Inspired by Seattle cupcakeries, Pacetre is a cupcake business success story

I read about Evansville, Indiana's Pacetre in this Evansville Courier & Press article, and was impressed, especially by the Seattle cupcake bakery inspiration in the forms of Trophy Cupcakes and Cupcake Royale, both of which I adore.

That's when Tracy, her sister, Kelly, and her mother, Judy, started hatching a plan. They had all spent time in Seattle together and fallen in love with the cupcakeries, so it seemed a natural fit for a family business. The name, The Pacetre, (pronounced 'pastry') was formed by combining their last name with the Italian word for three.

"I was completely intrigued by the business model of just cupcakes and light beverage fares," says Tracy, who started researching the ins and outs and found that even in a recession, cupcake-only bakeries were a booming business.

"The failure rate of cupcakeries is 6 percent and that is generally due to poor planning," says Tracy, who considered several different business models before opening her locale at 2734 Mount Vernon Ave. Finding the right spot had its own set of challenges. She knew she wanted to be on the west side, close to home, and not in the university district so it would retain a "neighborhood coffee shop feel."

The location opened in early April after 14 months of searching. It is nestled next to GoodFella's Barber Shop, The Furniture Trauma Center and Beyond the Veil Fellowship and near The Haircut, the Quilter's Nest and Teresa Haller Photography. Tracy considers it an ideal spot, especially since it had once housed The Depot and Annie Mae's cafes. The location's former café status helped eliminate much red tape in getting the green light for their project.


Movember (for only 50 cents you can add a moustache to your cupcake!)




Halloween


Butter Maple Bacon


S'mores: Graham cracker cupcake with chocolate ganache awesomesauce topped with a toasted marshmallow and Hershey piece.


Neopolitan


Icicles


Lemonade and flowers



The Pacetre
2734 Mt. Vernon Ave.
Evansville, Indiana 47712
812-402-6005
pacetre at gmail.com

Apple brown betty, apple cider and fall maple bacon cupcakes

These fall themed cupcakes are by BAKE Cupcakery, based in Appleton, Wisconsin, via their Flickr account. Read more at their blog - and congratulations on their one-year anniversary! You can also find them on Facebook and @bakecatering on Twitter. They can be reached at bakecatering at gmail.com and you can see their flavor list on Facebook


Apple Cider cupcake topped with caramel-striped cider buttercream, a layer of Brown Betty and another swirl of buttercream!


Apple Cider flavor with homemade cupcake skirts




But wait, there's more! They've got these special seasonal cupcake toppers:

Black Forest bacon on Cupcakes Benedict!

Yes, these are Cupcakes Benedict, by Stefani of the always-creative blog Cupcake Project! They're maple cupcakes topped with Black Forest bacon, poached eggs, and maple hollandaise sauce! She's got the recipe and instructions for these sinfully-good-looking cupcakes. She writes:

While cupcakes get some frosting lovin' on a regular basis, sometimes they get jealous of English muffins (or as I call them, stud muffins). Stud muffins are a key player in Eggs Benedict, where they are topped with bacon, eggs, and drippy, buttery hollandaise. Cupcakes are used to playing it safe with perfectly coiffed frosting, but after years of dreaming, they were ready to get a little dirty. They came to me for help and I arranged a cupcake and Eggs Benedict liaison - Cupcakes Benedict.

Check out her post to find out exactly what's in these breakfast (or anytime, really) cupcakes!

An Excellent Idea for Holiday Cupcakes

From some good friends of CTTC come these beauties:

Beautiful maple-bacon cupcakes made by Emily Green in Seattle Bellingham,Washington, photographed by ELD Images/WordOfMouth (creative commons licensed).

Cupcake violence captured in photographs

I don't really know what to call these photos other than cupcake violence:






But then in their whole form they are gorgeous. First are "Coffee Cupcakes topped with an indulgent Irish cream frosting. Decorated with a white & dark chocolate curl & a dusting of cocoa. Served with a pipette of Irish cream Liqueur."



This next one is: "A moist banana muffin sprinkled with chopped almonds & brown sugar. Topped with peanut butter frosting & embellished with crispy streaky bacon. Served with a pipette of maple syrup - perfect for drizzling!"



They're all by Arthur & Aleksandra, who you can reach at frostme at arthurandaleksandra.com and can also be found @oohhhfrostme on Twitter and on Facebook. They're doing a pop-up bakery October 7-9 as part of Birmingham, UK's Grand Designs Live.