Candy-colored walls, a rack of aprons and tiered stacks of cupcakes on glass counters greet Las Vegas residents who step foot into one of the Cupcakery’s two Valley locations. The experience is a bit surreal, like being transported from a modern metropolis to 1950s suburbia.

Called the “cupcake queen” of Las Vegas, entrepreneur Pamela Jenkins has created something of a time warp with the advent of her cupcake shops. Though Jenkins is the picture of a 21st century woman, her philosophy on sugar-laden treats is a throwback to simpler times.

“I think there’s a simplicity about cupcakes that kind of reminds people of years gone by,” she said. “The product is homemade; we use fresh butter. We use really high-quality ingredients that people were using 20 or 30 years ago, before everything became so chemically enhanced. Food as a whole has changed so much in this country in the last 50 years.”

It was this change that led Jenkins to open her own business. As a Texas native transplanted to Las Vegas by way of New York City, Jenkins noticed that Sin City’s inhabitants were drawn to bright lights and big chain businesses. Alongside a couple of colleagues at her then-job as an administrative assistant at the Golden Nugget, Jenkins conspired to bring down-home cooking to Southern Nevada.

Years of baking experience and a savvy business plan paid off when the Cupcakery opened to rave reviews at the beginning of 2006. The shop became an instant hit among locals and visitors alike, drawing notable out-of-town fans like Britney Spears and Fergie. Jenkins has also been charged with creating cupcakes for resident artists like Cher, Bette Midler and Santana.

What keeps celebrities and residents coming back for more are the cupcakes themselves, which sell for $3 apiece or $32 per dozen. The shop’s most popular cupcake is the Southern Belle, which has a red velvet cake base and cream cheese frosting topped with red sprinkles. Jenkins, who calls her brand “the Tiffany of the cupcake world,” said Pete Wentz of Fall Out Boy favors the Southern Belle.    

“I think it’s all in the taste,” Jenkins said. “Of course, I’m biased, because they’re my cupcakes, but they’re all based off scratch recipes. The red velvet’s been in my family for 50 years. That’s our bestseller. I really think you could put this up against any cupcakery in the United States, and my feeling is, our flavors would come out on top.”

Jenkins has whipped up dozens of recipes for flavorful, homemade cupcakes, including the Boston Dream, made with yellow cake, filled with Bavarian crème and topped with chocolate ganache; the Kir Royale, made with raspberry cake and topped with champagne frosting; the Grasshopper, made with dark chocolate cake and covered with mint chocolate frosting; and the Good Morning, Cupcake!, made with yellow cake and topped with a cinnamon swirl and a sugary glaze. The secret to Jenkins’ concoctions is simply her own hunger.

“I like to eat a lot, so it’s whatever I’m craving,” she said. “The Orange Julius cupcake came out last August, and I named it after my son. I wanted to have a cupcake after him. The day he was born, I called the store and said, ‘We’re going to have an Orange Julius cupcake. Here’s what’s in it; make me one!’”

Jenkins said she is also inspired by seasons, which is why there are a variety of holiday specialties, such as Mimi’s Pumpkin, Gingerbread Chick and Peppermint Bliss.

The Cupcakery has since expanded beyond its eastside location in Las Vegas. Another store opened in Summerlin a year after the original opened its doors, and Jenkins, who now co-owns the chain with her uncle, set out to open a few shops in Texas. Competition has sprung up around Las Vegas, and the mainstream media has heralded the new “cupcake trend.”

“As a business owner, the trend has really gone crazy,” Jenkins said. “People are opening up cupcake shops all over the place. I don’t know if everybody will last. I don’t know if you can necessarily go out and open a shop that sells cupcakes if your product isn’t really good. You’ll probably make it for a couple years, but it’s tough to say if 100,000 cupcake bakeries, or however many it is in the last year that opened, will all make it. Who knows?”

Despite the current crop of competing cupcakeries, Jenkins’ shops are still growing by leaps and bounds. On an average day, the Cupcakery sells more than 1,000 cupcakes, and sells upwards of 3,000 on weekends and holidays. The Southern girl with a penchant for entering her baked goods in the county fair now owns one of the most successful local businesses in Las Vegas.

“I personally don’t want to franchise it out right now,” Jenkins said. “I think we have a good enough concept to do that, but it’s really important to me, and it’s really important to my uncle in Texas as well, that we protect the integrity of what we do. I don’t want it to become the McDonald’s of cupcakes. That’s never what I set out to create.”

The Cupcakery

9680 S. Eastern Ave., Suite 100

702-207-2253

7155 W. Lake Mead Blvd.

702-835-0060

Hours:

Monday-Wednesday—8 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Thursday-Friday—8 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Saturday—10 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Sunday—Noon to 6 p.m.

By Caitlin McGarry