COUNTRY CLUB HILLS, Ill. (WLS) -- Most bakeries let you stop in anytime for a quick sugar fix, but JordyCakes in south suburban Country Club Hills takes a different approach.
The bakery is only open two days a week, and still manages to sell out every time.
Jordyn Gaines, 21, hates waste. She doesn't like baking things she can't sell. The young entrepreneur ran a Kickstarter campaign to raise money for her equipment, and now is in the enviable position of selling everything her tiny bakery makes.
The young bakers apply decorations with the precision of an artist. That's because at JordyCakes, which sits in an unremarkable strip mall in Country Club Hills, each baker is tasked with focusing on one of three things: custom cakes, cake jars or cupcakes.
Gaines started the business about five years ago after baking for friends and church groups.
"Somebody asked me how much I charged and that's when the business started," she said.
During a Kickstarter campaign, she raised $16,000 in 20 days -- $6,000 above her initial goal.
But her approach was far different than the average bakery. She saw value in offering a limited menu and opening her doors just two days a week.
"It's not your average bakery," she said. "You can't just come in here and grab a cupcake because the business model that I wanted to go by was never having any waste. So every time I open my doors I always sell out."
Gaines takes cake orders online, and has already made some for big names like Common and Dwayne Wade. She also manages to keep several thousand jars on hand of her JordyJars, assembled by her "Jaristas," that are essentially yellow or chocolate cakes, crumbled and measured into jars, layered with ingredients like fresh whipped cream and strawberries for her strawberry shortcake flavor, rich coconut for her German Chocolate, even salted caramel cake.
And she knows that when she opens her doors on Wednesday and Saturday, she'll sell all of them.
"I like to make sure that whatever we make is going to be sold," she said.
JordyCakes
4015 175th St., Country Club Hills
Wednesdays: 5:30 p.m. until sold out
Saturday: 10 a.m. until sold out
http://www.jordycakesboutique.com/
To order: JordyCakes1@gmail.com
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