Tasting Arcadia

Episode 25 - Nothing Bundt Cakes

• Karen Mac Nair • Season 2 • Episode 25

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The sweetest episode of Tasting Arcadia with Karen Mac Nair has arrived! We're diving fork-first into the delicious world of Nothing Bundt Cakes with owner Ingrid, who shares the heartwarming story behind her successful bakery business in the San Gabriel Valley. 

For more information and tickets to the Taste of Arcadia visit TasteOfArcadia.com.

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John Villa:

Welcome to Tasting Arcadia, the official podcast of Taste of Arcadia. Taste of Arcadia is an all-inclusive event featuring food and drinks from the San Gabriel Valley restaurants, all for one price Sample food, wine, beer and spirits. Check out our brand new cars, visit our business showcase booths, smile at our photo booth and shake it on the dance floor with me, john Villa from Dance Syndicate DJ Entertainment. Taste of Arcadia is September 13th at Santa Anita Park. The fun goes from 2 to 6 pm, with special VIP entrance at 1 pm. Don't forget this isa 21 and over event. Get your tickets today at tasteofarcadia. com. Now let's hear it for our host, Karen McNair.

Karen Mac Nair:

Thanks, John. It's so exciting to have you as part of our team and do that great introduction for me. And, talking about Taste of Arcadia, I'm so happy that everyone is here on the podcast Tasting Arcadia. So everyone who has a sweet tooth, this is the day for you. I'm here with Ingrid, who is the bakery owner of Nothing Bundt Cakes. Welcome, Ingrid, thank you, so excited that you're here. I'm excited.

Ingrid Kuo:

This is my first podcast.

Karen Mac Nair:

Yay. Those of you watching on YouTube, you can see the wonderful spread in front of us. I'm very excited. So let's start off. Tell us a little bit about your business.

Ingrid Kuo:

So I'm a bakery owner of Nothing Bundt Cakes, which is a national franchise. We have over 700 locations in the United States and I have three of them here Pasadena, Rosemead, and the newest one is in Monrovia that we just opened in March Wow.

Karen Mac Nair:

Yes, how did you decide to get into this business?

Ingrid Kuo:

I grew up in the restaurant business with my family.

Karen Mac Nair:

Okay.

Ingrid Kuo:

And about just over 10 years ago, my father and I who was the restaurateur? We wanted to look into some other opportunities here in California. Okay, and so we tasted the cakes and thought it was fabulous and I said why don't we have one here in this area? And so then I submitted my interest to Nothing Cakes, and it was a very quick evaluation process and then I was approved. So we opened Pasadena 10 years ago.

Karen Mac Nair:

Wow, congratulations Round of applause for that, thank you. 10 years, yes, and there was that little hiccup year in there too. Oh, yeah. Sure, that was fun, that was tough. So your Monrovia location, where is it exactly?

Ingrid Kuo:

So our physical address is 526 West Huntington Drive. It's in the big shopping plaza called Huntington Oaks where the Trader Joe's, the Crunch Fitness, the Kohl's is located, and we're in that corner, right next to Sola, on the cold side great, so I can work out, buy some food, get nothing but cakes and get a new pair of paints all in one stop shop, okay I love that.

Karen Mac Nair:

Um, you shared a little bit about your dad, and are you the only owner in this one with your, with your dad? You guys are still owners together.

Ingrid Kuo:

My father passed away not long after we had opened the first location, so he didn't get to see our dream of opening multiple locations. So I am the primary owner. My family has some shares in it of course. But I run the business mainly with my management team and the bakery staff.

Karen Mac Nair:

You know, ingrid, it's been great doing these podcasts and all these episodes. We have found a family tie. I should go back and count like how many people talk about the family tie that is connected, definitely, where it's parents, siblings inspiration, even creating things, just the family inspiration of it, which I love because, even though you're a franchise, it's great for people to know your story that it still has that small business touch absolutely.

Ingrid Kuo:

It's very important to us to have that connection because we are not a national corporate office running multiple locations. We are, you know, local here to the community. I live here in the community and I know our market, I know our, our guests.

Karen Mac Nair:

It's very important if you're like us, I'm sure you go out to eat until someone tells you about their favorite flavor.

Ingrid Kuo:

And then you see the cakes being brought into the restaurants a lot that is so good, um, okay.

Karen Mac Nair:

So question now is what is your favorite? And now you refer to them as flavors, right, because obviously they're all bundt cakes. Yes, correct, so each one is a flavor. So what is your favorite? And now you refer to them as flavors, right, because obviously they're all Bundt cakes. Yes, correct, so each one is a flavor. So what is your favorite?

