Ep. 91: Edyn's Cake Pops: Baking Up Business

[00:00:00] Mall of America. It's home to world-class shopping, great dining, and amazing attractions and events. And these are our stories presented by Bloomington, Minnesota Travel and Tourism. Welcome to So Much More. I am Jill Renslow, your host for today's podcast, and you are in for a treat because we are talking with a young entrepreneur, only age 14 to be exact, named

[00:00:25] Eden Esparza. She joined us by starting to sell her cake pops in Nickelodeon Universe just recently, specifically at Coaster Cafe right in the middle of the park. And she has such a great story to share with all of you today. So joining the conversation is also our foods manager, Barb Ross-Hayes, who received this very special phone call just a few years ago from Eden. And we also have Eden's mom, Sharon, joining the show. So we are going to have so much fun. I'm excited to tell this story because

[00:00:54] it's very special and it really shows how different Mall of America is in the world of business and how we really want to connect with people who have dreams and help them come true. So welcome to So Much More, and we're going to jump right in. And I would love, Barb, for you to kick us off and talk about that day where you received a very special phone call from Eden. Yeah, absolutely. So we had just rebranded our coffee shop in the middle of the park to Coaster Cafe.

[00:01:19] And I was actually seeking cake pops. I was trying to find a vendor that we could get them sourced from. And my boss forwarded a voicemail to me that he had received from a young lady. So I listened to it and it was very sweet. It said, I'm a young entrepreneur. I would love to sell my cake pops at Nickelodeon Universe. I'm working on starting my own business and I would love to

[00:01:43] sell them. Please call me back. I had no idea how old that person was. I thought maybe a teenager or young adult. The voicemail was just so well-spoken. And so I called her back and was surprised when a tiny little voice on the other side answered the phone and we started having a conversation. And through that, I learned that at the time she was only 11 years old, which was just

[00:02:09] shocking to me because she was so well-spoken. She seemed to be very well put together and know what she needed to do. And so we kind of started just having a few conversations here and there, learning about what kind of licensing she would have to acquire for us to sell her product in the park. Since we're selling to the general public, we can't just bake things in our kitchen at home and

[00:02:33] bring them here to sell them. We have a lot of steps to follow through on. So that led to this long journey. It's been about two years since we've been in discussions. And through that, I've learned a lot as well throughout the process of what kind of licensing you need to get to become a wholesaler. And I worked with her along the way to learn about food safety, make sure she knew the proper handling and the rest is kind of history. Here we are.

[00:03:02] Well, thanks to you for being an amazing mentor and for answering that phone call, because I believe you forgot a detail. There wasn't a phone number on that voicemail. There was not a phone number. I had to kind of dig around and search for the phone number. Thankfully, since it was in my email, I kind of pieced it together and was able to find it. But yeah, there was not a phone number left in that voicemail. That's remarkable. It was really... I'm glad that I took that call. It was maybe one of my favorite phone calls I've

[00:03:29] taken that. And I loved hearing this story because just about a year ago, was it, I think, is when Eden, you came in with your family to present this amazing idea. And you just brought so much joy to all of us for us to be able to work with you and to make this happen. But what was it that inspired you to make that phone call to Barb that day? I think it was the idea of just wanting to share with a larger audience of people, just wanting to put a smile on, especially like toddlers and their parents' faces.

[00:03:59] Because I believe your parents didn't even know that you were going to make that phone call. And they came home that day and you said, hey, I called an executive at Mall of America. And I can imagine as a parent, you're like, wait, what did you do? So talk a little bit about that. So how would that conversation go with your parents? So my dad was not home and my mom was downstairs. I went and told her, I'm just going to go call Mall of America. I'm going to ask if they want to sell cake pops. Mom's like,

[00:04:26] you've never made a cake pop before, but okay. And I'm like, I know, but I mean, how hard can it be? And so I go and call and my dad comes home and he's like, hi, what'd you do today? I'm like, oh, I call Mall of America. Why? I want to see if they want to sell my cake pops. That is fantastic. So Sharon, what a delightful young daughter that you have. And I mean, that's got to be just amazing for you as a mom to just see her success and her drive and her

[00:04:52] determination. So talk about your perspective of what Eden has accomplished already and how you've been able to support her in her journey. Thank you so much. Yeah. She is a very determined person. Even when she was little, very tiny, she'd make little Lego sets and she's like, nope, I want to finish it. She will not leave the table till she finishes it. So we knew she's, her dad and I knew that she's a determined person. And when she made that phone call,

[00:05:20] I didn't want to tell her don't because I'm like, I don't know if they're going to call back, but I didn't want to discourage her. And so she did the call, made the call and I'm like, I think you didn't leave the phone number. So we're like, well, let's see where this goes. It really makes us proud because she loves making people smile. I think that's what it is. It's bringing that joy to people and she enjoys it. I mean, when she was little,

