NAVARRE — Most people get a craving for some sweets every now and then.
A new catering business based in Navarre looks to satisfy those cravings.
Kate Sharrett Mast started CRAVE: cupcakes last year out of her home after the state Legislature approved the cottage food law last year. The business serves the Navarre, Fort Walton Beach and Destin areas.
“I’ve always loved to cook,” Mast said. “My dad just really instilled a love of cooking in me and all the kids in my family at an early age.
“I don’t feel like I’m very artistic until it comes to cupcakes,” she added. “I’m not like an artsy person. I can’t paint picture to save my life, but I love making the fondant designs.”
The new law allows individuals to make and sell cottage food products such as cakes, cookies and pies as long as the items are packaged correctly and all the ingredients are labeled.
After a recent move, Mast said she is trying to grow her business in the Navarre and Gulf Breeze area because there are no other bakeries there that focus on cupcakes.
CRAVE: cupcakes come in numerous flavors, and that’s one of the things that sets it apart. There are popular flavors such peanut butter cup, spicy chocolate and Italian crème.
Mast said her most popular product is her cocktail cupcakes.
“It’s kind of trendy, but it’s really fun to do,” Mast said. “Just take any of your favorite cocktail and turn it into a cupcake.”
Cocktail cupcakes include lemon lush, which uses a lemon liqueur, and strawberry dream, which is vanilla cake with champagne-soaked strawberry filling and topped with strawberry champagne buttercream. And then there’s Mast’s favorite, whiskey caramel crunch, which is a chocolate Kahlua cake topped with whiskey caramel buttercream and rolled in toffee bits.
Mast also takes requests and will design a cupcake based on her clients’ favorite desserts.
“The part I love about doing it is that I’m making other foods into cupcakes,” Mast said.
“I try to get three components and flavors so that I have something crunchy, something smooth and something cakey all in the same thing,” she added. “I feel like that’s the magic number. If I can get three different textures in a cupcake it usually works out pretty well.”
Mast accepts cupcake orders by the dozen through cravecupcakes850@gmail.com. She also sells cupcakes individually on Friday nights at La Paz in Destin, where she is a bartender.
“I’m really interested in becoming a full-scale caterer, but I figured this would be a good way to get my foot in the door and kind of move in to the industry a little bit at a time,” Mast said. “I’m hoping to expand it eventually into CRAVE: catering.”