Ingrid Kuo:

flavor, so my favorite flavor is no longer on the menu.

Karen Mac Nair:

Merp, merp, merp, sad, very, very sad.

Ingrid Kuo:

Oh sad that was our pecan praline and I know that quite a few people did love that flavor. But I am happy to say that I've seen some former flavors make their re-emergence recently.

Karen Mac Nair:

Oh, good so.

Ingrid Kuo:

I'm hopeful.

Karen Mac Nair:

Okay, so which ones? For all the people who love anything you could share.

Ingrid Kuo:

Earlier this year we brought back Pineapple Upside Down. That was a huge hit. I know that next year one other flavor which I cannot name yet, that people love, drumroll yay is going to come back and make a visit.

Karen Mac Nair:

So I know we have a couple special things to try today, but if I want to watch what's going on, should I follow you on social media? How do I know what flavors are coming the best way?

Ingrid Kuo:

to know all of the activities happening at Nothing but Cakes is to be in our email club, oh, okay so you can go on our website nothingbutcakescom and then sign up for the e-club and that's where all the promotions, all the announcements will be.

Ingrid Kuo:

But, we also have an app, which is really nice because the app is now also rewards tied. So every time you make a purchase you get points, and then you can trade the points in for free product or a discount. And then there can be some you know, last minute things like oh, today is National Chocolate Day, Come in for a chocolate chocolate chip, Right, and then you get an extra bonus of points.

Karen Mac Nair:

Oh my gosh, that is so smart, it's really fun bonus of points.

Ingrid Kuo:

oh my gosh, that is so smart. Yeah, it's really fun. So your email and your uh app should all be on the same email address, and then you get all the same benefits.

Karen Mac Nair:

Love that, yeah, okay, so we're going to learn more about flavors and some things that are coming question. I ask a lot because we talk about small business, big, big businesses. What is the best way as a community we can support you and make sure you're around for 10 more years?

Ingrid Kuo:

yes, so of course, traffic to the bakery, whether it's in person, online, okay, phone order, we want you to come into the bakery okay, I want you to skip us and go someplace else.

Karen Mac Nair:

Okay, so shop from the app, from the website, website, in person, phone call. There's tons of options. How can you not Now? You shared a little bit earlier. You have three locations now. Is there plans for the future? What's your future vision?

Ingrid Kuo:

Yes, so we are growing. Our fourth bakery will be in Montebello. We're anticipating an opening next month Yay, at the end of the month, hopefully.

Karen Mac Nair:

Okay, Karen, fun fact for everybody out there who knows me I went to Montebello high school.

Ingrid Kuo:

Yahoo, I'm so excited you're gonna be in montebello where the location is near. So we're going to be on on that wilcox and via campo corner where the um currently it's albertson's yes shopping mall. We're in that space right next to the post office. Okay, so the actual address will be 2545 via Campo.

Karen Mac Nair:

So if anyone goes to Topgolf or the golf course right, it's right there, correct you can stop get nothing but cakes, mm-hmm, um. And we're still supporting our community owner, which makes me excited. Yes, yay on that. So, ingrid, have you been at taste of arcadia before? I feel like you have many years. Oh my gosh, tell me a little about any stories back in the day.

Ingrid Kuo:

So fun, so much fun.

Karen Mac Nair:

I make it my number one job to always feed the dj oh my gosh, he's gonna be so happy about that, john, yes, he's gonna be there again. Good, he's gonna love that. Yeah, um what? What do you plan on bringing to taste of arcadia this year?

Ingrid Kuo:

so we will have our assortment of buntinis.

Karen Mac Nair:

I don't know what flavors yet, okay, but we will have buntinis so for the people listening, if I haven't been there, describe what is a buntini. Okay, can I show from here?

Ingrid Kuo:

yes, yes, yes, you can so buntinis are the smallest of our cake sizes, and they come by the dozen, okay, and so today we're going to sample these, and then the next size up is going to be the buntlet, which you also have one on your desk, oh yes, so this is a gift wrapped one, which is very nice. It's a very affordable gift, okay, and we can make these in single, doubles or triples.

Karen Mac Nair:

Meaning they stack on top of each other.

Ingrid Kuo:

Yes, and then we cellophane wrap them and you can choose your ribbon. Oh my goodness, you can choose a flower, it's great, and we have little flags that say like happy birthday or thank you and things like that.

