It’s a funny coincidence for dessert shop Cupcake Allie to be located in an alley, but it was fate that drew owner Allison Offner to establish the shop.
For Offner, a University alumna, Cupcake Allie has been a work in progress and is now garnering community attention.
The business venture began by accident after Offner and her mother put on a Christmas party at her parents’ house. She had been experimenting with baking in her free time and ended up baking mini cupcakes of every flavor she had available for the party.
Once the party ended, guests were leaving with Tupperware containers full of cupcakes, placing orders and writing checks. This feedback made Offner realize she possessed a skill she could turn into a career.
“I guess creating things has always been my strong suit,” Offner said. “I love to bake, and it just started out as a hobby.”
From there, Offner began working out of her mother’s kitchen on days when she wasn’t working as a corporate flight attendant for Dow Chemical Company.
After five years of growing the business and establishing a clientele, she took the big leap and bought her current shop, located at 3753 Perkins Road.
Cupcake Allie’s menu includes a range of sizes and flavors, including usuals such as golden vanilla, wedding cake, birthday cake, cookies n’ cream and red velvet. Other flavors include fruits and nuts, chocolates and some seasonal varieties. The store also carries “Back Allie” cupcakes, which are infused with select alcohols.
The recipes are a combination of classics and innovations, and Offner said she enjoys pushing the limits on what she’s able to create.
This is shown through the “Summer Pie” cupcake based on Offner’s fiancé’s great-grandmother’s recipe.
There is also a “Deconstructed Strawberry Balsamic” cupcake, inspired by a meal Offner had on a food trip to Oregon.
“We were eating a fresh summer salad with spinach, strawberries, feta and pecans,” Offner said. “I thought ‘Man, if you scrap this green stuff, it could be a really good cupcake.’”
The cupcake consists of vanilla cake, strawberry mascarpone frosting and a balsamic reduction with feta and pecans. It won third place in the 2014 Fête Rouge dessert category.
Next month, her new crawfish bisque cupcake will be featured at CrawFête.
To gather inspiration and promote her business, Offner has developed a strong Pinterest and Instagram presence and following.
“You can really draw inspiration from any and everything,” Offner said. “I post some of our stuff on there, and then see other people’s ideas and figure out how to turn it into my own.”
About eight months ago, Offner began baking cupcake bites — cake batter and frosting combinations of any usual cupcake blended together and dipped in chocolate — due to the high demand.
The cupcake bites’ popularity has grown so much that they are now featured in both Calandro’s Supermarkets, Calvin’s Bocage Market, Maxwell’s
Market, Monjuni’s Italian Café and Grocery, both Oak Point Fresh Markets and all of the Ralph’s Markets and Rouses Supermarket locations.
“We are gearing up for enormous production with [the cupcake bites],” Offner said.
Offner is proud of the other partnerships the shop has with organizations in the city.
Recent pairings have been with Bite and Booze media company operator Jay Ducote, Tin Roof Brewery and Cajun seasoning company Slap Ya Mama.
Through these collaborations, Offner created an “Apple Bacon BBQ” cupcake using Ducote’s signature barbeque sauce to make the caramelized frosting, an “Irish Car Bomb” cupcake made with one of Tin Roof’s signature beers and gumbo and crawfish bisque cupcakes with Slap Ya Mama.
In addition, Cupcake Allie owns a food truck which makes regular appearances in downtown Baton Rouge during lunchtime.
The truck participates in the Baton Rouge Food Truck Wroundup on Wednesday nights downtown.
Offner’s future goal is to open a second location and have it be more of a boutique-style restaurant where customers can go after dinner for a sophisticated dessert atmosphere.
You can reach Ashlyn Rollins on Twitter @ash_r96.

Gallery • 4 Photos

Charles Champagne

A strawberry balsamic cupcake and other special varieties are on display at Cupcake Allie Thursday, March 19, 2015 located on Perkins Road.