Posted by Redondo Beach Patch, CA on August 07, 2010 at 11:13:48:
From the Cheesecake Factory menu to a cable network show, and all of a sudden her cupcake business is doing triple.
By Sean Berard
Stefanie Gaxiola, 25 and lifelong resident of Redondo Beach, is quietly becoming nationally known for her Red Velvet Cupcakes. Gaxiola was recently featured on the Food Network's Cupcake Wars, a show where contestants compete with their culinary skills to determine the ultimate cupcake baker. She finished as a finalist.
For Gaxiola, baking has been a lifelong passion.
"When I was five years old I started baking with my mom," she said. "I got an Easy Bake oven and started baking with that. I would do little baking shows for me and my family."
From there, Stefanie's passion for baking grew. "When I graduated to the real oven I was doing cookies. Cupcakes have been more recent, probably in the last five years."
The discovery of red velvet cake, and the switch to cupcakes would lead to her first big break into professional baking.
"I had never really been super into cupcakes but I tried red velvet cake for the first time about five years ago and really liked it and wanted to figure out how to turn it into a cupcake," said Gaxiola.
In January of 2009, she caught wind that The Cheesecake Factory was having a competition called "What's your Flavor?" in search of a new variety of cheesecake. "They were looking for the next cheesecake and I thought why not red velvet cheesecake?" Gaxiola said.
Stefanie was right to think the country would love her red velvet cheesecake recipe, and amongst four other Cheesecake Factory contest finalists, Stefanie's cake won. "Of course mine won, it's red velvet!" exclaimed Gaxiola. "It's on the menu now permanently. It's Stefanie's Ultimate Red Velvet Cake Cheesecake and it'll be on the menu forever now!"
This break started Gaxiola's stream of success, and gave her the nickname and company name "Red Velvet" Stefanie.
The victory garnered newfound attention for Gaxiola, and led to an influx of public interest. Seizing the opportunity to capitalize on the situation, Gaxiola, along with her boyfriend and business partner Jason Heard began to brainstorm.
"I talked to Jason, and he was like, 'What makes sense? What could we do?' Cupcake mixes seemed to be decent," Gaxiola said. "You can run a commercial kitchen and get your food handlers certificate for pretty cheap. We got a cheap little Yahoo! website, put it up, and we got a bunch of orders."
The success of the initial website led to the creation of RedVelvetStefanie.com.
Gaxiola's friend sent her a Craig's List ad for Cupcake War contestants in March.
"I applied and they literally called me five hours later when I was at work," Gaxiola said. "I was like, oh my God! And they asked if I could come in for the audition the next day, and bring two of my favorite cupcakes, which are red velvet and Snickerdoodles."
Stefanie brought Jason with her to the interview, which proved to be a good move. The producers liked their chemistry and invited them to compete in Cupcake Wars, where they came in second place.
"I had a blast. I had so much fun the whole time. It was pretty awesome," she said.
Even though they didn't win, there is no bitterness. "Sweet Arlene, the winner of my episode, I'm actually friends with her and her baking assistant now," said Gaxiola. "I'm supposed to go to one of their parties this weekend."
Regardless of the results, the appearance has been extremely beneficial. Since it was announced that the couple was to appear on the program, their website sales more than tripled.
"Before the show we probably did like 100 [orders] a week. The average order is about $90. Since then it's been triple that," Gaxiola said. "Since they put me in their press release, which was late April, it's been triple. This whole last week has been insane, I don't even know, I can't even keep track. I'm just trying to keep my head on it's probably five times what I was doing."
With the newfound attention and success, Gaxiola is approaching her goal of having her own storefront, which seems a bit out of order for a baker who's already garnered so much attention. Belmont Shore and Huntington Beach are amongst her top choices of location.
"We're doing window shopping for store fronts in two weeks." said Gaxiola.
It's doesn't seem Gaxiola has plans of slowing down anytime soon. "I want to open a bakery, and I want to have my own baking show, or host a show, which would be awesome." She said.
This may become a reality, since recently Stefanie and Jason were approached by a reality TV company, and a pilot is in the works.
When it comes to baking, this Redondo Beach resident takes the (cup)cake.
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