Karen Mac Nair:

That is adorable yeah.

Karen Mac Nair:

And you pick your flavors, okay um, but you have the gluten-free one which, okay, I am gluten-free and it gives gluten's give me a headache, so it's not that big of a deal. I'm okay in life, but it is so great that I can have this whole whole thing. Sorry everybody out there, I can have this whole thing and it tastes wonderful. I have no side effects of things that other you know gluten products yes, can, yes, can have. So a standby. Now I'm going to ask a gluten-free flavor. I feel like there's three flavors, there's two, there's two.

Ingrid Kuo:

Okay, I don't know which one you have there. I have chocolate chip. Okay, chocolate chip cookie Cookie. So, it's supposed to be like a chocolate chip cookie. Okay, not like chocolate, chocolate chip cake Okay. Different flavor Okay. And then we have our gluten-free lemon raspberry.

Karen Mac Nair:

Okay, yes, oh, perfect. Is there ever special gluten-free flavors?

Ingrid Kuo:

It's very difficult to make our cakes the way we want them, to the standard and quality of excellence that we want in gluten-free. So those are the two that have surpassed all the tests Okay, and those will be consistently offered at our bakeries at least.

Karen Mac Nair:

Okay, thank you for the clarification too, because, like I say, no headaches yay any side effects that you have.

Ingrid Kuo:

This has already, yeah, helped me okay, we do have two more sizes so this one is the eight inch. Right here that's decorated and right here we have arcadia high school colors in time for the high school football season.

Karen Mac Nair:

So just describe that. It's the Bundt cake with the delicious piping of icing. Yes, with a red and yellow flower on top. Yep, with a football and an all-star flags and MVPs. Such a great thing. And as we're going back to school, take care of those teachers, coaches.

Ingrid Kuo:

Like this will get you a good seat in the football stadium. Okay, so this cake comes in eight inch size as well as 10 inch size.

Karen Mac Nair:

Just okay, a larger, larger size of this one wow, and if I want to have one special, how?

Ingrid Kuo:

soon, should I order it whatever? So we have cakes all the time in our bakery. Okay, you can walk in and you'll see a display case filled with cakes of different sizes and mostly our top selling flavors. But if you're looking for a flavor that isn't carried in the display case, we can have that ready for you very, very quickly.

Karen Mac Nair:

Okay, like 30 minutes to an hour, but gluten-free, you have what you have, right.

Ingrid Kuo:

Gluten--free. We only carry it in the buntlet size, the buntini size and eight inch cakes only. Okay, so we just have to stack, yes, and those you want, to the eight inch cakes you want to pre-order. Okay, pre-order that, yeah, so that we can have it ready so now, this is just confirmation.

Karen Mac Nair:

I need to download the app. Yes, so that I can pre-order and have it exactly and get points, and get points. Yes, and get points. Yes, oh, it's a double win. Yes, okay, it's tasting time. Yay, all right, this is what we do. Tell me a little about, well, announce what is a flavor.

Ingrid Kuo:

I'm tasting. Yes, okay, so we just announced yesterday a very special marketing collaboration with Snickers. Ooh In time for the NFL season.

Karen Mac Nair:

That is amazing. The box is adorable too it's a blue box.

Ingrid Kuo:

It looks like a football so huge for us.

Karen Mac Nair:

Yay.

Ingrid Kuo:

And we have a national spokesperson who you will see on all of our social media and advertisements on mainstream platforms Erin Andrews, really, yes. And so we got to meet her at our national conference in July. She came out to talk to us and how excited she is to be our very first spokesperson who represents our brand, because she's a female. She's in sports yeah, loves our product. She hosts parties yeah. So this is like a win win collaboration.

Ingrid Kuo:

Love that so we just started this yesterday and it will be around till the middle of august october okay and what we brought today is the snickers bontinis. Oh, my gosh, if you order a full dozen, you can also have the accoutrements on top. Okay, but this is super special because it's um. We've been working with a lot of the candy brands and now this one is our snickers so what? Is the cake?

Ingrid Kuo:

it's a chocolate chocolate chip cake okay and then it has caramel drizzled on top, with candies inside and on top of it okay, I'm gonna take a bite of one after I just did the whole I'm gluten-free story.

Karen Mac Nair:

Are you people out there laughing? Okay, I, I'm just going to taste. And then I'm going to have a taste, as well, yay, so we have the chocolate cake, the wonderful piped icing.

