The ALS Association Fundraiser – By Amy

This is a MUST read blog post….trust me it’s worth your while at the end.

Did you know May is ALS Awareness Month? I know, I know, I know….you’re probably thinking, the month is just about over. Which is exactly why I’m doing this blog today and making you more aware of the ALS Association and more importantly to me, the Keith Worthington Chapter.

My stepdad, Jeff was diagnosed with ALS a little over 2 years ago. He had lots of doctor’s appointments and tests before the official diagnosis was determined. I remember calling my mom to see what the doctor’s had said and she just said, “It’s not good Amy, he has ALS”. I really didn’t know much about the disease so I Googled it immediately. To read that most people die within the first 3 years of being diagnosed, made my heart sink.

This horrible disease quickly stole things from Jeff. Things like; biking, sailing, gardening, traveling, driving & walking. The list can go on and on but I won’t go any further with it. Just last summer I remember pulling in their driveway and seeing Jeff pushing the lawnmower, just trying to keep some type of normalcy. Jeff and my mom talked a lot about his disease and they both knew that time was limited. They knew that they had to make every day the best they could. What an amazing example they set!

On Sunday May 19^th, 2013 Jeff passed away but his spirit will forever be with us. He was truly one of a kind and will be missed greatly.

Some words that describe Jeff; humble, loving, honest, intelligent, husband, father, grandfather, US Air Force Veteran, traveler, sailor, Pastor, conversationalist. This list too could go on and on, but it might end up being a book instead of a blog. He really touched a lot of people’s hearts and was an inspiration to many.

The Keith Worthington Chapter here in the Midwest is committed to helping more people understand the impact that this devastating disease has on individuals. On this last day of May I’m asking you to please make a donation to the ALS Association, Keith Worthington Chapter in memory of Jeff. I will be walking with “Jeff’s Sole Mates” this fall in the walk to defeat ALS. Please click this link to be directed to my fundraising page.

Now, here’s a sweet thank you for donating…If you donate a minimum of $5 today, May 31, 2013 we will be offering 1 dozen cupcakes for ONLY $15!

Rules:

• Bring a minimum $5 cash donation into The Sweet Tooth

OR

• Click the link above to make a minimum $5 cash donation, print receipt and bring it to The Sweet Tooth for verification
• Special offer is only good for one day, Friday May 31, 2013 (full dozen must be purchased on 5/31/13)
• Cannot be combined with GroupOn or any other voucher/special offer

Thank you, Amy

The Case of the Missing Cupcakes

It’s been a while since you’ve heard from me, but I think this is the prefect time to break my silence.  I was in my office on a cold spring night watching the snow pill up on the ground outside of my window.  I was reading an article about the pending indictment of Punxsutawney Phil for his false claims of winter ending when I got a new email.  It was from The Sweet Tooth and was about one of their most popular spring cupcakes going missing.  It said they looked everywhere, but could not locate their Jamaican Sensation cupcake.  They did not have many clues, but I took the case.  No sooner then I responded my phone rang, it was Simonie from 3 Girls Cupcakes.  She told me her most popular cupcake flavor, The Spotted Cow, was nowhere to be found.  She asked if I could help, I’m The Cupcake Guy, how could I say no?

I followed the leads, but they were leading nowhere.  I was going around in circles and had to dig deeper and deeper to find answers.  I had run around town and chase down informants that provided good information in the past.  I pieced together everything I found, and the puzzle was getting more and more clear. It didn’t seem to make much sense but I had it all figured out.  I called Simonie and Trevor and I told them I found their cupcakes and I asked them to meet me at my office.

I asked them to have a seat and I told Simonie that The Sweet Tooth had her Spotted Cow Cupcake.  I also let Trevor know that 3 Girls had his Jamaican Sensation Cupcake. I told them I sure they already knew this and asked them to come clean.  They told me everything, they had been planning the cupcake switch for months!  3 Girls Cupcakes would make their own version of Jamaican Sensation and The Sweet Tooth would make a version of The Spotted Cow Cupcake.  They said the cupcakes would be available for sale for one week at The Sweet Tooth and the 3 Girls Cupcake Cruiser.  I asked why that did it and they told me they were doing it for a great cause.  Both Cupcakeries will donate 10% of the sales of these cupcakes to Honor Flight Network, a non-profit organization created to thank and honor American Veterans. How could I be mad about that, two local cupcakeries working  together, raising funds for charity and providing Kansas City with Amazing Cupcakes.  Another case solved, by The Cupcake Guy.

