The owner of increasingly popular north-east baking business The Cupcake Stop is opening the doors of a second takeaway site this Sunday.
Jemma Stephen from Portlethen will be moving into one of the 10 shipping containers at The Boxes @ Chapelton, an initiative based at the town’s Burgess Park.
The 22-year-old launched The Cupcake Stop at the same time she started studying international hospitality management at Robert Gordon University in 2017 for “something to do on the side.”
The business has continued to grow ever since with Jemma opening a bakery and coffee shop, based at Loirston Avenue in Cove, in October 2020, offering a wide range of tempting home bakes for takeaway only.
And now, she is preparing to launch a second takeaway site at Box Park, a retail development that offers small businesses a place to grow and communities a place to shop locally.
Second site
The opportunity to rent one of the units at the development was presented to Jemma in May this year.
With The Cupcake Stop being a regular at the Chapelton farmers’ markets, she says it was a no-brainer to make their presence in the town more permanent.
“We always attend the market and the local community there is always super supportive of our stall,” Jemma adds.
“It will be nice to have a place for people from the other side of town to come and see us. I think it’ll be a great addition to our shop in Cove.”
The Cupcake Stop has become widely known across the north-east for its mouth-watering bakes which include everything from cupcakes and brownies to rocky roads, classic millionaires, cookies and truffles.
The second takeaway site will serve up the same as the first – home bakes and hot drinks. The coffee will be supplied by Aberdeen’s Figment Coffee.
It will join existing businesses Clementine of Chapelton Greengrocer, Wander & Graze – The Deli, Fits the Scoop – Chapelton, RedRocks, The Omnia Chapelton, and more at the development.
“I’m very excited to be working with Figment for all of our coffee needs, I think that’ll be a great addition to our range of cakes and will work really well together.”
Existing bakery and coffee shop
The Cupcake Stop team, which comprises six people in total, will continue to solely use the bakery premises in Cove to make their bakes.
These bakes are stocked in multiple venues across the region including The Douglas Arms Hotel (Banchory), JK Fine Foods (Aberdeen) and Meet the Meat Food Halls (Banchory and Aberdeen) to name a few.
The bakery and coffee shop is open from 10am to 5pm Thursday to Saturday and 10am to 4pm on Sundays.
The new takeaway will share these opening hours, however Jemma says customers should keep an eye on the business’ social media channels for any updates.
She added: “It’s takeaway only so there is no seating but it might be something we add in the future when Covid has calmed down – if that ever happens.
“Eventually, we will be looking for more staff (probably in the New Year).
“To begin with I think I will just be based in Chapelton most of the time to make sure it’s all good, then we can maybe get some help.
“I think my mum Jackie is quite keen to do a day serving at the Chapelton site so she can maybe take a day off the baking to do that – she is one of our bakers in Cove.
“I’m really excited for the box to be all finished inside and painted, it should look really cool.”