So, here’s the run down: while the event is technically FREE, a suggested donation of $10.00 is asked upon entrance. Remember this is for charity and you’re lucky to get 3 cupcakes at some bakeries with $10.00. Already a win/win if you ask me. You’ll have access to cupcakes from lots of local bakeries as well as others participating who just love to bake! I have to tell you I was giddy with excitement when I found out Cupcake Camp would be happening in my backyard (not really in my backyard…..well, you know what I mean). I knew we had to participate and do it BIG!

We will be organizing a raffle where you could win BIG! I’m talking $1,000.00 BIG! 

The Two Parts Sugar GRAND PRIZE raffle will consist of the following:

100 decorated cupcakes

100 accent cupcakes (sprinkles/colored icing)

A 6″ decorate cake

A custom cupcake stand

-OR-

A cake valued at $1,000.00 

Not only will you be entered to win the GRAND PRIZE, but with every ticket purchase you will receive a coupon (coupon code if purchased on line) for 10% off you next order from Two Parts Sugar.

Tickets will be sold for $5.00 in the Two Parts Sugar booth the day of the event (please stop by and say hi even if you are not purchasing a ticket). You can also purchase tickets by contacting Monica via e-mail: monica@twopartssugar.com. We will then send you a confirmation and throw a ticket with your name on it in our raffle jar (to be drawn day of event). ALL proceeds go to EL POZO. Contest is open to all Orange, Riverside, Los Angeles, and San Diego counties. But wait, we didn’t stop there!

We will also be offering our signature “I bleed buttercream” T-Shirts (photo coming soon) at the event and on-line (until 7/31/10). Purchase a shirt for $20.00 and we’ll throw in a raffle ticket and a 10% off coupon! Again, ALL proceeds got to EL POZO.

Available in a variety of colors with white print.

Yes, there’s MORE….we will be debuting a NEW FLAVOR we have been wanting to do for over a year now(just waiting for the right occasion)! Not only that, but any cupcake we sell in that flavor from now until the end of the year, we will be donating a percentage of the proceeds to EL POZO!

So, let’s sum it up…$5.00 raffle ticket gets you a chance to win $1,000.00 worth of baked goods and a 10% off coupon towards a future purchase. Or buy a T-shirt for $20.00 and we’ll include the raffle ticket and coupon. You’ll be sampling a brand NEW FLAVOR and if you order some goodies in our new flavor, a percentage of proceeds goes to EL TOZO. You’ll meet lots of cupcake lovers and taste lots of yummy cupcakes. BUT MOST IMPORTANTLY, you will be helping great cause. 

Diabetic, don’t like sweets, on a diet, no worries, you can still participate. The organizers of Cupcake Camp OC are accepting donations! LOVE to bake? Don’t be shy, sign up and bring some cupcakes down to help raise awareness and money! 

Those of you not on a diet can enter the CUPCAKE EATING CONTEST!

Bottom line, a bunch of wonderful people are coming together to do something selfless and raise money for a good cause. Be a part of it and I’m living proof, karma will thank  you later.

*Grand Prize is valued at $1,000.00. Can be redeemed for one cake OR a 6″ cake, 100 decorated cupcakes, 100 accent cupcakes, and one decorated stand. Decorations subject to difficulty/time involved. Delivery/set up may or may not be included depending on circumstances. Open to Orange, Riverside, San Diego, and LA counties. Date of redemption dependant upon availability.

For questions feel free to contact us here or call Monica 714.651.9769.

First, if you haven’t seen yet, we’ve got a newline of goodies…GLAM BITES! These are our gourmet treats all glammed up ready to hit the town! They are available in all colors and all treats! (The pictures don’t do them justice!)

Also, be on the look out for these cool cakes: Lacrosse cakes, Teddy bear minis, Money bags cupcakes, Damask cake, Turntables cake, pink/black vintage cake, Angels baseball cake x 2, Plumeria wedding cake, Sesame Street cake/cupcake combo…just to name a FEW! 

AND….

We’ll be taking our treats to the VIP BOOTH at TASTE OF LADERA….THE MTV MOVIE AWARDS gifting suite at the SLS Hotel…..the AMERICAN IDOL FINALE…and more soon to be announced!

I still can’t believe all the opportunities presenting themselves and am so thankful to all of our customers and supporters.

“The cake and cupcakes were a hit! Everyone, myself included, just loved the Snoopy decorations you created.  So cute! Not only that but they tasted delicious, especially the raspberry red velvet. Those were gone so fast that my husband didn’t even get to try them, haha!”  

-Ellie’s Mom

“EVERYONE loved the cake and nobody even wanted to touch the cupcakes they thought they were decoration! 
I couldn’t BELIEVE how everyone reacted to the cake, when they bit into it, myself included people were like, omg…. it was sooo good!” 

-Julian’s mom

From Sweat to sweet

Only a certain kind of woman is willing to mix it up and go head to head against guys in a wrestling match. You might not expect it to be the same woman who now bakes cupcakes for a living – but it turns out they require the same ingredients.

