Midd Cakes: A Taste of Business

If you haven’t eaten one yet, chances are you probably have seen the sweet cupcake creations of MiddCakes somewhere on campus. Perhaps you spied their icing coiffures standing sweetly in Wilson Café (their most popular selling post), or got a whiff of their sugary goodness at the Grille or Crossroads. You may have seen them at college events hosted by MCAB or For the Kids, and starting this year, you may have even come into close proximity with the delectable desserts at a friend’s birthday party or special event.

Now in their third year of production, MiddCakes, the student-run cupcake business operating through the College, seems to be everywhere. Founders Emily Fields ’16.5, Caroline Guiot ’16 and Katie Chamberlain ’16 began to see the potential of selling their cupcakes to the student body after their active baking repeatedly resulted in surplus desserts. They contacted members of the administration, saw their business idea through, and now support a team of nine student employees (eight bakers and one social media coordinator).

Recently, MiddCakes expanded to accommodate a special order service, which allows private parties to order cupcakes through the Box Office for pickup.

“For orders, we just followed the models that were already in place for the Grille, and that was a pretty easy transition, I would say,” Fields said. “It would have been a lot harder if we were doing deliveries for it, which is something we’re hoping to get into, because there’s a lot of parent interest. But at the moment it’s a big undertaking and financially it doesn’t make sense for us to do quite yet.”

Also new to MiddCakes this year is a bit of rebranding led by Fields, who manages marketing with help from Andrew Stickney of the Vermont Center for Emerging Technologies; the cupcakes feature all new names, like MiddCoreo, Proctor Crush, Sunday Funday and Basic Batch.

MiddCakes’ well-deserved success comes in large part through its recognition by and cooperation with the College. The campus cafes act as retailers and the Grille — MiddCake’s staff’s official employer—coordinates its supply orders and provides kitchen space. But while MiddCakes is the only business organization of its kind on campus, it is not the only case of students wishing to sell food goods at the college. Last winter, a group of students taking the Middlebury Entrepreneurs J-Term course endeavored to sell kombucha-based energy drinks at Crossroads café, and several years ago, an underground midnight burrito service based out of Atwater was forced to shut down by college officials.

Fields and Chamberlain agree that there is a strong student interest in food service entrepreneurship.

“There have been a lot of pop-up food entrepreneurs that haven’t been able to follow through with their vision because there really isn’t a space to do it,” said Chamberlain, who is head of operations at MiddCakes. “For us it was quite a process … because there are a lot of issues with selling food and perishable goods. So there was some red tape around that. We had to do a ton of meetings.”

“You really need a certified kitchen and there aren’t very many on campus that are available at the moment,” Fields added. “The College doesn’t quite have the resources to support all these different food businesses. They would really like to but it’s tough to do that.”

What the College may lack in infrastructure, it makes up for in human resources. Fields and Chamberlain encourage students interested in food entrepreneurship on campus to seek advice and support from the administration, (like the Associate Dean of Students for Student Activities and Orientation, JJ Boggs) and groups like Midd Core, Midd Entrepreneurs, Midd Start Adventures and others that support business ideas with small grants and consultations.
“There are a lot of people here and it’s great to get in touch with them and talk to them. You could come up with a lot more ideas,” Fields encouraged.