[00:05:49] she'll turn on the camera on my phone and do her videos, cooking videos and all these things and always looking for ways to make food. And yeah, her dad and I are very proud of her, that she's really gone beyond her age, I think. But the support she has had from Barb and the team at Mall of America, it's been incredible. That has really made our heart happy

[00:06:17] because it's her dream and it's coming true, which is incredible. Well, you've been on a whirlwind. We've had you busy the last month or so as we've got it launched at Coaster Cafe and you've been doing media interviews. You've been on our social media channels. You're doing all the fun things. So is this exactly what you thought and more? Or what are you thinking about this journey? I thought, I definitely thought it would be something like this. I didn't expect all these

[00:06:44] interviews and it's so much more than I could have ever dreamed of. And I am just so happy to see like, when I come to the mall and see like families buying my cake pops, I'm just like, and I'm so happy to see them buying it. And doing and doing podcasts like these just show, just like prove how happy I am. That's fantastic. So I would love for you and Barb dial it back a little bit. So once Barb said, hey, let's do this. We're excited. And once we had the approval from the team,

[00:07:13] now you guys had to figure this out. And like you said, you hadn't made cake pops before. So how did this all transpire? And just kind of give us the rapid fire of like how you got from getting the go light, green light to go to where you're at today. Cause that was quite a journey and continues to be as you're selling in great numbers. So. Yeah. Well, we made that first phone call and there was a period of time, I think there were

[00:07:39] two or three months where I didn't actually hear back from Eden. We'd kind of given her her first mission, like to make this even possible, you're going to have to do these steps. So she did a food certification of, it's called the food certified food protection manager training course, which is required by the state of Minnesota and the department of health. And it's a, it's an eight hour course. And then afterwards you take a full exam. And this exam is not easy

[00:08:05] because you don't know the range of questions that they're going to ask you. A lot of them are related to like a full service restaurant where you're dealing with raw meat and handling raw fish and things like that. And that's not necessarily our, our product here at Nickelodeon universe. So versus cotton candy and popcorn and Dippin' Dots, all those like classic fair and theme park snacks

[00:08:30] that you're used to getting. So it was definitely a feat for her to even take that test. It sounds like I believe she had to do a proctored exam. So she had to show around the room over her laptop on like a zoom call where there was nobody in there with her. She didn't have any notes with her. Um, it's a pretty difficult exam. Like it's tough for me and I'm don't look forward to the day I have

[00:08:56] to take it again. So just cause you just don't know what they're going to ask. Um, so she took that step. Uh, we've, we did a lot of research. I reached out to our partners in here in Bloomington, our health inspector to kind of get more guidance on where we needed to head to make this possible. Um, and they were very helpful, very supportive. And then, uh, few months go by, uh, Eden gave me another call. We have our licensing. We learned that it wasn't quite the license that we needed

[00:09:26] to be able to sell her product here in the park. Uh, it was the Minnesota cottage license, which is great for small batch bakers who are just starting their own businesses. Um, but to sell product to our clientele in the park, the general public, we needed to go a bit higher. So, uh, we had more steps to take. She got into in touch with the department of agriculture. She had to have an

[00:09:49] inspector with them. She was required to secure a commercial kitchen to prepare the cake pops in. Uh, can't just bake them in our household kitchen, unfortunately. Um, and then she registered her business as an LLC, which is just mind blowing and impressive for a 14 year old. Um, so throughout the process, there were a lot of steps, a lot of calling and hard work, and then waiting to hear back

[00:10:18] from inspectors and waiting for your results on your test. So it's a lot of really fast paced steps. And then you might not hear anything for a while. So it was touch and go for a while, but we knew we'd get here. Yeah. So, you know, what would you say was the most challenging step in the process? It would definitely be the service safe course test that eight hour course, and then it would have to be waiting for them to hear back from the MDA because they can take up

[00:10:47] two weeks or more to hear back. And service safe course, that was definitely difficult because like Barb said, it was majority things that I will never, well, that I would never work with in the baking business. And I have to, and I have to remember all like these temperatures and like these sanitation steps for how to handle meat and shrimp. And it took weeks. Hopefully not in the

[00:11:12] cake pops. Yes. No. I just took weeks and weeks of studying, but I was able to, but I was able to pass. Mm-hmm. Fantastic. So are cake pops now your favorite thing to bake or do you still have other things that you love to bake? Cake pops is not my favorite thing to bake. My favorite thing. I love the honesty. Yes. My favorite thing to bake is actually croissants and turning them into cinnamon rolls. So that's really fun. We might need to take a look at that.

