Saturday 19 November 2011

Charmaine's Cupcakes in the 'Big Smoke'

When exciting things happen at Charmaine's Cupcakes they all happen at once!  We have had an extremely busy but hugely rewarding fortnight which all kicked off with us heading off to London on 10th November to deliver 300 cupcake canapes to the BFI in Southbank for the annual Virgin Media Shorts Awards. This event sees 12 finalists have their 2.20 minute short films judged by a prestigious board which this year was headed by John Hurt whose films include Alien, Hellboy and Harry Potter.  The Awards are organised by our mentor Luke Southern's team from Virgin Media and so as well as securing the job I was also fortunate enough to receive 2 invitations to the red carpet event as well as the exclusive after party where we enjoyed a champagne reception, endless cocktails as well as the opportunity to meet Paloma Faith and Rick Edwards.

With Ernestina Craig Hall (Virgin Media Pioneer Manager) & Simon Dornan (Head of Virgin Media PR)

After returning home on the 11th we had quite a few orders to prepare including a wedding before heading back to London very, very early on 15th November.  Our cargo including 180 Cup-O-Cakes, 100 Canapes and 4 gift boxes.  The first stop was to the launch of Richard Branson's new book 'Screw Business as Usual'  http://www.amazon.co.uk/Screw-Business-Usual-Richard-Branson/dp/0753539799 where we met up with other pioneers and presented Sir Richard with his very own personalised box of cupcakes which earned me a kiss in return!

We then finished off preparations for the www.virginmediapioneer.co.uk Control Shift event at The Hub Westminster in the evening where we enjoyed a few hours of being inspired by fellow pioneers, networking with supporting businesses and socialising with decision makers and MP's as well as showcasing our products.

The next day we headed off to Shaftesbury Avenue to drop off some Cup-O-Cakes to the popular gossip magazine Heat where we were fortunate enough to be given a tour of the office by roving reported Olivia Foster.


We then took in the sights (in the bitterly cold weather) before getting ready for a social evening at the Marriott Hotel where we had invitations to The Women of the Future Awards to support a fellow pioneer Zoe Jackson, founder of http://livingthedreamcompany.co.uk/.  It was a great evening filled with inspirational women including Princess Anne and Cherie Blair and was topped off when Zoe won the award in her category of Arts, Media and Culture.

All in all a very successful trip to London and we are looking forward to returning in the future.





Monday 17 October 2011

Fingers in many pies!

Its been very busy at Charmaine's Cupcake HQ over the past few weeks.  After a quiet start to the month we suddenly were taking lots of phone calls and replying to many emails, we also had the largest amount of "Could you possibly fit an order in for tomorrow or the next day?" enquiries to date!  As a growing business we have the motto of "Say YES to everything, then make it happen" - this does result in some very long days and the occasional skipped meal but businesses do not grow on dreams alone!

Charmaine's Cupcakes will be launching our own online shop very soon selling decorating equipment. We are so excited to be also be able to sell the equipment that we can personally recommend, fabulous moulds and our very own hand-made toppers (thanks to my very creative sister Fiona) so that cake lovers everywhere can start making their very own masterpieces.  For those of you that are quite happy just to enjoy cupcakes then we will even be able to send ours via Royal Mail.



Our cupcakes, Cup-O-Cake™, muffins and biscuits were all on show this weekend at the very stylish Beechwood Shopping Centre in Cheltenham thanks to the amazing Hayley Pain of www.economummy.com who singlehandedly organised an opportunity for Mums who have started a business since having children to promote themselves on the High Street.  It was a great experience where I was fortunate enough to be inspired by other Mumpreneurs and make some new friends (as well as sell lots of cakes).


Our new Carrot & Walnut flavoured Cup-O-Cake
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Halloween is creeping up fast and marks our 1st year anniversary.  This year we have created a six box of spooky surprise cupcakes using hollow toppers that hide an extra treat of smarties for just £10 - perfect as a gift or for a party.  Last day for ordering is Monday 24th October.


I have promised you some big news........it will be announced soon!

