Traveling through Boston with sweets on board since the summer of 2010, the Cupcakory cupcake bus has made its way to the Boston University campus.
The cupcake trend hit Boston in October of 2009 with a sprinkling of cupcake stores opening throughout the city, but none were mobile until Diane DeMarco launched her bus in July of 2010.
“Cupcakes are fun and associated with a celebration,” DeMarco said in a phone interview. “They give people a little bit of happiness that I think has been missing since the recession. I wanted to bring a bit of something fun back.”
After parking at locations throughout Brookline and Coolidge Corner, the Cupcakory made the first of many visits to the BU campus on Friday, parking outside of Landry’s Bicycles on St. Paul Street from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m.
“As I was traveling around one day I drove by and saw a couple of kids coming out of a building and I realized it was BU campus. So I thought college kids and cupcakes would go well together,” Demarco said.
DeMarco thought right. A line of about 40 people ran down St. Paul Street, all waiting to take a bite of a cupcake.
“I went to the New England dessert showcase to try the Cupcakory cupcakes, but they were all out by the time I got to the truck,” said Jenny Tran, 18, who works at a local car dealership. “I really wanted to try them so I heard on Facebook that the truck was going to be here. I love cupcakes and watch Cupcake Wars on the Food Network all the time and really wanted to try the cupcakes.”
Many of the customers heard about the Cupcakory’s location through social networking and word of mouth.
“I heard about it through Boston Tweet, my main source of information,” said Kim Lyons, a College of Communication graduate school alumna. “It’s delicious and I’m really excited that the Cupcakory has finally come over to Commonwealth Ave…it’s a really nice way to get out of the office on Fridays.”
“I heard about Cupcakory on Twitter through someone at school, I then checked it out online,” said Rachel Cox, a graduate student in COM. “So then my roommate walked by the bus, saw it and said get your butt down there and get us some cupcakes.”
Offering a variety of flavors, such as salted caramel, strawberry frosted, lemon and vegan chocolate, DeMarco bakes the cupcakes fresh every day with organic ingredients.
“The flavors just come to me through a lot of trial and error,” DeMarco said. “I think of flavors I like and that’s how a lot came about. I love caramel and tried many combinations with it. I tried a caramel cake and it didn’t come out well so I decided to make a caramel frosting.”
The idea to start the business started after DeMarco lost her job at a textbook publishing company.
“The job I wanted was no longer there so I wanted to do some I always loved,” she said.
After thinking about opening a café and bakery, DeMarco decided to Google creative bakery business ideas. When she saw that there was a cupcake truck in New York she realized it was the perfect idea.
“I thought how brilliant, Boston has no food trucks and it’s a fantastic way to bring cupcakes to eager people,” DeMarco said.
DeMarco plans to come back to the St. Paul Street location weekly, but may change the time and day the bus comes.
“We are absolutely definitely going to come back to BU,” DeMarco said. “Currently we’re in the process of figuring out a definite day and time.”
The Cupcakory bus posts its location on Twitter.
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