[00:11:38] Oh my goodness. Yeah. She makes it from scratch. That too. Oh wow. Okay. Well, I have some fun questions for you that I would just love to know because I don't think you've been asked these on your other interviews. So if you could have any celebrity come to Mall of America in your Nick universe, try your cake pops, who would it be? Taylor Swift. Ooh, that was quick. You would have to think about that. Do you have like a special flavor that you would make for her

[00:12:03] if she had like a theme? Yeah. You told me that. It would be like lavender honey flavor. Lavender honey? Like lavender haze. Yes. I like it. I like it. Okay. What is the fastest you've ever had to make a batch of cake pops? Because Barb's calling you saying, Oh goodness. We need more. So what's the fastest turnaround that you've had to do? Like probably this, the last order, 600 cake pops and I had to make them in four days.

[00:12:32] Oh my goodness. So yeah. So that's, yeah. So that's how my schedule work, four days, 600 cake pops. So when you make the cake pops, are you doing this single-handedly or how do you process, like how do you produce that many in that short of a time? Plus going to school because you are in school. Do you have any employees? My parents are my employees. I pay them in good grades and hugs. So

[00:12:54] Oh, yes. She does. I love it. I love it. Okay. So have you had a total baking fail? Like have you burnt an entire batch, had wrong ingredients, had a cake pop explode, like anything like that? I don't, I don't think so. No. No. Okay. Well, hopefully I didn't jinx it.

[00:13:18] Okay. So if you weren't making cake pops, what other type of food business would you be in outside of croissants? Or if it would be croissants, if that's what you want to stick with? I would probably do vegan cookies. Wow. Specific flavor? Um, I would kind of do like a range of them. Okay. Because me personally, I'm vegan. I know it's so difficult to find vegan treats. Like after I found out I was allergic to dairy, I had to stop eating things like ice cream,

[00:13:48] cupcakes, cakes, and I'm like passing up on those. So sorry. I'm passing up on those things at parties. And it just, it kind of makes life more difficult and it kind of makes life more difficult for me. And if there was like pantry shelf vegan cookies, that would be so fun for people to have. That's great. I love that you're thinking about that. Um, okay. So last question in this category,

[00:14:11] what's one cake pop baking trick that most people don't know about? Cause there's a lot of us that like to open boxes and add water and stir, put it in a pan and cook, bake it. So do you have any tricks for making cake pops? A lot of people think that, that when you're like rolling out the cake

[00:14:36] pops, then you're, they're getting ready to dip that they are just cake itself. But I actually mix it with frosting, which is what other companies like Starburst and Caribou do. And so the trick is to add a bake cake, crumble it, and then mix it up with frosting and then you roll it out and then you, and then you dip it. Fantastic. So let's talk about these fabulous cake pops that are in front of us. So you have three different flavors that you're currently selling at Coaster Cafe and Nickelodeon

[00:15:02] Universe. So talk about these beautiful cake pops. So if you're not watching and you're listening, you'll have to tune into YouTube, but we'll try to describe them the best we can. So paint that picture for those that might just be listening. So talk about those three. Yeah. So, uh, so the best seller flavor is the green slime vanilla. So on the outside it is purple coating and then the inside it's like that Nickelodeon slime green color that everybody loves

[00:15:26] to see. And then it has orange sprinkles. And then the next flavor is purple velvet. And so inside it's kind of has like this like dark purple hue and it tastes very similar to red velvet because they have the same base, just different colors. And then outside it has more that Nickelodeon slime nineties color. And that has same orange sprinkles as the green slime. And then the next one is orange

[00:15:50] and purple velvet. So it's a layer of the purple velvet inside. And then around it is a, is a layer of orange cake. And then we have orange coating and then purple, and then purple sugar. That one's my favorite. It's so good. The orange and purple velvet. I love that orange flavored cake. It just makes it like a little more fresh, like spring tasting. I love it. What's your favorite

[00:16:14] Sharon? Mine is the slime. Yeah. Yeah. The vanilla slime. Yeah. Perfect. And which is your favorite? I personally love the purple velvet. I feel like it's a very, it's, it's like refreshing yet like very, like a comfort flavor. Perfect. Well, we have one for each of you. So that's perfect. And so next up, we're going to see if we can find the new flavor for you to, to invent. So I have a

[00:16:42] few different flavors on a list. So we're going to go around. So just say sweet or not. And so if we have some sweet ones, maybe they will inspire you for a new flavor. So Barb, I'm going to start with you. Cotton candy cake pop. Sweet or not? Sweet. Okay. Sharon, maple bacon cake pop. Sweet. There are certain people might want that. Okay. Strawberry cheesecake. Sweet. Okay. Barb,

[00:17:08] watermelon sugar, inspired by Harry Styles, of course. Of course. Sweet. Okay. Churro. Anything about a churro. Sweet. Yeah. Peanut butter and jelly. I don't, I personally, I've never had peanut butter and jelly sandwich. I've had peanut butter. I've had, I've had jam, but I've never had them like together in a sandwich. Oh my goodness. Could be interesting. But I know a lot of people

[00:17:36] would like, would like, you like the idea. So I'm going to say sweet. Okay. How about bubblegum? Barb. I'm going to say not. Okay. How about a matcha? Sweet chocolate. Sweet. Okay. Cereal milk. Not the leftover cereal milk. Well, it depends what kind of cereal is in it, right? If it's Fruity Pebbles or if it's Honey Nut Cheerios, like it's different. Okay.