Sunday 2 October 2011

The Cup-O-Cake™ is mingling.

As you may remember we showcased our original cupped cake The Cup-O-Cake™ at the V Festival's Louder Lounge which was packed with celebs and press from the very modest (and devilishly good looking) Rupert Grint to the popular stars of the Inbetweeners.  After our free make-over from MAC and hair by Redkin we managed to blend in a little bit better with the likes of the beautiful Alexandra Burke and Olivia Hallinan. Celebrities aside we were fortunate enough to spend some time with the Head of Campaigns PR for Virgin Media Simon Dornan, the manager of Virgin Media Pioneers Ernestina Hall www.virginmediapioneers.co.uk and the Head of Sponsorship & Partnerships Luke Southern, all of these marvellous people are instrumental to the rise of the Cup-O-Cake™ and we are tremendously grateful for their continued support.
Since the V Festival we were booked by our friends Virgin Media Pioneers to attend their Control Shift event at the MADE: entrepreneur festival in Sheffield. As an entrepreneur this was a great opportunity to meet some interesting contacts, listen to a debate led by David McQueen and meet the Rt. Hon. Dr Vince Cable MP, Secretary of state for business!
Next up was an event that was a direct follow up from the V Festival.  We spent the evening at the popular Sugarhut nightclub in Brentwood sponsoring the launch of Minnie’s boutique online shop.  This fast growing boutique is part owed by sisters Sam and Billie Faiers, stars of the massive television show The Only Way Is Essex (if you have never heard of this programme – where have you been hiding?) Their holding page has received in excess of 3 million hits and we all expect a sell-out for the girls as soon as the website www.minnies-boutique.co.uk  goes live.  No free make-over would help us fit in with this crowd of impeccably put together men and women and so we quietly went about handing out the Cup-O-Cake™ that had been co-branded with Minnie’s good and black labels and had extra bling in the form of edible crystals and oodles of glitter! We finished the night with a book full of autographs, a camera full of photographs and the knowledge of how celebrities must feel as we walked out of the club the same time as Kirk Norcross (star of TOWIE and part owner of Sugarhut) and was blinded by the flashes of the pap’s hanging around outside – look out for us in next week’s gossip magazines! My only regret of the evening is that I spent the whole time in the same club as Olivia Foster, writer for Heat Magazine and did not manage to speak to her.

With another Virgin Media Pioneer event coming up in Westminster in November, the hope of providing cupcake canapés for Virgin Media’s Short Film Award and Cup-O-Cake™ for a production from the performing arts company www.livingthedreamcompany.co.uk -  things are going from strength to strength for our family run business.
Keep an eye open for more blogs as more exciting developments are underway and we could have some VERY big news soon……….




Tuesday 5 July 2011

Welcome to the Cup-O-Cake Blog

What better way to start a blog then with some exciting news!

On July 3rd 2011 Charmaine's Cupcakes launched a brand new and innotative product to the UK cupcake market - the Cup-O-Cake, the Original Cupped Cake.  Layers of sponge, frosting and filling all packaged in a portable and disposible container complete with spoon makes this product 'crumb-free' and reduces the sticky fingers problem.


After testing the product on friends and family, we then took it to a few small events to gauge the reaction - the feedback was very encouraging and working with the information that we received we played around with the sponge/frosting ratio and 'Voila' the Cup-O-Cake was born.

The launch on the 3rd July 2011 at Bishop Cleeves street fayre was very successfully and the Cup-O-Cake's didn't last too long - we received fabulous comments such as "a fabulous idea", "Will be a big hit" and "absolutely delicious"


The Cup-O-Cake has been entered into the National Cupcake Championships under the Most Innotative Cupcake catagory and we have also applied for other pioneering opportunities.

Charmaine's Cupcakes has everything crossed that the Cup-O-Cake will take the UK by storm and so you may be seeing this creation in your area soon.

We have automatic copyrights on this product and are applying for a trademark.

Thank you for taking the time to read about the Cup-O-Cake, I'll keep updating the blog with new developments :)