Cupcake Wars Winner Marks 1 Year Anniversary

Dia Doce (Portuguese for "Sweet Day"), a mobile cupcake business that serves the greater Chester and Montgomery County area was a recent winner of Cupcake Wars on the Food Network. After reaching that milestone, the family-run business celebrates another: its one-year anniversary on April 29.

The story of the business is an interesting one.

"I grew up in this area and moved back here about a year and a half ago from New York City to start the business," said owner Thais Da Silva. "The whole concept behind the business is we don’t have a storefront. We have a mobile storefront, I should say. We have a truck and go to a different location every day of the week."

Da Silva grew up in Glenmoore and studied fashion design in college. She spent a few years in New York City in that career field, but suddenly needed a change.

"Then I moved back here and had no culinary background, but just wanted to switch to something different," she said. "Cupcakes were trending and I knew it wasn’t in this area yet, whereas New York City was already saturated."

The truck parks in front of three Whole Foods in the area, and also makes trips to Villanova and West Chester Universities, the Exton area and local farmer's markets. They also do private parties and corporate events.

The business is also locally sustained, dealing with all of the local farms to make its products.

"Depending on what the farms have is how we determine what cupcakes we make that week," Da Silva said.

Shortly after the genesis of the business, which began under a tent at a local farmer's market, Da Silva and her sister, Andrea, who also runs the business, was approached by representatives from Cupcake Wars.

"We thought it was a little too soon, so we applied later in the summer," she said. "We got a call back asking for photos and a video interview and in turn were called back about two weeks later and they said they were going to fly us out in two weeks. It was a very quick process once it got started. It was actually filmed in October, so we had been keeping it a secret for quite some time."

Dia Doce squared off against three other bakers, each honing a team of two. In each round, one of the bakeries would be eliminated. Thais and Andrea lasted until the end, succeeding in taste, taste/appearance, and the 1,000-cupcake challenge, where the bakery would make 1,000 cupcakes and create a display with them to coincide with a particular theme. Dia Doce's theme was the Girls Scouts 100th anniversary.

"We went in definitely as the underdog, I felt," said Da Silva. "But we had gotten so much positive feedback in the area. Being the youngest company of course was intimidating. In the first round we made gluten-free cupcakes, whereas everyone else made a traditional cupcake. We didn’t know how that was going to go, but we loved the cupcake personally, so we went with it knowing that it being an event with children, who may have allergies. After the first event, we felt really good about it."

Dia Doce was presented as the winner and has not looked back. Da Silva said in five years, she hopes to expand to have another truck and maybe even a little cafe.

Currently, the closest location the truck serves is in Oaks at SEI Investments Company. Although the physical address of the business is in Spring City, they do not serve the LRSC Patch coverage area. Da Silva said anyone in the area looking to book the truck on a weekly or monthly basis would certainly be welcomed.

It hasn't been all positives for the business, though. Da Silva recalls times where she questioned what she was doing.

"The biggest hurdle we had to overcome was the day-in and day-out of the whole process from the beginning," she said. "We asked ourselves if this was a good decision. We’re making cupcakes for a living, which would sound bizarre to me two years ago. But it’s just sticking with it. You’re not going to get anything out if you don’t put anything in. So it’s 24 hours a day, really, the work."

Overall, Da Silva and the Dia Doce family is grateful for the support it has received over the course of the first year in business.

"Just incredible," she said. "It’s almost surreal. Sometimes I think about it and it’s like, were we really on T.V.? But I feel really honored that not only people around here like our products, but that we also gained national recognition for it too."