Creativity in Ice Cream Cakes

At the beginning of 2011, when many people were sifting through New Year’s resolutions they may or may not have ended up fulfilling, Bobby Capuzziello took a leap and opened up , an ice-cream cake business. Capuzziello looked back on his experiences with his brother in the mid-80s, operating Mondaes, an ice cream shop, in scoping out a plan for the business. Capuzziello, 54, runs the business exclusively from his home.  

Is Cappy Cakes a new business?  How did you come up with the idea?

I started at the beginning of the year. I was in the ice cream business prior to this back in the mid-80s.  My brother Steve and I had an ice cream business in Milford.  It was ‘85 to ‘89.  My brother Steve and I had a place called Mondaes. It was a play on words instead of sundaes. It was right on Beach Street, by the . We made high-end ice cream with the ice buckets and salt-churning wood buckets, and had a front window. We decided to sell out because the economy started to crumble out. I was 30 back then. We sold it and went in different directions. I got involved in real estate. I’m a full-time Realtor at which is located on Main Street.

Time went on. Kids grew up. I’ve always liked the ice cream business because people are typically happy when they have ice cream. It’s an uplifting type of thing. So I thought, let’s revisit the Mondaes days. My brother didn’t have the schedule to do this with me, so I did this on my own.  I’d bring a pie or cake here and there into work or a party. I brought one into a Christmas party and someone said, “You should make these Bobby, you should sell these.” One thing led to another. I researched where I could get my ice cream because obviously I couldn’t make ice cream here and I didn’t want to rent a place because of the economy and the overhead. I researched everything. 

I went to a couple of local dairy ice cream makers in the area. I ended up with Richardson’s Ice Cream, which is in Middleton. They have their own dairy farm and they make the product right on site. It’s nice and fresh. It’s a high-end ice cream where they use 16 percent butterfat, which the more butterfat, the creamier the ice cream. They’re a great product. 

How do you advertise your product?

It took off by word-of-mouth. I have fliers and business cards, Patch, and Facebook.  I’ve always believed word of mouth is the best way to market your business and get it out there. [There is] no better satisfaction than in someone coming up to me and saying “You have a great product, Bobby.” I do want to get out there more, but it’s costly as well.  It’s kind of a Catch-22.  Do you go out and spend money right away or let the product speak for itself and save up some money? I’m trying to get out there now on a bigger level. 

Did you have to experiment with your cakes and pies to come up with your final products?

There is always a trial-and-error in anything. How much am I going to use? How much am I going to charge? How is the public going to view it? Am I outrageous with price? What I decided to do, since I’m not paying rent was to put out a high-end product. I use a high-end cocoa powder and a bittersweet chocolate. It’s expensive, but I think that’s what sets me apart from other ice cream products. The novelty here is that they are cake and ice cream, and I bake them fresh upon order. I did come to the final product about a month or so. I started to use a layer of hot fudge in each and every cake, unless it is a fruit cake. Chocolate cakes, the fudge usually goes well with that. Strawberry ice cream usually doesn’t go well with hot fudge, although I like fudge with anything because I’m a chocoholic. It was trial and error, and while there is always room for improvement, I’ve come up with a good high-end quality product at a somewhat low price. [Editor's note: standard cakes are $24.95, larger half-sheet cakes are $49.95 and pies are $15.95]

Which of your products sell the most?

The ice cream cakes. There is a choice of devil’s food cake, golden-yellow cake. Sometimes if there are kids they will ask for confetti cake. One customer of mine had the yellow cake and the chocolate cake and they wanted to try a carrot cake, so I made a carrot cake. The devil’s foods are the most popular.  For the cakes, what I’ll do is I’ll cut it in half. I’ll put a layer of fudge on one half. I’ll measure out my ice-cream, which is well over a half-gallon of ice cream, and I’ll put it together like a big sandwich. I’ll harden it up. I have a big commercial freezer downstairs.  Then I’ll frost it with fresh whipped cream. I typically decorate it with a bunch of toppings such as crushed M&M’s, crushed Oreos, crushed Butterfingers, crushed Heath Bars, strawberry toppings, and shaved dark chocolate. They’re different because they are cake and ice-cream and they’re fresh. The pies are different too because they have the graham cracker crust, with a layer of fudge. In fact, Restaurant 45 in Medway and Fresco’s in Upton carry these pies on the dessert menu. They are a constant customer. 

 How did you set up with the restaurants to carry your desserts?

I approached one of the owners. Mark, down at [Restaurant] 45, I’ve known him for years. I brought a couple pies down for him to sample. I said what do you think, Mark?” He said “Great idea Bobby, different, no one else has them.” That was back in March. Every week I deliver some pies to them. Same thing with Fresco's, I approached a friend of mine. I wanted to get the word out there and the product out there, so I thought a restaurant in each town would get the word out there, so that people in the restaurant would say, “Hey where did you get this, this is good, and where can I get more?” I’ve dropped off a couple of pies in restaurants in Milford, but between real estate and this, I’ve been too busy to follow up. [Editor's note: Cappy Cake pies are sold at in Milford.]

How do you manage your time between your regular day job and managing Cappy Cakes? 

I try to plan and schedule around both. If I have a real estate transaction or a showing then I’ll set that up. I try to manage them the best I can without one interfering with the other, which is sometimes hard to do. I also work part-time at , so I’m doing three things.

Do you have any future plans to expand Cappy Cakes?

Right now I’m taking it on a day-to-day basis with the economy not being that great right now. Ideally, I would love to have a storefront and offer these pies so that people could walk in and pick them up. I wouldn’t want to delve into that now with the unknown uncertainty of the economy. Plus, being in the ice cream business before, I don’t know if I would have to venture into something besides cakes and pies, and get into the retail side of cones and cups like I was before. That is a seven days a week, seven nights a week business. Right now with real estate, which is my main business, I don’t know if I’d like to take away from that quite yet.

What is your favorite and least favorite part of running Cappy Cakes?

The best part is baking, cooking, dealing with food. Being from an Italian family I like to cook and eat a lot. Along with that, I enjoy the peoples’ response in complimenting me on it. Their satisfaction in it is rewarding. The least favorite part is probably the fact that I can’t go full-time, so juggling the other businesses and not being able to give this my whole heart. 

What equipment did you need to set up the business?

I needed a stove, obviously, to bake the cakes. I need storage, which I have down in my basement. I need racks in the storage area to keep the products like cocoa powder, pie crusts, sugar, and other ingredients. I need a freezer and refrigeration to keep the product fresh and cold for the cream and milk I use for the fudge. What I need right now is more space and probably another freezer. Unlike a regular bakery, you need to keep your product frozen after you make it. When it gets busy, I need to shuffle between my regular commercial freezer and the regular household freezers I have.  Also, when anyone’s in business you have to think about what it will cost to make it. What kind of profit margin you are going to have to make it all worthwhile. You have to see what your product costs, your hourly, your energy, your effort. 

How do you go about delivering products?

Another challenging part is delivering the cakes. It’s ice cream on a hot day. I did run into somebody who I work with, elsewhere, at the liquor store who works with Styrofoam containers. So I have these big Styrofoam containers that once they go out of the freezer they go in there and they can stay cold for quite some time. I deliver within a four to five mile radius unless it’s really busy. The cakes already insulate the ice cream. The pie is really just ice cream so the melt time is greater for the pies and less for the cakes. My aunt from Springfield said she’d love if I delivered one to her, but by the time I’d get to Springfield, with the gas and the melted ice cream, it wouldn’t be cost effective.