The tenacity to score on the mat is not all that different from the tenacity you need to make a business into a winner.

So call this a story about what happens when sweat meets sweet. To me, though, it’s that familiar tale of a young mother juggling family and work. Mothers who learn how to fit their dreams around their children know how to grapple with life.

Monica Serratos, 28, wrestled at Estancia High School in Costa Mesa. As one of two women on the team, she wrestled mostly guys in the 103 or 112 -pound weight class.

She didn’t win a single match in her first year, but that only made her work harder. By senior year she was team captain.

Monica met her future husband, Fernando, on the wrestling team at Golden West College — and that’s where three babies come in.

Monica is primed to tell me about all this, plus cupcakes and the Academy Awards, but 3-month-old Angelica announces – loudly — she’s ready to eat. There’s no arguing with that.

Monica fell into baking the way women fall in love: opportunity and attraction to something sweet. She was working weekends and nights at Macy’s, and wanted to start her own business. Then her sister took a culinary class and Monica sampled some recipes.

“I liked the cake on one and the icing on the other,” Monica recalls. “When we put them together, it was gold.”

First, she experimented with recipes – a little more egg here, a bit less oil there. A good cake is moist, not over-baked, with icing that isn’t overly sweet. One result is her signature raspberry red velvet cake.

“This is my passion … when people pop a bite into their mouth and their reaction is ‘Wow!’ you’ve created this little bit of dessert heaven.”

For a year she explored the idea of a baking business. She took some classes in cake decorating and discovered she was good at it – very good.

Monica began selling her creations to friends and their friends and suddenly realized: “I guess I’m in business.”

Two Parts Sugar (www.twopartssugar.com) launched in December of 2008. Listening to Monica explain how she hustles to build her business is exhausting.

Less than a year after launching, a very pregnant Monica was competing (and losing) in the first episode of the Food Network reality show, “Cupcake Wars.” Yes, she admits, she spent one crazy evening with power tools building a display stand for her cupcakes.

Twice she’s accepted the annual LA Cupcake Challenge, passing out thousands of samples so the public can eat and vote. The first year Two Parts Sugar won a second place and bragging rights for its (suddenly) “award-winning” cupcakes. In February, she won a third place for her chocolate covered strawberry cupcakes.

She’s already diversified from cupcakes into other sweets and aprons. With marketing help from her brother, Monica tweets and blogs and looks for every advantage.

When the Academy Awards came calling, Monica didn’t hesitate. She pulled several all-nighters to bake mini-cupcakes for tasting and “swag” bags for stars visiting the gifting suite.

She’s tasted other cupcakes. With no modesty she says:

“Some of the cupcakes out there made me realize that what I have here is fantastic.”

An entrepreneur and mother, Monica knows all about juggling her time. Most mothers mentally barter with our kids, trading more favors than a backroom politico: If we accomplish one chore for me, later we will do one fun thing for you.

Monica trades a morning at the park for a run to buy ingredients or make a delivery. She packs Alicia, 3, Anabelle, 2, and the baby into the car and tells them it’s time to make a trip. She bakes; they bake with an Easy Bake Oven.

After the girls’ 8 p.m. bedtime, she heads to her Irvine-based kitchen to work. Her time is her own until 6 a.m. when the kids wake up.

“I tuck them into bed. They know Daddy is here and Mommy has to go to work.”

No problem – if you don’t require sleep.

And here’s where wrestling comes in. This is a grueling schedule. To meet it, Monica calls upon the same focus and drive she needed just to finish a practice.

“Some nights I’m baking and I’m dead tired and I tell myself: All right, it’s overtime. I need that extra bit you have to give.”

Endurance counts. She’s taken a self-taught, crash course in business: setting prices (too low), buying supplies (no longer at the grocery store), packaging and marketing.

So far, Two Parts Sugar is barely profitable. The deal with Fernando is that she needs to at least cover expenses and pay the family’s bill for health insurance.

Monica is selling cupcakes, but she’s buying herself time.

Right now, her business is the freedom to stay home days and weekends with her girls. But she has ambitions: maybe her own storefront bakery one day, maybe a little saved for the girls’ education. She would like them to finish college.

“I am setting an example. My girls can see it’s important to be independent and be able to support themselves and not have to rely on anybody else.”

She wants to build a successful business. She wants to be a successful mother. She wants more hours in the day.

All mothers wrestle with that.

Another all-nighter produced lots of mini cupcakes for guest to indulge in. We took our vanilla throwback, chocolate covered strawberry, haute hostess and raspberry red velvets. They were a hit! They were so well received, for a minute we actually considered renaming our raspberry red velvet cupcake the “oh wow”. It seems everyone that popped one in their mouth responded with a joyful “Oh WOW”. We took boxes of 4 cupcakes, one of each flavor for guests to take home. We had contributions from a few people who really helped pull our “swag bags” together. Chico bag was amazing in contributing 100 eco-friendly bags screened with the Two Parts Sugar’s logo! These bags are awesome. They are made of 99% recycled material and are super roomy. We also had contributions from Sugar Cat Studio providing 100 sets of cupcake wrappers to be included in our “swag bags”. Lastly, Dazzle & Chunk provided the cutest cupcake necklaces.

