Cupcake Trend Renews Culinary Dreams of Westford Woman

Anyone reading Westford Patch in 2012 knows that small cupcake companies have been one of the big trends in town this year, but it isn’t as easy to start as one would think.

Westford resident Jannelle Cioffi had always received rave reviews from friends and family for her homemade cupcakes, and when Colonial Kitchen moved out of Westford Plaza in 2008, she began to look for storefront locations in town where she might fill the vacant baked goods niche.

While the best option at the time was the current location of Paper Goods now at the Westford Valley Marketplace, the rent would have required her to sell 500 cupcakes per day in order to make a profit.

For a time, she put her dream on hold, but with the recent string of stories on cupcake stores this year here in the Westford Patch, particularly what she saw as positive reviews for Sugar Cupcake Shoppe, she believes the time may be coming where she will want to renew her hopes of starting her own cupcake store.

“In Westford, everybody loves cupcakes,” she said. “They’re easy, kids love them for birthday parties, they make moms’ lives easier and they’re more fun than a traditional cake.”

Her ultimate goal still remains finding a storefront where she can make a cupcake café that would include seating where patrons could enjoy their cupcakes in a relaxing atmosphere, but she’s also considered pursuing a commercial bakery permit to sell cupcakes from her home, using her basement as a bakery.

However, Cioffi still faces obstacles ranging from rent costs if she decides to go with the café route, to worries about juggling pets and her children if she aims for a home bakery, to how to deal with her current position as a family office manager in Boston.

“It’s a big risk to take with a young family,” she says. “But I wanted to see how Sugar did and she sells out by 3 p.m. every day. Westford’s becoming a younger town, and everybody loves cupcakes.”

It remains to be seen if Cioffi will take the plunge one way or another, but if she does, it’ll be in Westford.

“Other towns already have their niche filled for this, but my friends know how I cook and that’s why they always ask for my cupcakes,” she said. “We’re not New York City, we don’t have the population for half a dozen stores, but market demand for a good cupcake will never be oversaturated.”