New cupcake shop showcases sweet treats

ST. CHARLES – Those with a sweet tooth will find a variety of tempting treats at Smallcakes: A Cupcakery of St. Charles, which recently opened at 117 W. Main St., Suite 120, in downtown St. Charles.

Hinckley resident Tina Wackerlin and her husband, Eric, opened the franchise business on Sept. 12.

“I’ve always loved to bake,” Tina Wackerlin said. “If I had a choice of cooking a seven-course meal and seven different desserts, I’d pick the desserts.”

The St. Charles store is the second Smallcakes to open in Illinois. Jill Wackerlin-Watson, a cousin of Tina Wackerlin's husband, opened a Smallcakes store in March at 115 E. Ogden Ave. in Naperville.

The cupcakes are made fresh daily. Smallcakes offers 15 signature flavors, along with two different daily special flavors.

Cupcake lovers also might notice something different about the cupcakes at Smallcakes.

“They’re a larger cupcake than the normal-sized cupcake,” she said.

To fill the demand, Wackerlin and her other employees start baking at 5 or 6 a.m. and continue through early evening. The two most popular cupcakes at the store are the caramel crunch cupcake – chocolate cake with caramel frosting, topped with sea salt and pretzels – and the wedding cake cupcake, Wackerlin said.

“I like the caramel crunch cupcake as well,” she said. “I like caramel. The black tuxedo cupcake, which is almond frosting with chocolate cake, is also a good one.”

Smallcakes employee Emily Whittaker prefers the lemon drop cupcake.

“It’s really light and fresh, even for a cupcake,” she said.

The store is trying to take advantage of the nightlife in downtown St. Charles by staying open later. Smallcakes is open from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays, 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Sundays.

“There is a lot of foot traffic in this area and a lot of restaurants behind us,” Wackerlin said. “People stop in after they go to dinner, or to a sporting event. I feel if we weren’t open that late, that we’d be missing out on a lot of opportunities.”

The store offers both indoor and outdoor seating. Wackerlin also has catered different events.

She has an idea why cupcakes remain popular.

“A lot of people don’t want to order a whole cake, and cupcakes give you variety,” she said. “So, if you are having a party with 25 people, you can have different flavors, versus one flavor of a cake.”

Whittaker said she believes cupcakes also remain popular because of their nostalgia factor.

“They bring you back to your childhood,” Whittaker said. “They also bring people together. People try each other’s cupcakes all the time.”

That includes professionals working in offices, Wackerlin said.

“They will buy six or 12 for an office, and then they will all share them,” she said. “They don’t stand around the office water cooler any more; they are standing over someone’s desk sampling all the different cupcakes,” she said.

Besides cupcakes, the store sells other treats, such as sugar cookies, fudge, brownies, cake pops, caramel apples and birthday cakes. In addition, it sells hot chocolate, coffee, pop, milk and water.

“The franchise only does cupcakes, but I added the treats,” Wackerlin said. “Before we purchased the franchise, I asked if we could sell treats, because I wanted to sell cookies and pretzels and fudge and stuff like that. Not all the franchise stores do that.”

The store plans to make Christmas cookies for the upcoming holiday season and is gearing up for the Electric Light Parade that will march through downtown St. Charles on Saturday, Nov. 29.

For information, call the store at 630-587-2253 or at visit Smallcakes' Facebook page.