One of 3 Girls Cupcakes Spotted Cows have gone missing!

Beautiful Creatures Contest

If you are into supernatural dramas, you would have heard of (if not read) The New Your Time’s Best Selling book, Beautiful Creatures.  The book has been turned into a major motion picture and the Beautiful Creatures Movie will be released on February 14, Valentine’s Day!

The Sweet Tooth is counting down the days until Lena learns her fate, but we can also help you see the movie a week early.  We have passes to the advance screening on February 7th at the AMC in Independence, MO!  We will be giving them away to some lucky fans over the next week and a half.  We made special “Caster Cupcakes” to help us identify winners.  These cupcakes come in either chocolate or vanilla and have a secret buttercream filling, either Light or Dark.  If your cupcake has a Light filling, you are a winner and will receive a pass that will get you and a guest into the screening.  We will use our Facebook Page to announce when we are putting out the Caster Cupcakes each day.  Purchase one, or several cupcakes and take a bite to determine your fate.  If your cupcake has a Light filling, show it to a staff member and claim your prize. You will get a pass (good for two) to the February 7 screening, a Beautiful Creatures screen cleaner and a Beautiful Creatures poster!

2012 Year in Review

2012 was an amazing year at The Sweet Tooth and we wanted to use this post to review some of the things we were able to accomplish.  Later in this post we will count down the top 5 accomplishments but we also wanted to go over some of the smaller things we were able to get done. We have been featured on the news a few times this year, most recently for the 20 Acts of Kindness.  We introduced the world to The Cupcake Guy, he is different, but entertaining.  We did a lot of weddings, birthday parties and baby showers, we also introduced some new products like cake pops and our yummy cookie cakes.  Check out our top 5 below.

Number 5 – New Cupcake Flavors

This year we introduced 14 new cupcake flavors including the popular Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough.  Since we can’t make all of our flavors available all of the time, we also started our cupcake of the week rotation.  Some of the other flavors we introduced this year included Supercal, Lucky Stout, Loco Coco and French Toast with Bacon.  Come in each week and see what flavors we have made just for you.

Number 4 – Facebook Milestones

We have some amazing Facebook fans, and we watched our Fanpage explode with growth this year.  Early in the year we went over 1,000 fans, but the growth did not stop there.  We made it to 2,000 fans then all the way to 3,000 fans!  We currently have almost 3,400 fans and we plan on giving away 120 cupcakes when we make it to 3,500.  If you have not “liked” our Fanpage already visit our page and press the like button today.

Number 3 – Sending Cupcakes to the Edge of Space

Who does that?  How do you even come up with sending a cupcake?  The Sweet Tooth, that’s who.  This is not faked and we have the video to prove it.  We used a huge helium weather balloon to lift our cupcakes to about 70,000 feet.  Check out the video below.

Number 2 – Appearing on Food Network’s Cupcake Wars

We watch Cupcake Wars religiously and we actually had the opportunity to appear on the show in 2012.  We did not win, but we think we performed well and showed them what Blue Springs has to offer.  The judges said great things about some of our cupcakes, but in the end, we guess it was not enough to move on.  Being on the show that helped inspire us to start making cupcakes was a huge accomplishment for us, but our loyal customers mean so much more to us than a couple judges in LA!

Number 1 – Opening Our Storefront

Of all the things that happened in 2012, this one had to be the biggest.  There was a lot of planning, saving, sacrifice and hard work that went into opening our store… but we made it happen.  We have an amazing staff, great neighbors and a supportive community.  Thank you for the continued support and we look forward to doing even bigger things in 2013! Happy New Year everyone.

The Cupcake Guy – The Christmas Case

It’s me again, The Cupcake Guy.  You know me for helping out over at The Sweet Tooth when I have time, but I have a day job as well.  In my first post, I said I would talk about it more at a later time, and the time has come.  For my real job, I’m a Private Investigator.  You know a Private I.  I get some interesting cases and I follow leads until I get answers.  I have a video below that has information about one of the cases I worked in the past.  I didn’t include any names to help protect client confidentiality.  Give they video a view and have a Merry Christmas!

20 Random Acts of Kindness

By now everyone knows about the tragic events from Newtown last week.  This event has affected us in different ways. It had a greater affect on us (Amy and I) than we expected, much more so than past events.  We lost sleep, discussed it with our children, and tried to wrap our heads around what happened. We could not even fathom how someone could commit such a random act of violence and hatred on innocent people.  I’m sure everyone is dealing with this in their own way, and we hope everyone is getting the opportunity they need to express their feelings and emotions about this event.