I was able to take my big brother Juan who has contributed so much to the business with his technological smarts and creative ideas. Also, my sister Maria who contributes occassionally with baking and recipe ideas and sister Alicia who helps with all the extras. How fun to be able to share this experience with them.

I’ve been getting some questions about the people we were photographed with…No, I didn’t get shots of Brad Pitt, or Hale Berry with our cupcakes… Was I disappointed about that…NO. What I did get out of this experience was more than I could ask for. I met some really grounded and amazing people. People who loved our cupcakes and who were really interested in the story behind Two Parts Sugar and what we stand for. I have to mention a few people who really stood out to us: Jackie Tohn, American Idol finalist and recording artist and actress…she has a great sense of humor and is awesome. Another favorite is Ben Decker, actor, fashion model, song writer and super fun guy. Lastly, Jordan Johnson, singer, songwriter producer, also a sweetheart. We have generated some business from this event, including requests for samples from other gifting suite organizers and magazines, and requests for our cupcakes at other awards shows! It was a lot of work, but well worth it. It really was an exciting experience and just so fulfilling to have everyone really enjoy what we brought to the table.

               Ben Decker                      Jordan Johnson

If you are interested in placing an order, you can contact us here. If you are interested in more information about our business or would like to have us at an event you can view our media kit here.

Best Traditional
1st Place:  Big Man Bakes “Red Velvet”
2nd Place:  Blue Cupcake “Sweet and Salty Vanilla”
3rd Place:  Southern Girl Desserts “Red Velvet”

Best Original
1st Place:  My Delight Cupcaker “Breakfast Cake”
2nd Place:  Jus Minis “Caramel Banana”
3rd Place:  Two Parts Sugar “Chocolate Covered Strawberry”

Best Overall
1st Place:  Jus Minis “Caramel Banana”
2nd Place:  My Delight Cupcaker “Breakfast Cake”
3rd Place:  Two Parts Sugar “Chocolate Covered Strawberry”

So there you have it…we took 3rd place in the Best Original category and what we were most excited about was taking 3rd  (out of 54 cupcakes) in the Best Overall category. Congratulations to all the bakeries who attended…it was an accomplishment just baking all those yummy cupcakes and presenting them along side all of your beautiful displays. To all the other bakeries who placed…awesome job! Again a super-duper big giant thank you to everyone who helped….you all played a huge role in our success.

We are thrilled to have been a part of this fundraiser…it’s kinda why we do what we do, after all they are just cupcakes. Don’t get me wrong, they are definitely not JUST cupcakes….I mean they are my passion, my livelihood, my life. But when you look at the big picture, there are so many other things that are more important. We can’t wait until we are able to help in bigger and better ways. Until then, we will continue to help out the community and other non-profit organizations as much as we can. Who knows, maybe one day we will be able to start our own charitable non-profit organization!

So, back in November I received a call from a man that literally changed my outlook on life. My family and I were dealing with some personal issues that made me feel like my world was falling apart. I don’t think I can even begin to tell you about the intensity of running a start-up business, not to mention balancing it with a husband, a household, and three children. Needless to say it can be overwhelming. This particular day (keep in mind I had a 4 day old baby at the time…so emotions/hormones were all over the place) I had a breakdown. I didn’t know if this business was what was right for me or our family…I was having second thoughts.  I gotta tell you, I think that way a lot…no, really, A LOT. But, at the end of the day, I think about the smiles our creations bring to peoples faces, the opportunity to give back, and really, I just LOVE doing what I do. Also, it seams as though when ever I am super swamped with work, or having a “moment” of doubt, something fantastic happens. Well this time, it was a phone call.

A few hours after my “meltdown” I get a phone call. I answer the phone…the man on the other end asks for me. I say hi and he starts in with a proposal for a booth at the Academy Awards. I just kinda brush it off and explain we are still somewhat of a start up business and do not generate the capital to fund an event like  this. He then puts me on hold to speak with his business partner. He gets back on the phone and says he may be able to “work” something out. Long story short…WE ARE GOING TO THE ACADEMY AWARDS!

We will be participating in the Academy Awards Gifting Suite and supplying our yummy goodies to the “stars”. We will also be putting together some “sweet” swag bags which will include some goodies from Kitchen Couture, Sugar Cat Studio, and Dazzle and Chunk…we will share with you soon! We are so grateful for this opportunity and cannot wait for the event!

For all of you out there…bakers or not, please realize the lesson here. When you feel like your world is falling apart, realize good things can still happen. If you are doing something you absolutely love, don’t give up on your dreams. My dad always said “if it were easy, everybody would be doing it.”