For Kissa Cupcake, Success Is Sweet, Indeed

What are two girls of 6 and 8 supposed to do all day while their mothers hang out together? Get cooking in the kitchen, of course. That seemed like a logical answer for Melissa Brantlinger and Brooke Cole in early 1990s Sarasota.

"We’d be stuck at the house, and since we both grew up with a love for sugar, we would think: OK, there’s no snacks here, so let’s make something," Cole told Patch. "So we'd open up our Betty Crocker cookbooks ..."

They whipped up brownies, cakes and sugar cookies for many years in their family kitchens, until it dawned on them that they could make a living at it. About 20 years later, Kissa Cupcake, an online cupcake catering company, was born.

When she was just a freshman in high school, Brantlinger's dream of opening a cupcake shop sprouted — years before today's cupcake mania took hold. Her father, an expert baker himself, had taught her the finer points of making perfectly moist cakes that his father, a Navy cook in World War II, had passed down to him.

"I’ve just always watched my dad bake and cook," Brantlinger said. "And he and I would bake together. It was ingrained in me."

Her original career plan was to go into adverising, but after 10 days at the University of South Florida, Brantlinger packed it up and came back home. For several years, she worked various office jobs, often bringing her mouth-watering cakes for co-workers' birthdays — to rave reviews.

Cole called herself a "stay-at-home wife," who needed a hobby while dealing with an illness in her family. So the two childhood kitchen crusaders got cooking again with a singular focus: to make delicious, decadent cookies for their friends and family.

"It gave us that sense of fulfillment and lifted my spirits," Cole said. "Being able to do it with my friend was even better."

It wasn't until 2010, when a friend apporached Brantlinger and asked her to make about 200 cupcakes for her upcoming wedding.

"I knew she had a want and desire to have a cupcake business, so I said, 'Why don't you do our wedding,'" Krystle Anderson said. "They have such a passion for it and I knew I could trust them."

So on Sept. 11, 2010, Brantlinger and Cole attended the wedding with white cake cupcakes with vanilla bean frosting and zebra-print liners that matched the wedding's theme. "Those cupcakes were delicious," Anderson said. "They were flavorful enough, but not so heavy. They were a hit."

For the first time, Brantlinger and Cole, got to see people really enjoying their work. "It was really kind of that moment we looked at each other and said this is something special," Cole said.

For two years, the two women baked in their home kitchens until they realized they were ready to commit full-time to Kissa Cupcake. Brantlinger quit her job in April 2012, and Cole secured a deal with Faith Baptist Church's leaders to use the licensed catering kitchen in the church's gymnasium. "It was a leap of faith," Brantlinger said.

Kissa Cupcake (the name is actually Brantlinger's childhood nickname: Melissa Kissa) now serves up cupcakes for events like weddings, baby showers and even as business thank-you gifts. Tina Bachrach, the receptionist for dentist Dr. John Russo, in Sarasota, sends Kissa Cupcake treats to partnering dental offices as thank-yous for referrals.

"Their cupcakes are really light. I'm from England, and most of the desserts you find here are very sweet," Bachrach said. "And I hate icing. If someone gives me cake with icing, I scrap it off. But with theirs, I would eat the icing first. And every single dental office I send them to absolutely loves them."

Two months in, Cole said Kissa Cupcake is already in the black and they expect to see profits once season kicks back in. Their specialty is the Kissa cupcake, a sinfully moist dark chocolate cake, that was a recipe from Brantlinger's father that's been tweaked over time. They've recently come up with a new topping for it: salted caramel pretzel. It's a caramel buttercream frosting with mini chocolate chips, crushed pretzels, sea salt and a drizzle of caramel.

"We didn’t look up a recipe, we just thought what would that taste like?" Cole said. "We’ve gotten to the point where we can do it out of our heads."

The women say they hope to see Brantlinger's dream come to fruition with a shop of their own somewhere in Sarasota. "In this day and time people want to see people chasing their dreams and making it work," Cole said. "It’s good for the community and good for the economy."

The cupcakes are sold in dozens (in full size or minis) and can be ordered online through the Kissa Cupcake website, or purchased individually at Living Word Christian Store or the restaurant on Clark Road (on weekends only).