Kupcakz Expands to Tulsa Mall

The cupcake trend in Tulsa hasn’t gone stale.

Kupcakz, a Tulsa-based cupcake bakery, will soon expand to Woodland Hills Mall.

Doreen Durano opened the orginial Kupcakz in September, right before the financial meltdown. Though discretionary spending declined, some consumers would not give up their sweet habit.

“Business is going surprisingly well,” said Durano. “I think the reason it’s recession-proof is because people will pay $2.50 for a small delight. They come in and don’t think of the recession.”

Durano studied culinary arts, baking and pastry arts at the California Culinary Academy in San Francisco.

Through her experiences in the restaurant industry, Durano said she learned the necessary skills to open her own store.

After observing the rising trend of cupcake boutiques, Durano’s boyfriend suggested she open one. Since Tulsa didn’t have a specialty cupcake bakery, Durano decided she could bring the trend to the city. When a space became available at 7135 S. Mingo Rd., Durano snatched it.

To stand out from other bakeries, Durano said she focused on specialty ingredients from across the world such as Valrhona chocolate and Plugra butter. Durano said it took months to come up with the recipes for the cupcakes.

Quality is vital for any business, so Durano said they make each cupcake from scratch. Each day employees do tasks such as roasting peanuts for the peanut butter and preparing their own icing.

“First of all the product has to be good for people to keep coming back,” she said. “The quality will not get compromised.”

Operating Kupcakz didn’t come without growing pains. While the boutique was originally open seven days per week, Durano said the shop wasn’t getting much business on Sundays.

She changed the store hours to six days per week and without a decrease in revenue.

“I found out that most people don’t see it as a breakfast food but a dessert thing,” she said, which led her to open two hours later Monday through Wednesday.

Durano said the store is on track to hit her $400,000 revenue target for the year. So far she’s had $330,000 in gross sales.

Word of Kupcakz’s popularity spread to BOK Center officials, who asked Durano to run a cupcake kiosk during arena events.

Thus far Durano said the business does well during children’s events. For the Jonas Brothers concert she said they sold more than 300 cupcakes in a four-hour span.

But the kiosk doesn’t get as much business with adult events such as the Jamie Foxx concert, said Aaron Greenquist, baker for Kupcakz.

“We don’t do so well at the events that cater to drinking,” he said. “But we are still trying out events such as the Talons game and professional bull riding.”

Woodlands Hills Mall also contacted the store about opening a kiosk in August.

“The kiosk in the mall will be temporary to see how it is and how we can expand,” said Durano. “I think we just want to reach a broader audience who may not know we are here. I think the mall will help us with more traffic.”

Greenquist said they will roll out new products such as jumbo cupcakes, which will be almost twice as big as the regular-size cupcakes. They will also offer mini-cupcakes along with their standard-size cupcakes.

“There is definitely not another bakery like us in town,” he said. “We do bake from scratch and we don’t resell – that is definitely one thing that sets us apart.”

In addition to the kiosks, Durano said she is in talks to expand to a Brookside location.

“People have bugged us to open in midtown,” she said. “There are just lots of things going on for us right now.” Durano said she still has plans to franchise Kupcakz nationwide.

Though Kupcakz came from her love of baking, Durano has restaurant aspirations. She hopes to one day open her own full-scale restaurant and said the bakery is a good steppingstone to learn how to run the business on a smaller scale. For now she is happy to create one treat at a time.

“Making the decorations here is still a thrill for me,” she said. “I couldn’t have asked for a better place to put this business during the time of the recession.”



Published July 20th, 2009 by The Journal Record