Teresa Ging, 35, who, after working for six years in finance, left everything to move to Paris and study pastries. After studying at the famed cooking school Le Cordon Bleu, she returned to Chicago to start her own business: Sugar Bliss Cake Boutique.
Since its opening in 2009, Sugar Bliss Cake Boutique has sold more than 2 million cupcakes. It is a small store that has made a very large impression, nestled in-between an office building and a candy store at 115 N. Wabash Ave. in Chicago’s Loop.
The store’s success has largely been influenced by Ging’s inspirational story, and her passion to succeed both as a pastry chef and as a businesswoman.
Before Sugar Bliss was even a thought in her mind, Ging, a Texas native, was a finance guru studying economics and statistics at the University of Chicago.
Ging worked in finance for six years at firms such as Credit Swiss, Bear Stearns and GTCR, until one grim day when a few cupcakes changed everything.
“I was having a rough day in finance,” said Ging, “I was based in Chicago but I was in the New York office and one of my friends was sifting flour, making cupcakes, and that’s kind of where the inspiration started. Then I came back to Chicago, bought a bunch of cupcakes books and decided, you know what, there’s no place to buy a cake or cupcake for people’s birthdays.”
Ging, having no prior baking experience, applied to pastry school at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris where she studied for several months.
The famed Le Cordon Bleu boasts the likes of Dione Lucas, Julia Child and Nancy Silverton, among many of its famed graduates. After months of French lectures and ceaseless amounts of cooking time, Ging received her certificate and returned to the United States to begin business planning and menu development.
“I tested a lot of cupcakes,” said Ging with a laugh, who after eight months of sweat and frosting, concocted every single cupcake recipe the store now offers.
In October 2007, Ging launched her catering delivery business out of a rented kitchen, while searching downtown for the perfect retail location.
In January 2009, she opened the first cupcake place in the Loop. The store has been open for four and a half years and now has a ten-person staff. She said she continues to use her knowledge of finance, but likes using it in the cupcake business more.
“It’s kind of like a mix: you have to have the business side but also the creativity side of developing your different deserts,” she said.
Ging works eight to 10-hour days. She now spends less in the back cooking and more in the front taking orders and conversing with clients, she said.
Each day, the store offers only 11 out of their 20 total different cupcake flavors , including one seasonal flavor, both regular sized and mini sized. Ging said her favorite cupcake changes over time.
“Right now, it’s our pistachio. It’s our seasonal flavor this week.” said Ging.
The question is, why cupcakes?
“I’d like to be good at one product as opposed to having like 20 different products that are mediocre,” said Ging.
In the fall, she plans to launch her second store in the Streeterville area, just north of the Loop near the Magnificent Mile. She said that while the new store will be a tad smaller, it will have an expanded dessert profile and offer more that just cupcakes.
Stacey Mega, 24, is one of two managers working at Sugar Bliss. Mega claims she got the job through happenstance, after offering her help through at friend on a busy holiday and was later asked to stay.
“I love it,” said Mega. “I feel like a cupcake makes everyone happy. I mean there’s always complication and people think it’s all fun and games at a bakery. You know we have issues, … but that’s all behind-the-scenes stuff.”
While pastries are popular throughout the year, holidays are by far the most hectic days, Mega said. When someone brings up Valentine’s Day around any of the Sugar Bliss staff, the stress in the room multiplies by a ten-fold.
“On Valentine’ Day, it can be madness,” said Mega chuckling.
While Sugar Bliss centers on traditional cupcakes topped with their signature “Sugar Bliss Blossom,” it offers several other different treats and services that are constantly fluctuating to keep customers engaged.
In the mornings, the store offers four different flavors of breakfast cupcakes as well as their own coffee and water bottles. For $1, customers can treat themselves to a “frosting shot” in any of their 11 different flavors, or try the popular cake pop, that arrived onto the Sugar Bliss menu just last fall.
Chicago resident, Gerald Battle, 50, who works at the Northwestern University Library and is a frequent Sugar Bliss shopper, said he loves the cupcakes at Sugar Bliss.
“I’ve come in a couple of times for birthdays, Valentine’s, just because, or to get a frosting shot just to get me through the day,” he said, while purchasing a mini assortment of cupcakes for a coworker’s birthday.
Still, Sugar Bliss isn’t the only sweet shop in the area benefiting from the busy holidays: just next door is Fannie May’s, another hot spot for sugar-craving customers to treat themselves. Fannie May store manager Vida Lozano, 26, said it can be nice to have another sweet shop to share the busy days, and that Sugar Bliss employees often stop by to leave complimentary treats of their own.
“We have quite a different product here, so I don’t believe it’s a competition,” said Lozano.
Sugar Bliss continues the catering and delivery side of the business on and offline at sugarblisscakes.com.
Be First to Comment