By Deb Kroon
Review Staff Writer
Stacy Boyle has been a day care provider in Adrian for twenty-seven years. She has always loved to cook, especially for her family and her day care kids benefit too. “If Mom’s not in the kitchen, something is wrong!” quipped Sam, Stacy’s daughter. Baking takes second place to cooking, but baking is what Stacy decided to do as a hobby and a second career. Around Christmas of 2015, Stacy decided to try her hand at baking cupcakes. With trial and error as her guide, and her family as her guinea pigs, Stacy began to take the recipes out of her head and put them into cake pans. She uses no written recipes, even after two years none are written down. “Sometimes my cupcakes turn out better in my head than they do from a pan,” she told me. “You know you eat with your eyes. That’s why chefs, bakers and even decorators are so concerned with the presentation. If something looks delicious, you are willing to try it.”
Over the last two years Stacy has tried many new recipes. She said she may see a cupcake on Pinterest that she’d like to try, but that’s where it ends. The recipe is all her own. In her mind she starts to mix ingredients and flavors that will result in the cupcake she wants. Once the cupcakes are baked, she decides on a filling that will compliment the cupcake. She uses different ganaches and fruit fillings in her cupcakes, all made from scratch, using fresh ingredients. “The only time I don’t use fresh fruit is when a fruit is out of season, and I can’t find it. Then I will substitute frozen fruit. I’m lucky, Costco has great fresh fruit most of the year, and I can usually find what I need.” After the cupcakes are finished, she gives the cupcakes to her family to try. She expects and gets a true critique on the cupcake, filling and the frosting.
Stacy started out making cupcakes for friends. Se did a few birthday parties and word started to get around. She took some pictures of the cupcakes and placed them on facebook, and her cupcake business took off. Katie Heronimus insisted she should have her own website. So with Katie’s help online, Stuffed and Fluffed Cupcakes was born.
Since then she has done birthday parties, baby showers and events like the benefit for Sheena Eidhammer, and the Hospice auction in Luverne. She has made cupcakes for the girls basketball team, and just recently she made special cupcakes for the AHS Snow Week royalty. She has done a couple of graduations. “I don’t know,” she said, “graduations make me nervous. I constantly wonder if everyone will be pleased. I’m not opposed to trying, I just haven’t done many.”
So many times a customer will say, “Just make your favorite,” or “make your most popular.” Not an easy decision! “I can make any kind of cupcake someone can think up,” said Stacy. “I need to figure out the cupcake flavor and find a filling they will enjoy.” On the Facebook page for Stuff and Fluffed Cupcakes she has listed the varieties of cupcakes she has already made. In the spring and summer months, she likes to do fruit filled cupcakes. Of course chocolate and caramel are staples year round.
“I use only real butter, real whipping cream and fresh fruit, nothing off brand. I’m real careful about what ingredients I use. I know I can trust certain brands to give me the best results and I won’t deviate from them. I want everyone to be pleased with my cupcakes. I don’t measure ingredients, I never have. My Grandma baked like that. Each batch of cupcakes has it’s own unique taste. I enjoy mixing different flavored cakes with different ganaches. I seem to have an insight as to what flavors will complement each other. This is why I need my taste testers.” “That’s the best part,” Sam commented. “You never knew what is going to be inside. When I was in college, Mom would send cupcakes to school with me for testing. My friends loved it!” Sam helps her mom put the finishing touches on the cupcakes. Stacy said that Sam is a perfectionist, so she’s in charge of decorating. “I tend to overdo the frosting,” Stacy stated. “I feel you can always take some off, but you can’t put it on after they’re decorated.”
“I’ve done some cakes, but I prefer to do cupcakes. They are easier to portion out. With cupcakes, you can have more than one kind. My favorites are chocolate and caramel, death by chocolate or the salted nut roll. That one is really good. Some of the newer flavors I’ve been working at are PB&J, and frosted animal cracker. I’ve had request for animal cupcakes for kids birthdays. I’ve done Paw Patrol, but wanted to come up with something different. I saw the frosted animal crackers and the idea popped into my head. They have been a hit!”
We talked about Stacy having her own store outside of her home. She admitted there would be some advantages, like having cupcakes available if a customer wanted one or two. “I love being home,” she said. “I love working out of my own kitchen. Sometimes it is late at night when I do my baking.” Sam added, “We have so much fun. There is always a lot of laughing when we are in the kitchen baking as a family. So many good memories. So much fun!”
“My family has been so supportive during these past two years,” Stacy said. “Their help and support has made this business possible for me to do and fun. I love what I do and there are a lot of people at jobs that can’t say that.”
Check out Stuffed and Fluffed – Cupcakes by Stacy’s Facebook page for pictures and the complete list of flavors that Stacy makes. All the information for getting ahold of her is on the page. Decide which flavor suits your needs or better yet, come up with a flavor of your own and see what Stacy can do.
