in Livonia. Just Baked now boasts four retail stores and has plans to open another near the Livonia bakery.

"We've been doing retail since January of 2009," Turkin said. "But we started baking in November of 2008." (You read that right: Zero to success in under three years.) "It has been very organic."

After taking note of a national trend, Turkin decided to leave a successful marketing career and start baking cupcakes. When the business outgrew her kitchen, she went looking for commercial space and, thanks to a tough economy, found a space in Livonia that had commercial ovens.

Turkin said even then, the idea was to bake for other retail stores, not necessarily to have a retail store of her own.

"We over-baked one Monday, so we decided to open the front door," she said, "and people came. We sold out, and within four to six weeks, we realized it was a growing business... So now, what we're doing is opening store fronts."

Turkin has never forgotten the loyalty of those first customers. "We are very grateful to Livonia. We'd opened at the worst possible time, and the neighborhood embraced us. It was really grass roots."

The chocolate ganache enveloping this vegan,
non-dairy Grumpy Cake is just a delicious as it
looks. The full-bodied cake and topping make
for one very satisfying treat. Also highly recom-
mended: The coconut and chocolate Samoa.

Those folks still love Just Baked, which has now expanded into the hugely popular world of custom cakes. When a long-time customer came in to order a cake, Turkin went the extra mile, even though it meant doing it herself. "Those customers are still really important to me. We're going to move retail out of our kitchen and across the street, so they'll have a nicer space."

Just Baked's future will probably include a few more stores and partnering with other businesses. Turkin has confidence that cupcakes are more than just a fad; after all, bakeries have been around for a long time. All five of her children have shown an interest in the business, which should keep it going well into the future.

Running Just Baked is a lot more physical than she expected, but Turkin still recommends entrepreneurship as a way of life (although she admits she probably wouldn't have done this when her children were small). "I encourage any woman to do the homework, and go out and do it. Put the fear aside and do it. My family thought I was crazy to leave a good-paying job."

Turkin has used everything she learned from the business world, and then some. While having a plan is important, she said, so is flexibility. That's why Just Baked moved into the custom cake business, which has become highly successful. "You can't be focused on one thing, you have to be flexible. We've done a lot of zigging when we thought we'd be zagging."

Being a business owner has allowed Turkin to be creative, and to contribute to the community. Just Baked has aligned itself with many local charities, from the Alzheimer's Association to the Detroit Red Wings Foundation.

For information about Just Baked, visit the company's web site.