[00:18:02] How about s'mores? Sweet. Okay. So these are a little bit more interesting. Okay. Pickle. Not. Sharon's saying not. We've got a lot of pickle fans in the office. I think they might, you know, sweet, salty. How about popcorn butter? There could be a popcorn flavor, but just plain light, just like a popcorn flavor. I would have to say not. Okay. How about pumpkin spice? Oh,

[00:18:30] wait. Pumpkin spice taco. Oh. Oh, what? That got, that got interesting. We got to mix it up. We got to mix it up. You know what? I'm going to say sweet. Okay. Lavender Honey. We had this kind of, this is on my list. Sweet. Okay. There's Taylor Swift all there. Avocado lime. That feels like a taco flavor, so I'm going to say no. Okay. How about, you had cotton candy before.

[00:18:55] What if you mix that with barbecue? Oh no. That's going to be a no. Spicy mango. Sweet. Sweet. How about a root beer float? Sweet. Yeah. And rosewater pistachio. Sweet. Okay. That sounds lovely. And last one, salt and vinegar. Not. Okay. So maybe those will inspire you for some

[00:19:19] other future, future ingredients. But I do want to go back to the fact of being, growing up in a family that has inspired you to be an entrepreneur. Talk about that, Sharon, about just your family and how you've been able to surround her with inspiration of what you guys have been a role model around for entrepreneurship. You also have a son, I believe, that's been an entrepreneur. And so talk a little bit about your family because I would like to also get into advice that you have for young entrepreneurs.

[00:19:49] So why don't you start, Sharon? Yeah. So it's, you know, the values that I think we were brought up, my husband and I, as children, and then what we taught our children, I think that's where it goes. And, you know, being a business that is going to make others happy, right? And then brings so much satisfaction to you as a person. So, you know, home staging business that we, my husband and I own,

[00:20:12] we bring some value to our clients and it makes them happy, brings good results that makes us happy. Because money will always follow when you do something good for others and that helps. So that's how we deal with it. And with her, her ability to be able to harness something that she enjoys, we're like, you know, keep doing what you're doing and let's see where it goes.

[00:20:40] Absolutely. Yeah. I love that. I love that. And what advice do you have for young entrepreneurs as you set out for your success? How can you inspire others to follow your footsteps? I would say to do research, pinpoint your goals, and really just work hard, keep working on prototypes, keep doing trial and error until you can get to the point where you want to be.

[00:21:07] That's great. And for our listeners and viewers, Barb, why don't you share where they can find Eden's Cake Pops if they want to come visit us at Mall of America and give one a shot? Of course. Yeah. So you can find her exclusively in Nickelodeon Universe. Currently, we have her product at the Coaster Cafe, which is a fun concept where it's a coffee shop meets theme parks. We have fun treats like soft serve and Dippin' Dots and now Eden's Cake Pops. And then on our busier days,

[00:21:37] you might even find her Cake Pops out at the other popcorn stands and small food stands throughout the park. So keep an eye out, but definitely Coaster Cafe is the main venue. So as a small surprise, we have a little gift for Eden today. So I'm going to have Barb present

[00:21:57] something special for Eden. So Barb, if you want to share with Eden what she's going to find in her little goodie bag from SpongeBob. So you can go ahead and open it up, but there is a card inside and there's something special attached to that card. So Eden, if you want to read it out loud.

[00:22:24] Show this card, Nickelodeon Universe, guest services, Nickelodeon shops, toys or gear to get your limited ride wristband. So you are now our newest annual pass holder at Nickelodeon Universe. And then there's a couple of other fun treats in there. I know you said Sandy was your favorite character. I love that. So I heard you've only been on a couple of rides in Nickelodeon Universe. So now with an annual pass, you have unlimited rides. So you are going to be able to come out here and

[00:22:53] have fun whenever you want, when you're not baking, of course, come out and enjoy the rides and to bring your family along. But we just really appreciate the opportunity to work with you and just congratulate you on having a big vision and we're happy to help. Thank you. Thank you both so much. You're welcome. So that's going to do it for this episode of So Much More. So definitely come out to Nickelodeon Universe at Mall of America to check out Eden's Cake Pops and grab a few for yourself and your friends and enjoy your day. Thanks for joining us.

[00:23:24] Thanks for listening to So Much More, a Mall of America podcast. Subscribe wherever you find your favorite podcasts. This show is presented by Bloomington, Minnesota Travel and Tourism. Bye.