The College of Management doesn’t offer Batter Making 101 or Frosting 205, but 2001 alumna in business Sara Coleman didn’t need a class to teach her how to turn cupcake baking into her dream job.

Coleman is the owner of the Cupcake Shoppe Bakery in downtown Raleigh, a store that deals almost exclusively in the tiny cakes.

“I just always liked sweets,” Coleman said. “Cupcakes are your own, individual dessert.”

Coleman is surrounded by the sweet treats almost every day, but she didn’t start off her professional life as a baker. She did just what someone with a business degree is ‘supposed’ to do — she got a job in the corporate world. After a few years of working for Johnson and Johnson, Coleman decided to take the plunge and open a bakery.

She had no formal culinary training, but Coleman said that wasn’t a problem — she grew up watching her aunt make wedding cakes.

“Most of what I learned came from her,” she said.

The watch and learn method worked. The Cupcake Shoppe Bakery opened in July 2007, built on a foundation of old family recipes.

Making the Cake

Tom Reed arrives at the bakery at 5 a.m., five days a week to start the batter for the several hundred cupcakes needed that day. Before he begins he turns on the radio and dials it to 88.1.

“We listen to KNC every day,” the baker said.

Reed’s mornings are early, but not as early as other baking jobs he’s had. When Reed worked at another bakery in Cary, he sometimes had to be at work making donuts for the day at midnight.

Reed said he’s happy to have traded donuts for cupcakes.

After he mixes the batter, Reed uses an ice cream scoop to place perfectly sized portions into industrial sized cupcake tins. When they’re full, the cupcakes go into a 325 degree oven until they’re perfectly baked.

The cakes are only part of the equation, though. Just as important is the mountain of buttercream frosting that tops each cupcake. After the cakes cool, each is topped with almost a half cup of frosting, piped on top in what Coleman calls the “signature swirl.”

Morning Prep

Saturday morning, Coleman was busy expertly piping lemon jelly into “Lemon Zinger” cupcakes while, across from her, Reed scooped batter into tins.

In the back of the kitchen stood Crystal Putirski, rolling out chocolate fondant and cutting it into ovals.

All three worked swiftly — not only were they prepping for that day, but on special orders for Super Bowl parties as well. About 40 orders for the limited-edition chocolate cupcakes with green-grass frosting had come in. Putirski’s fondant ovals, the beginnings of tiny footballs, were destined to top each one.

Holidays are another excuse for people to buy cupcakes and for Coleman to experiment with new flavors.

“For Christmas we did peppermint and eggnog,” she said. “For Thanksgiving we did a pumpkin cupcake.”

When she opened the business, Colemam said she expected Christmas to be her shop’s busiest season.

“We do a lot of teacher gifts and office parties [for Christmas],” she said. “Christmas was busy, but Valentines day killed it.”

Cupcakes are a perfect gift because they’re “inexpensive but personal,” according to Coleman. The bakery has already planned special flavors for the day — “Chocolate Truffle” and “Champagne Strawberry.”

Coleman expects Feb. 14 to be even busier this year, since the holiday is on a Saturday.

“We’ll bring in extra staff,” she said.

Cupcake Quirks

In addition to holiday-themed cakes, the bakery takes special orders for birthdays, parties and weddings. Coleman said these interactions with customers are her favorite part of the job.

“We work so closely with customers. We get to know their story,” she said.

Coleman has helped customers propose to their girlfriends and helped design the perfect compilation of wedding day cupcakes. But she gets some strange requests too.

“Darth Vader cupcakes — those were the strangest,” she said. The bakery also gets a lot of requests for cartoon characters for children’s birthday parties.

Slightly stranger are the requests for gluten-free cupcakes. Coleman said she’d like to accommodate people with gluten allergies, but can’t find a recipe that tastes good.

“I don’t want to put something out there that tastes bad,” she said.

Then there are the orders that can’t be avoided in an intensely competitive university city — team cupcakes. Sports fans can get cakes customized in their team’s colors. Most popular are Wolfpack cupcakes, but Coleman said she gets orders for Duke and UNC-Chapel Hill too.

“Once we even got a request for Clemson cupcakes, when they were playing State,” she said. “We made all these orange cupcakes but snuck a red Wolfpack cupcake in the box too. The customer said everyone loved it.”

And that’s just why Coleman is in the business.

She does admit that it’s hard work, though, and being surrounded by strawberry, red velvet and peanut butter cupcakes all day can be wearing on the senses.

“Sometimes you leave here and all you want is salty Mexican food,” Coleman said. “But I bet not a week goes by without [eating] a cupcake.”

Of course Coleman, Reed, Putirski and the other Cupcake Shoppe Bakery staff can’t eat all the leftovers themselves, so Coleman set up a partnerships with the Interfaith Food Shuttle.

“People need something sweet every now and then,” she said.

It’s a philosophy that defines the bakery.

“It’s fun! I have not regretted it a single day yet.”