with left forgotten ghosts of home.
The scent of old and perfumed hands
exotic herbs from distant lands,
A lovely object full of grace
an urchin now with saucer ‘n lace.
A treasure golden fair and prized
in spanking fashion idolized!
But now condemned to wait in dust
While those around me tarnish lost
In wait I whisper, hear my plea
in sleeping dust, remember me.
By Alysa Obert
Gordon College News
Service
1/26/10
Beverly MA--There are the vanilla butter creams, the chocolate swirls, and of course, Boston Cream. They sit in delicious rows beside Red Velvet, Italian Rum, and even Turtle-flavored cup cakes.
Yes, cup cakes. With 60 flavors and different sizes to choose from, the Cup Cake Café at 297 Rantoul Street in Beverly, MA, has seen a steady following of, well, indulgence since it opened five years ago.
“Now I dream cupcakes,” says owner and baker Monica Hatherley, who bought the bakery in 2004 when she was a real estate agent looking for a change. The bakery started out much like a coffee house, which sold a variety of baked goods.
“I made every mistake known to man the first couple of years: I used to open at seven in the morning, I made things I didn’t enjoy, I changed the hours,” said Hatherly. “One day I said, I don’t want to do this anymore, I just want to do cupcakes.”
The move was risky for Hatherly, but it lead to the success of her business. She soon learned that if she’d make what she loved, business would pick up. It did.
“It is so important to fit your personality to your business,” said Hatherly. “The joy of having
your own business is doing something that you love and cupcakes are what I love.”
Phone orders starting coming and now those calls dictate what goes into the case each morning. But there are staples which customers can count on like vanilla buttercreams or Boston Cream to name a few. New creations like the Snowball cupcake also sit proudly under the glass.
Hatherly makes a certain number of cupcakes each day depending on specific orders and what she’s in the mood for. Once they’re gone, customers are out of luck.
“We close when we sell all of our cupcakes,” said Hatherly. “Sometimes that is at two but sometimes five or six, but we always sell out.”
Friend and, customer Val Kenney, believes Hagerdly is successful because cupcakes make people happy. “Have you ever heard of anyone who was sad while eating a cupcake, ? I don’t think so,” said Kenney, who works on holidays and is paid in cupcakes.
The Café was recently featured on the Phantom Gourmet and Hatherly saw a new wave of customers. That meant new publicity, something she admits she’s still getting used to. With no plans to hire more help or to start another store, she sometimes feels overwhelmed.
“I don’t make a big deal about being here,” said Hatherly. “I’m as busy as I can be.”
In an economic recession it is hard to believe that cupcakes alone could make a successful business. But Hatherly thinks she knows why: “I guess I just cornered the market on happy.”
Jake Viel of Beverly MA, stepped into the Café for the first time to buy a birthday present for his friend but not forgetting to treat himself.
She kisses clouds with breaths of Leather
drinking to surprise the snorting swelter
while Red throats trudge the pug
as winters dance belief in blunders.
Yet only with the ooze of supper do
we hug a dapper squeeze even to the slag.
Why must frogs tatter what bites
their blue could muster
or the wavering pistons glisten with dread?
Does not the apple swing steady
though napkins cut wrapped slumber
and move the eye asunder to tousle cracks
leaving flapjacks thin?
Clasp the vast conviction brazen rocks
for gutteral ruts have no peach tea cups!