We are The Sweet Tooth and our company mission is to Promote Happiness.  It’s something that we have struggled with all weekend, how do promote happiness at a time like this?  Today I read about the 20 Acts or 26 Acts movements and they seemed perfect. We are no longer focused on one bad act, and we are now focused on our 20 acts.  There are so many stories of courage coming out of the event this weekend, and we want to take our time to pay tribute to the 20 kids and their families that were affected.  We will make one random act of kindness for each of the 20 kids, 20 Acts!

Our first act, was random and unannounced, and we hope we can do this for all 20 acts.  We had 2 dozen cupcakes waiting for our first customer this morning.  A young lady came in shortly after we opened to buy a cupcake for a friend and she had some questions.  Amy got the 2 dozen cupcakes and started to explain the 20 acts idea that we were doing.  Needless to say, things got pretty emotional at The Sweet Tooth this morning.  As it turns out, our first customer is a teacher at one of the middle schools here in Blue Springs, and her husband teaches at another middle school here in town as well.  She ended up taking one dozen cupcakes to her school and the other dozen to her husband’s school.  Our first act of kindness ended up at two schools, how fitting is that!  Her friend (the one she came in to buy the cupcake for) came in later to thank us for what we were doing.  She also said we inspired her to do 20 acts of her own.

This is what it’s about.  Stay tuned for more information about our 20 Acts, and we hope we can encourage as many of you as possible to start your own 20 acts.  It does not matter how small or large the gift is, it feels good to do something positive.  Join the movement.

Behind the Cupcakes – Kathy

Hello everyone!  It’s me again, The Cupcake Guy.  The folks over at The Sweet Tooth asked me to take over their Behind the Cupcakes blog feature, and you know I’m happy to help whenever I can.  For this Behind the Cupcake story, we take a closer look at Kathy Marble, but not too close.  Rumor has it, that she bites!

Kathy was born in Kansas City and raised right here in Blue Springs, Missouri.  She has lived in the Kansas City metro her entire life and has settled a little east in Odessa.  Kathy has 3 older sisters (AKA spoiled brat) and says she was a shy kid and loved to play outside.  I think she is making up for her quiet childhood now, she is known as chatty Kathy at work.  She always seems to have a story to tell about anything that happens, not matter the situation.  She has 3 children, 3 dogs, 2 cats, and 2 rabbits, all she is missing, is the partridge and the pear tree.  Kathy is very proud of her kids, and enjoys watching them play sports.  She also likes to travel, make scrapbooks and go to Chiefs games.

Kathy and Amy, long before The Sweet Tooth.

Kathy heard about The Sweet Tooth from Amy and offered support and help long before the shop opened.  Her and Amy worked together after high school at Photo to Go and have been good friends since then.  Kathy said she thought Trevor was shy the first time she met him, but she thinks he was just trying to be good so she was ok with him getting married to Amy.  I think Trevor is shy and one of the nicest people I have ever met in my entire life (that’s just my opinion).  Kathy said her favorite Sweet Tooth cupcake is Lucky Stout, she loves the frosting.  She also said she would like to see them add a turtle cupcake to their line up in the future.  She said many of her embarrassing moments at the shop were not appropriate for our fans, but she did admit to answer the phone “Photo to Go” one time.  I guess she had a little flash back to the old days.

Kathy and her kids.

Kathy thinks it’s important for The Sweet Tooth’s customers to know how much enjoyment they get from them and their stories.  She said her most memorable experience with a customer was when a man came in to buy cupcakes for his wife.  He said they she was receiving a medical treatment and needed to gain weigh to continue the treatment.  She did not have much of an appetite, but loved The Sweet Tooth’s cupcakes.  Kathy said she really enjoyed the satisfaction knowing The Sweet Tooth was able to help someone with their medical treatments.  If Kathy was in charge of The Sweet Tooth, she said the first thing should would change would be installing microphones and a stage so they could practice between recipes.  For some reason, she thinks they are going to end up on The Voice.

Kathy has a way of making people feel like that.

I had a great time talking to Kathy for this piece.  I have to admit I did a lot more listening than talking at this session, but I also heard some interesting stories.  Until next time, have a sweet day!

The Cupcake Guy