By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post
A franchisee of Smallcakes, a cupcake shop and creamery, signed lease papers Friday to open a shop in Hays.
Ashley Stroup and David Hart of Great Bend are co-owners in the venture. They just opened another franchise in Great Bend in February, which Stroup said has been very successful.
The Hays store will be in Tebo Village at the corner of 43rd and Vine streets. Construction will start on the new store in 30 days and is estimated to take three months.
The franchise was founded by Jeff Martin, whose cupcake recipes earned acclaim after he appeared on television shows including “Cupcake Wars” and “The View.” The franchise started in Kansas City and has spread to more than 160 stores in 20 states.
The shop offers up to 500 different flavors of cupcakes with 12 regular selections on the menu and two rotating flavors each day, in addition to several flavors of ice cream that can be combined into sweet treats.
Smallcakes’s regular size cupcakes are larger than a standard cupcake. The store also will offer minicakes. The cupcakes can be purchased as singles or by the dozen. Smallcakes will cater large events, such as weddings or birthdays. Cost for a single standard cupcake will be $3.75, and cakes can be purchased for $38 per dozen.
Some of the flavors include red velvet with cream cheese icing, carrot cake, pink chocolate, pink vanilla with butter cream icing, chocolate cream with fudge icing, peanut butter cup with peanut butter icing, Oreo, strawberry rita, cheesecake and wedding cake.
Smallcakes offers cupcake shakes as well as a signature dessert called a cupcake smash. This is half of a cupcake, topped with two scoops of ice cream, which is topped with the other part of the cupcake.
All of Smallcakes’ ice cream and cupcakes are homemade fresh daily. The Great Bend store makes about 80 to 100 cakes per day.
Stroup said she and Hart chose the Tebo Village location because there were no other ice cream shops on the north side of Interstate 70 in Hays. There also were no other cupcake shops in the city.
“We think the Hays community is a great place to put a small business,” she said.
The business will employee eight to 10 people once it opens. Stroup said the hours for the business have not yet been set.
“We are very excited to be in the community,” she said.