Ingrid Kuo:

Yes, it's our signature cream cheese frosting.

Karen Mac Nair:

Wonderful. And then it looks like someone took a Snickers and smashed it and put nice little sprinkles on top.

Ingrid Kuo:

Can I take a picture of you? Yes, all right, awesome, I'll smile.

Karen Mac Nair:

I'll try to keep talking while smiling. Yay, okay.

Ingrid Kuo:

This is so fun, I'm going to take it this way too. Here we go.

Karen Mac Nair:

And then on the top is a little flag that says Snickers, official chocolate sponsor of the NFL. Don't roll, love it. Okay, we're going to taste Okay. Okay, we're going to taste, okay, cheers.

Ingrid Kuo:

Cheers, mmm, mmm.

Karen Mac Nair:

It tastes like the candy. It does Mm-hmm, and the cake is so soft. Mm-hmm it's probably the way they always taste it, just all of our cakes have the signature moistness in it.

Ingrid Kuo:

They're not dry and they're actually not over sweet. The frosting gives it that sweetness, yes, but if you're somebody who is not, um, really into a very sweet dessert, just the cake, that's probably why or one of the reasons I really enjoy it too.

Karen Mac Nair:

What I love about this is, yes, I taste snickers, but I also taste nothing but cakes. Yes, it is not um, just one, because sometimes when you have a dessert, it feels overpowering by that one flavor and it doesn't. It really tastes like both? Um flavors are present which is nice and it tastes like you could eat a dozen without thinking about it. Very dangerous, I know. So then you go to the gym that's down the street that's right and you're able to see um the large cake in front of us.

Karen Mac Nair:

We don't have to open them all, but I just um what type of cake is the red one? Red velvet?

Ingrid Kuo:

okay, it's also a top selling flavor for us. It is um our crowned with our signature cream cheese frosting as well okay but our red velvet is really really good, very popular and it does have chocolate chips in it wow, it looks really good.

Karen Mac Nair:

Don't you have a birthday cake?

Ingrid Kuo:

one confetti, confetti, yeah, okay you want to know all the flavors well, I'm just trying to think, like when you walk in I do love your storefront.

Karen Mac Nair:

I feel like you walk in and it has that bakery classic feel. Yeah, when you walk in the display cases, staff is always so sweet, um, it just always makes me feel like you're in a bakery, um, where some places you go you don't always get that feel, so I appreciate the brightness of it, the um, the thing, so on, that it's once you have anything to share that you're most proud of at your business I'm so proud of our teams we have just the most incredible dedicated uh team members on our staff and we have had really tough positions like dishwashing dishwashers who have stayed with us more than seven years, oh wow.

Ingrid Kuo:

So we're really, really proud of the team that we put together and I feel that our managers are incredible. I trust them completely.

Karen Mac Nair:

I have been able to step away from the business, go on vacation able to step away from the business, go on vacation, not worry at all, that is. That is really really nice, especially as you've been adding locations. Yes, to still have that consistency at all the locations is wonderful, because that just makes the brand even stronger, so that is so good. Yeah, is there anything else? We've missed anything else?

Ingrid Kuo:

I'm just so glad to be a part of our community. Thank you for the opportunity to come and share our products. We're super excited about this collaboration, as well as anything else that we will have down the line, so I just really hope that people will come and find us and think of us first for their celebrations. We want to bring the joy to your families every month.

Karen Mac Nair:

There should be a reason they're seeing you, because someone's having a birthday. There's some reason to celebrate. So, yep, make sure you go to Nothing Bundt Cakes. In Monrovia, Pasadena, what was the other Rosemead? Rosemead, and coming soon, the Montebello location. Well, thank you so much for being here. Just to remind everyone, if you've never had a taste of nothing but cakes, you can go to taste of arcadia. Get your tickets today. You can go to taste of arcadia. com. Don't miss out. Tickets are selling quickly, so we want to make sure you have the opportunity. It's an all-inclusive event that has wonderful food and drinks. We're at 53 food and drink vendors, so we're we're on that 50 plus. So make sure you come by. Say hello to Ingrid, talk to me, make sure that it is a wonderful day. So go to tasteofarcadia. com today. Now, john, why don't you take us away?

John Villa:

Thank you, Karen, for another great episode. You can hear us on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music and iHeart Radio. Don't forget, join us on September 13th at Santa Anita Park for Taste of Arcadia. You can get your tickets now at tasteofarcadia. com. Thanks again for joining us for Tasting Arcadia. We'll see you at the Taste.