Bentonville Couple Pins Hopes for Serious Dough on Cupcakes Business

Kupcakes and More

Owners: John and Jacqui Garst

Address: 102 E. Central, Bentonville

Phone: 479-876-8580

Hours: 9 a.m.-6 p.m. Tuesday-Friday and 7 a.m.-2 p.m. on Saturday

Web site: www.kupcakesandmorenwa.com

Startup date: April 1

There apparently is serious dough in cupcakes.

The growing national trend of cupcake-based businesses has spread to Bentonville, where John and Jacqui Garst operate Kupcakes and More. This comes on the heels of the November opening of Bliss Cupcake Café in Fayetteville.

“You can get a cheaper cupcake, of course,” John Garst said, “but they’re not going to be baked daily and you don’t get the variety we have here.”

At Kupcakes and More, which employs a staff of 10, five or six varieties are featured daily. For $2.75 apiece, customers can order goodies with names like Chocolate Lovers (chocolate cake filled with chocolate ganache and topped with buttercream icing and miniature chocolate chips) and Berry Berry Strawberry (strawberry cake filled and topped with strawberry buttercream icing and topped with a fresh strawberry).

The store offers three or four other varieties daily, including offerings like Tiramisu (with cream cheese icing), and S’mores (with toasted marshmallow in the dough and topped with graham cracker crumbles).

Larger orders are discounted. A box of four costs $10 and a box of six for $15, while a dozen is $28.

Additionally, Garst said small batches of items like scones, apple dumplings or muffins are available most days. Kupcakes and More also sells Haagen-Dazs ice cream and various sodas, juices and coffees.

Garst said all baked goods, as well as icings and fillings, are made daily. And while he declined to discuss revenue figures, Garst said business “has very much exceeded what we projected at the beginning.”

BOA Announces Plan To Boost Small Businesses

Bank of America announced on June 3 a pledge to increase its spending with small, medium-sized and diverse businesses, to the tune of $10 billion in products and services over a five-year period.

President and CEO Brian T. Moynihan said in a news release BOA’s plan will extend “coast to coast and across a wide range of industries.”

“We hope other large companies will do the same,” he added.

The money, used for services and products including advertising, furniture, cleaning, courier and legal service, and security and software, is expected to grow by an average of more than 5 percent each year.

BOA also recently updated its progress on a promise to increase lending to small and medium-sized businesses by $5 billion in 2010. In the first quarter of this year, the bank loaned $19.4 billion to small and medium-sized businesses.

That was almost $3 billion more than during the same period last year. 

Submit tips about new businesses in Northwest Arkansas to Rob Keys at [email protected] or 479-725-0394, ext. 323.