Talia Hodge
For years while Amy Mucha was making cake pops as a side hustle, people kept asking when she was going to quit her teaching job and make Daisy Pops her full-time gig. She rolled her eyes.
“I didn’t think that cake pops could be totally supportive of me plus my whole team,” says the Kent resident.
But in 2021, she did just that — she walked away from teaching math at Cuyahoga Valley Christian Academy, and now she and a team make hundreds of pops each day. Demand has increased from 13,000 pops sold in 2018 to 113,000 in 2021.
Mucha began making pops as a gift for her kids’ teachers in 2016, and when people started wanting more, she launched her business in 2018. She has created 20 core flavors from classic red velvet and gluten-free vanilla to distinct honey lavender and her favorite, Fruity Pebbles, which was inspired by her friend Travis Howe’s Cereal Killer cookie from Fat T’s Cookies. That pop is yellow cake with Fruity Pebbles in the dough, dipped in white chocolate and topped with more Fruity Pebbles.
“It’s a great mixture of sweetness — not too much — and also crunch,” she says. “It’s like a truffle inside.”
Mucha and her team are constantly coming up with new eye-catching confections she shares with her 14,600-plus Instagram followers, including pops mimicking Tagalong Girl Scout cookies, Fourth of July popsicles, baby Yoda and even Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine and his press conference “dream team” during the COVID-19 shutdown, plus a flavor of the month.
“We really get to let our creativity flow,” she says.
Being an entrepreneur means she still gets her fill of math. She is always crunching numbers to make decisions like investing in tech to increase her capabilities. For example, when she can’t find a cookie cutter for her uniquely shaped pops, she creates a custom cutter using a 3D printer. She bought an edible printer that allows her to print logos on frosting sheets and put them on pops. That’s helped her snag clients like I Promise School and Cleveland Clinic and score big partnerships like logo pops at Akron RubberDucks concession stands and the NBA All-Star Game.
Mucha also builds up small local businesses through her collaboration of the month series that has yielded creations like a chocolate stout pop in the shape of a beer mug inspired by Bell Tower Brewing Co. She’s partnered with Howe a few times by making pops like those in the shape of chocolate chip cookies to accompany his blue Cookie Monster cookie.
“They’re adorable,” Howe says. “We’re always looking to promote each other and hype each other up.”
Growing Daisy Pops is helping her bring the business out of her basement and into a commercial kitchen and store in Kent in the fall. The move means she can think even bigger — grocery store partnerships, national online shipping — the possibilities keep popping up.
She’s glad she proved herself wrong about pops not being a sustaining business. She recalls when one of her employees sent her a picture at Disney, saying she took her family with the money she made at Daisy Pops.
“That makes me so happy,” she says. “The thing I’m most proud of is that I can support myself. Not only that, but I can support a dozen other pop artists.”
daisypops.com
