Just Baked

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When she put up the "open" sign again the next day and sold twice as many, Pam told her husband, Todd, they had to open their own cupcake store.

The first Just Baked opened in early 2009 in their wholesale bakery. A year later, Just Baked sells 7,000 cupcakes a week out of two stores, and the Turkins opened a third location in Westgate in mid-February. They'll open a fourth in Royal Oak this spring and are on track to add two more later this year.

Pam, forty-seven, used to work in marketing and advertising, a job that took her all over the country. A couple of years ago she noticed that cupcake stores were popping up on both coasts. An amateur baker whose cupcakes were popular with family, friends, and coworkers, she decided to give selling them a shot. She spent a year experimenting with recipes, then started selling what she describes as gourmet, jumbo cupcakes out of her kitchen at home. When several stores asked if they could carry them, she knew her home-baking days were over and moved the operation into a former German bakery that still had a working kitchen with baking ovens.

"Everything we do, we do from scratch," Pam says. "There's no artificial flavor, no shortening, and we make our own buttercream...and use real fruits and juices for flavoring."