Executive Chef Annette Starbuck
The 7th Annual Calabasas Malibu Wine & Food Festival, June 21- June 22, 2013 - Goodie Girls, Los Angeles
Executive
Pastry Chef Annette Starbuck of GoodieGirls Cupcakes
The early bird catches the worm, but what do I get if I wake up early? Well, lucky me, I get to go watch Goodie Girls’ Annette Starbuck bake her treats of the day! The Food Network Cupcake Wars winner invited me to come see her creative process in action, and it is creative, indeed.
Whereas most bakeries will have a set menu, and set recipes (with perhaps seasonal variations), the cupcake-focused Goodie Girls changes two of their six flavors every week, and often tweaks others depending on the moment or the mood.
“I can’t help it,” says Annette with a laugh. “I can’t have one solid menu. Just this morning, I was up at 3 AM researching new ideas.”Yes, mornings are early for Annette, as with most bakers, and though I don’t meet her and her assistants until a few hours after that, I’m there at the Chefs Center in Pasadena in time to watch the magic come together, with a lot of cream cheese and buttercream and strawberry syrup and yes, even the champagne that helped create her winning cupcake (now alcohol-free).
“I always wing-it,” Annette claims (I only half-believe her), “And we’ve never really had a bad cupcake” (tasting today’s creamsicle flavor, I believe that part). Smores cookies and lavender lollipops are also on the menu du jour.
“Our first priority is flavor,” she continues, pointing out that butter is the only fat she uses in cake and frosting, no oil. That may limit the shelf life, but it makes the best taste, she says. And it doesn’t mean they skimp on decoration, as the girl carefully dusting each mini-cake with edible glitter can attest.
Starbuck’s success story is as fantastic as they come: the Idaho native was a bored Calabasas housewife who made desserts for charity functions and neighborhood parties just for fun, when a Food Network producer happened to try one of her cupcakes at an event, and insist she audition for a new show. Completely self-taught, she had only a few weeks before shooting to ramp up her skills. “I walked in thinking we’d get kicked off in the first round,” says Annette, still intoxicated by a story she’s probably had to tell 1000 times. Instead, amazingly, she came out on top.
“All of a sudden, I realized this could be a business.” Now, Annette is closing in on her second year of operation. A second store, this one with an on-site kitchen and full café seating, is set to open in La Canada mid-Summer, while the original Glendale storefront will focus more on events, particularly kids parties and bachelorette celebrations. And there is another reality show in the works.
“I used to think, you make a living doing what you’re good at, and that’s it. Now I get to do what I really love. It’s incredible.”
By E.C. Gladstone
