By Julia Train
During the pandemic, there wasn’t much to do. It was common to take on new hobbies, and one of the most popular ones was baking.
While some stopped with them as the world transitioned out of lockdown and back to normalcy, others stuck with theirs. A few even turned them into businesses. Cindy Capritti is amongst those who continued pouring into their hobbies.
Capritti, an investment professional, created a part-time cupcake business by teaching herself how to decorate the desserts via YouTube tutorials.
Baking cupcakes may seem easy, but hers are different. They’re iced to look like real flowers.
She watched videos that taught her how to make tulips, roses and sunflowers and how to mix buttercream to make the icing a realistic flower color.
“I couldn’t really go out, and I love to bake, and I love to cook, and I really needed something to keep me busy and it really reduced stress for me,” Capritti said, explaining why she chose baking as a hobby. “My mother was a stained glass artist, and my grandmother was an oil painter. So I guess the art thing runs in the family a bit.”
Her love of cake stems from her youth. Capritti mentioned that she was raised to bring a gift, like cake, when someone is sick, when there’s a funeral or when someone new moves to the neighborhood.
As if the realistic flowers aren’t enough to wow potential customers, Capritti also creates a spin on the regular dozen. Instead of putting them in a box, she arranges the cupcakes into a bouquet.
“It’s really leaning toward more of a gift item than a food item because it’s just something a little bit different that people don’t see all the time,” she said.
In May 2022, her business took off after she created an extravagant dessert table for her daughter-in-law’s bridal shower.
After the event, several people asked her to make them cupcakes. So, she decided to get certified to be a home baker through the State of New Jersey Department of Health.
Now that she has the needed legal materials, Capritti still works at Edelman Wealth Management, as she has for the past 30 years. However, when she gets home, she bakes.
“I bake very late into the night and on the weekends. And sometimes I’m working a lot because if I have a bridal shower coming up, I’ll work till 6 p.m. or 7 p.m. at my regular job and then come home and start baking, but when when you do something that you love it’s not really work,” she said.
If you’re interested in purchasing cupcakes, contact Capritti through Instagram: @Sindcsweets
Julia is a student at Rider University, majoring in multiplatform journalism with a minor in social media strategies. At school, she writes and copy edits for The Rider News and is the News Director for the radio station, producing news updates. She’ll be graduating in the spring. Connect with her on Instagram @juliatrain
