LIFT UP LOCAL 038
Written by Pamela Patton
📷 courtesy of Amber Rose Photography
Sweet Treats Made from Scratch
Let’s say you have a craving for something sweet. Perhaps a melt-in-your-mouth cupcake topped with fresh frosting. Maybe a slice of carrot cake—but just one! Or it could be a made-from-scratch no-bake cookie that reminds you of your childhood.
If you’re visiting Capital City Market, your craving is sure to be satisfied with a sweet treat from Cupcakes & Kisses.
Toni and Kevin Barnett founded their bakery in an unusual way. Toni explains, “Kevin and I were both nurses and traveling extensively as consultants in the medical records field. We wanted to transition to a business that would be something our four kids, then aged two through 10, could be involved in and eventually take over. We decided to start investing in real estate and purchased a commercial building in downtown Holly.
I grew up on a dairy farm, and as anyone who has worked in farming can tell you, you eat five times a day. My mother baked to feed everyone, and we just enjoyed doing it. When I got married, I homeschooled our kids while Kevin was traveling, so I baked with them once a day as a fun activity. I often gave baked goods to friends and neighbors who told me I had a baking business going—I just wasn’t charging. So, we opened the first Cupcakes & Kisses in that building in 2015. That first day we made $137, and thought we were rich.”
As word spread about Cupcakes & Kisses, Toni and Kevin decided to expand, choosing locations in areas with struggling downtowns to help revitalize those communities. They soon had six storefronts and five commercial kitchens in Holly, Owosso, St. Johns, Grand Blanc, Oxford, and Corunna. Retail grocery stores seemed to be the next logical step. A Meijer representative discovered Cupcakes & Kisses and they made their Meijer debut at Capital City Market. Eventually, they were in Rivertown Market and Woodward Corner Market, and most recently, Independence Market.
What sets their cupcakes, cookies, or cake slices apart? “Everything we make is from scratch with real butter, sugar, and eggs—no big bags of mixes, premade jams or fillings, and no large buckets of frosting. The items baked today will be on the grocery shelf tomorrow. And we don’t let things stay longer than five days, but that rarely happens.”
“Everything we make is from scratch with real butter, sugar, and eggs - no big bags of mixes, premade jams or fillings, and no large buckets of frosting.””
“Our most popular cupcake is our founding HoHo cupcake, a chocolate cupcake filled with made-in-house whipped white cream and topped with chocolate ganache and a cherry. The other cupcake flavors—salted caramel, chocolate, peanut butter, and double chocolate chip—rotate, so you’ll never know which will be available.”
Toni & Kora Barnett 📷 Amber Rose Photography
But there’s more to Cupcakes & Kisses than cupcakes. Tart lemon bars, ooey, gooey brownies, cinnamon rolls, cheesecake and cake slices are also on the shelves. “Our most popular cake slice is carrot cake with cream cheese frosting. As far as cookies, our glazed-topped raspberry shortbread cookie, which is like a thumbprint cookie, and our no-bake cookies are fan favorites. I was first doubtful about the no-bake, but when you think about the cost of the ingredients and the time it takes to make an entire batch, when you only want one, it makes sense.” Other cookie flavors include lemon poppy seed, cookies and cream, chocolate chip, molasses, and oatmeal.
These days, Toni and Kevin’s two daughters, Kora and Kendra, who have graduated from high school, are working at the bakeries full-time. Younger brothers Koby and Kam are still in school, but they help out when they can.
What lies in store for Cupcakes & Kisses? We’ve been approached to franchise, but that’s in the future. Right now, we’re content to bring back struggling downtown areas and satisfy our customers' sweet tooth, one cupcake, cookie or cake slice at a time.”