Local bakery takes on national competition in “Cupcake Wars”
Had you asked Tiffany and Ben Thorpe on their wedding day what they would be doing in 12 years, baking cupcakes and creating art on cookies would not have been their answer.
Now, they have four children under the age of 10, and an award-winning bakery tucked away in a quiet shopping center off Highway 111 in La Quinta.
“Tiffany’s Sweet Spot” won’t be un-known for long. The small bakery, shared with Dot’s Cake Shop, was featured on the December 28th episode of “Cupcake Wars” on Food Network.
Unfortunately, Tiffany and Ben didn’t win the bout of Cupcake Wars which aired on Friday.
“Everyone would come in and say, ‘Have you heard of “Cupcake Wars”? You need to be on the show!’ So we owed it to our customers to give it a try,” explains Tiffany.
Tiffany and head-baker husband Ben were tight-lipped about the show, but here’s what Food Network released:
“It’s the mother of all horse races, as four cupcake bakers vie for the chance to have their cupcakes at the center of the legendary Breeders’ Cup World Championships. To get there, they must win over guest judge Bo Derek, iconic actress, model and Breeders’ Cup Ambassador. At stake is a $10,000 prize.”
The ingredients had to include things a horse would like, such as carrots and apples, but Tiffany says that wasn’t the hard part.
“We’re in a foreign kitchen, we’re not used to where everything is, you have this time crunch, you have to communicate with your partner, it’s really loud, there’s a lot going on… So yeah, it’s wild and very stressful to say the least.”
Ben was a construction worker when he was laid off with three children and a stay-at-home wife. Tiffany started researching ways to make their daughter’s birthday parties fun, and taught herself how to professionally decorate masterpieces on sugar cookies.
“Once I was proud of my creations, I posted them on my Facebook page and my friends were starting to ask to order these cookies and it just exploded,” says Tiffany.
Facebook made her creations into a business, and Ben added cupcakes to the mix.
“Raising kids is a job by itself, but nobody pays you for that,” Ben confides, “So this is a great way we can all be together. When I was doing construction, I had to go to Pomona or San Diego and I was away from my family all day, and that wasn’t any fun.”
Now a family of six, Tiffany and Ben say life couldn’t be sweeter.
Tiffany’s Sweet Spot is located at 79410 Hwy 111, Suite 101, La Quinta, CA 92253.
For more information, visit http://www.tiffanyssweetspot.com.
