Featured photo: Kim Hand, owner of Buttercups Cupcakes, holds the bakery’s signature unicorn cake. Photo by Jennifer Robison.
If you have a sweet tooth and live in the Shreveport-Bossier area, chances are good that you’re already familiar with Buttercups Cupcakes. Featured on Food Network’s Cupcake Wars in 2011, Buttercups has built a reputation for its uncommon variety of creative, delicious cupcakes. Recently, the bakery began creating custom cakes, and some of those cakes – the “unicorn cake”, in particular – have sort of broken the internet. Especially on the Buttercups Instagram account, these impressive cakes have caused quite a stir.
I asked Buttercups Cupcakes owner Kim Hand how she went from not offering cakes at all to having a viral hit on her hands.
“I thought: ‘If I’m going to do cakes, I’m going to learn a really unique style so that we can offer something that’s different from any other bakery around here,” Hand said.
Her desire to set her cakes apart led her to enroll in the Peggy Porschen Academy in London, where she took part in a five-day masterclass with award-winning British cake designer and author Peggy Porschen. Back in the United States, she and her team tweaked their own cake recipe until they settled on a version that tasted delicious, had great texture and could support the weight of decorative elements. The response was so immediate and overwhelming that Hand had to expand her staff.
Cake orders require a minimum of four days notice and, in some instances, Hand has to turn away customers if she receives multiple cake orders at once.
“The cakes take a lot of time, and we want to focus on quality over quantity, so we only take a certain number of cake orders each day,” Hand said.
Seen up close, these cakes really are crafted with an amazing eye for detail. In addition to the unicorn cake, Buttercups frequently turns out holiday-inspired cakes inspired by Mardi Gras, Easter and other major holidays.
Look for Buttercups Cupcakes’ unicorn cake on the cover of the third edition of Eat Here: A Food Lover’s Guide to Shreveport-Bossier. In the meantime, download the second edition of that guide here. Like Shreveport-Bossier: Louisiana’s Other Side on Facebook.
Like Buttercups Cupcakes on Facebook.
