1- How did you start CRUMBS?
I’ve always been an avid baker with a ferocious sweet tooth. My husband Jason and I were both at points in our careers where we knew we wanted a change. Although we were just dating at the time we both felt we wanted to do something together in business and open something in community where we felt like we could be part of the neighborhood. After 6 years working as a lawyer doing political and legislative work for the New York City Council, I decided to pursue my passion for baking and with Jason’s business expertise we were able to translate our concept into a successful business. We opened our first CRUMBS location on the Upper West Side in 2003. If you rewind to that time, cupcakes were vanilla, chocolate, lemon, or strawberry, maybe with sprinkles. When we opened our stores, we really were the first bakery to create cupcakes with cool fillings, frostings, and decorations that had never been done before. Vanilla Coconut was one of my first creations consisting of vanilla cake frosted with rich vanilla cream cheese frosting and topped with just the right amount of sweet shredded coconut. Every day they sold out, so we decided to expand and continued to grow our selection. We started making gourmet cupcakes that each had a filling and tons of frosting and cool toppings and that’s what has now become the industry standard.
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2- What make you different from other bakeries? We offer over 75 cupcake varieties including Black Bottom Cheesecake,Caramel Apple, Cookies & Cream, Chocolate Covered Strawberry, Chocolate Pecan Pie, and Red Velvet all of which are baked fresh daily using only natural ingredients. What really makes us successful comes down to the consistency and quality of our desserts. Our products taste great, look great and make great gifts! We’re always keeping our selection fresh by debuting a new cupcake of the week each Monday and continuing to keep our customers engaged through our social media platforms and in-store promotions. We also pride ourselves on providing outstanding customer service and a warm and welcoming experience that keeps our customers coming back.
3- How do you come up with all the cupcake flavors?
I am constantly testing out new flavors and drawing inspiration from my kids, employees and our loyal fans to develop new varieties. I spend a lot of my time baking on my own to try out new flavors, which are constantly being created. Luckily, I could snack on sweets all day, since part of my job is to taste every new flavor, and not just a bite!
4- What are your favorite cupcakes for summer?
Our new summer collections of course! We’ve just introduced a limited edition Ice Cream Collection Taste Pack and Star-Spangled Colossal as well as brought back the summer inspired Picnic Pack and Cobbler Collection. I’d have to say my favorite is the Ice Cream Collection Taste Pack including a dozen bite size “taste” varieties of all my favorite ice cream flavors at just the right size, no spoons necessary!
5- What was the inspiration behind crumbs?
A pure and simple love of baking and a creative spark. CRUMBS has always been a labor of love.
6- Are you surprised at how big Crumbs has become?
Not a day goes by that I have to take a moment to realize how far we’ve come from our first bake shop on the Upper West Side.
7- If you were going to a crumbs store what would be the first thing you would buy?
My favorite is the Milkshake cupcake which is a marble cake filled with vanilla cream cheese frosting mixed with chocolate sandwich cookie crumbs topped with vanilla cream cheese frosting and a chocolate cream cheese frosting swirl edge with chocolate crunchies. Our bestseller is the Red Velvet cupcake.
8- What else do you offer besides cupcakes?
In addition to our signature gourmet cupcakes, CRUMBS offers more than 150 different sweets daily including cakes, pies, cookies, danishes,scones, croissants, brownies, and muffins. CRUMBS locations also serve gourmet whole leaf teas, espresso and drip coffees, hot chocolate made with real Ghirardelli chocolate, homemade sodas, and fresh squeezed lemonade.Birthday and special occasion cakes can be custom ordered and are baked fresh within 24 hours