We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Amy Mucha a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Amy, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Let’s start with a story that highlights an important way in which your brand diverges from the industry standard.

When you think of a cake pop, you imagine a spherical piece of cake on a stick. We had upended the traditional form of cake pops, and have instead moved to flat pops. The efficiency of making 2d pops instead of 3d has been game changing for our business. We are able to roll out the dough (just like in making cut out cookies), use our 3D-printed cutters to cut out specific shapes, and then we’re able to lay down all the pops on baking sheets and decorate them all at once now!

Amy, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

In 2011, Amy Mucha’s mother-in-law bought her a cake pop recipe book, simply because the book contained instructions to make a koala cake pop (if you know Amy, you know that she’s obsessed with koalas). The koala cake pops were the starting point of making cake pops for friends and family for fun. However, when her kids Peter, Charlie, and Daisy (the company’s namesake) came around, the cake pop hobby got pushed to the back burner.

Fast forward to 2016, and Amy pulled cake popping out of her back pocket to make preschool teacher gifts. They were so well received that some friends suggested she sell them, and that’s when the cake pop ball seriously got rolling (pun intended).

In the spring of 2018, Amy and one of her current high school math students sat down one evening, decided to make a logo and social media pages for Daisy Pops. For a couple years, Amy continued teaching high school math at Cuyahoga Valley Christian Academy, raising her three kiddos, making cake pops as a side hustle, and rolling her eyes at people whenever they would ask “Are you going to quit teaching to do cake popping?”

But then in 2020 Covid came and simultaneously 1) stripped away the relational parts of teaching that she loved and 2) made individually wrapped treats very POPular. After many months of discussions, tears, and prayers, Amy made the tough decision to retire from teaching in May 2021 and take on full-time cake popping–and no regrets so far!

In April of 2023, Daisy Pops was finally able to make the move from Amy’s house to a cute space in downtown Kent where they have a retail Pop shop, as well as a commercial bakery where their dozen pop artists can work together on cranking out 2,600+ cake pops a week.

The goal of Daisy Pops is to add a little extra joy to our customers’ days one cake pop at a time, so seeing the smiles on people’s faces after enjoying a pop is the sweetest reward.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

It was a pretty big pivot moving from full-time teaching to running a brick and mortar Pop Shop!

Can you share one of your favorite marketing or sales stories?

I was attending a breakfast where the CEO of the Akron Marathon was the speaker, and afterwards I went up to her, introduced myself, and handed her some Akron Marathon Logo Pops. The next day she called me to order 600 Akron Marathon pops for their big anniversary celebration the next week!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.daisypops.com
• Instagram: @daisypops_cakepops
• Facebook: @daisypopskent

Image Credits
EmiLee Hartman Photography