Sept. 28, 2011
Angela Grayson has been baking since she was a teenager. "How long does that take?" and "what are you going to put in that?" were among the many questions she would ask her grandparents when they were in the kitchen together. She is now putting that knowledge to work.
In January, Grayson started Cake Pop Cuties, her home-based baking company that specializes in cake pops, which are balls of cake, usually on a stick, dipped in chocolate. While local bakeries such as Campbell's might sell cake pops, the closest specialty shop, according to Grayson, is located in Tennessee.
"Everybody has cupcakes," Grayson, 25, says about why she started making cake pops. "Plus, it's something new and different." She first heard of cake pops while exploring the Bakerella blog within the past year.
"They're not hard to make, but they are time-consuming," says Grayson, whose pops were a hit at the 2011 JFP Chick Ball.
She developed a technique for dipping the cake balls. "I want them to look cute and polished. I want them to look like they are time-consuming, and that I put the effort in them. I have a technique for how to dip them in the chocolate and how to let them sit so they don't come out sloppy," Grayson says.
All of this started for Grayson when she was making baskets of cake pops for her friends and family. "Everybody got used to having them at different functions and would ask me, 'Where are the cake pops?'" she says.
A single mother, Grayson says her two daughters, Taimya, 5, and Takira, 3, are her inspirations. "I was just doing it for get-togethers for my kids," Grayson says. Her oldest daughter, Taimya, has especially taken a liking to the cake pops and Cake Pop Cuties. "She tries to hand out business cards at school and at drive-throughs," Grayson says.
Grayson grew up in west Jackson and graduated from Lanier High School in 2004. Although she works as an account executive at Comcast, she is attending Holmes Community College to earn a degree in elementary education. "I'm big on family," she says. "That's where this actually came from. I will bribe (relatives) and say: 'Come on over. Bring the kids. I'll cook.'"
She hopes that her business will help the west Jackson business district. She also hopes that one day she will have a bricks-and-mortar shop for Cake Pop Cuties. Grayson says that she wants her two girls to one day be able to say: "That's what my mama accomplished. She owns that shop."
"This is a dream of mine," Grayson says.
For ordering information and to see some of Grayson's creations, visit the Cake Pop Cuties website at cakepopcuties.net. You can also call 601-209-6112.
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