By Donna Furey | LB Indy
In the past year while still a senior at Laguna Beach High School, Nikki Hunt began making cupcakes in her mom’s kitchen and selling them from her website, La Vie en Rose. Flavors run from the obvious chocolate and vanilla to pina colada, margarita, green tea and lemon coconut. “I have always had a passion for baking exquisite desserts, but cupcakes proved to be my absolute favorite!” says Nikki.
After experimentation through trial and error, she developed her own recipes. Nikki buys staples like sugar and flour at Costco or Smart & Final, but things like vanilla she orders from an on-line vendor who sells only the pure Madagascar variety. Likewise fruits are fresh; she uses no artificial flavors.
La Vie en Rose offers more than two-dozen flavors including seasonal favorites like pumpkin spice and orange cranberry. Her apple cinnamon cupcake won a blue ribbon, two years in a row, at the OC Cupcake Classic competition at the Orange County Fair; the pina colada also won a first place in the young adults ages 13-18 years of age division.
Nikki took advantage of the California Homemade Food Act, also known as AB 1616, which passed in 2012 and went into effect on Jan. 1, 2013. The law set up a two-tier system. Class A cottage food operations can sell directly to consumers, while Class B operations can make direct and indirect sales, meaning goods can be sold through third-parties, like stores or restaurants. Class B permits require a home inspection and cost more. Nikki is content with Class A status and has no plans to seek Class B permit. Her customers can pick up their cupcakes or she will deliver them within city limits.
Undaunted by the more than two dozen cupcake bakeries in the Orange County area, Nikki says “I’m steering clear of the traditional path. I am following my own dream.”
Her nearest local competitor, Casey’s Cupcakes, started by local Casey Reinhardt, left its Ocean Avenue location in February.
La Vie en Rose is priced competitively, $36 per dozen compared to Casey’s and Sprinkles’ $42 per dozen. A spokesperson for Casey’s says they have no immediate plan to return to Laguna Beach.
While Nikki will only say that some weeks she’ll have a few really big orders and others only one or two small ones, her mission statement is not purely business oriented. “I am involved with the Make-a-Wish Foundation as well, putting on fundraisers and selling cupcakes in hopes of granting an ill child’s wish. My aspirations are to continue and expand my business while changing the world one cupcake at a time!”
Although making and selling cupcakes is Nikki’s primary focus, she envisions herself in a bakery that offers more than cupcakes. Currently she is enrolled in culinary classes at Saddleback College to broaden her skill set.
Her next step may be to rent kitchen space and expand her line or possibly stock a food truck. For now she’s content to continue at home with her parents. Her mom works at the Pearl Laguna retreat and her dad is a Los Angeles firefighter and dog trainer.
But Laguna Beach is home and it’s where she wants to grow her business.
