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Updated: July 3, 2024 @ 3:45 am
Jessica Glanzer started Sweet Savannah Cupcakes 10 years ago with little expectations in mind. She has customers throughout N’West Iowa, baking multiple orders on a weekly basis.
Sweet Savannah Cupcakes serves more than 35 flavors of cupcake, over 10 full-cake flavors, 15 ice cream flavors, as well as a chocolate chip cookie cake.
Jessica Glanzer, founder of Sweet Savannah Cupcakes, adds figurines and small detail to cakes to bring them to life.
Jessica Glanzer started Sweet Savannah Cupcakes 10 years ago with little expectations in mind. She has customers throughout N’West Iowa, baking multiple orders on a weekly basis.
GEORGE—Small gestures become sweet ventures in the Glanzer household.
Jessica Glanzer moved to George 10 years ago with her husband, Tyler, and at-the-time 1-year-old Savannah. She planned on being a stay-at-home mom; little did she know some extra sugar would be added to her life in August 2014.
“My husband works at the school, the middle school/high school here in town. And so when we moved, I was just staying home with our oldest, who was 14 months at the time,” Glanzer said. “My husband’s birthday is in August, and I had just made some cupcakes and sent some with him to school. I just was like, ‘If anybody asks if I make cupcakes, just tell them I would love to.’
“I did end up getting an order from that; I didn’t really think anyone would say anything, I just thought, ‘I’ll just throw it out there.’ But somebody did, and so, that was really exciting. It didn’t like ‘Boom!’ take off from that, but that was my first order; then it was like slow-going word-of-mouth.”
Glanzer’s cupcakes continued appearing at George city events, like downtown open houses and vendor fairs. As more people began asking where the cupcakes were coming from, Glanzer decided on starting an official business.
Sweet Savannah Cupcakes serves more than 35 flavors of cupcake, over 10 full-cake flavors, 15 ice cream flavors, as well as a chocolate chip cookie cake.
“I am not a creative name person. Like, when it comes to flavor names, when it comes to a business, anything like that; that’s just not my strength. But my in-laws always called Savannah ‘sweet Savannah.’ And so, I was like, ‘Well, maybe we can just do Sweet Savannah Cupcakes,’” she said. “It was kind of just a whim, I don’t know. If I had to rename it, I have no idea what I would even do. So, we’re just going to stick with it.”
Four children later and with one in the oven, Glanzer has only continued to grow her business.
She began experimenting with full-sized cakes several years ago.
Looking back on some of her earlier commissions, Glanzer laughed at feeling “embarrassed, like ‘Oh my goodness, I sold that to somebody?’” Her clients have proved not to feel the same way.
The self-taught baker runs Sweet Savannah Cupcakes as a full-time job, completing multiple orders on a weekly basis.
Birthday parties, retirements, graduations, weddings and more, Glanzer has provided cupcakes for them all.
As a stay-at-home mother and business owner, Glanzer said baking can act as a unique outlet.
“I like the satisfaction of I see this unfinished cake, now it’s finished, now it’s in the fridge — that type of thing. I thrive on productivity, and being a stay-at-home mom can be hard when you don’t have a lot of accomplished tasks throughout the day,” Glanzer said.
“I know being a mom is really important, and I know that it’s the most important job — taking care of your kids. But it’s just so nice to see something finished, rather than, ‘Oh, I cleaned up the living room,’ and five minutes later it’s a mess again. Like those constant things, to just be able to have an area of my life where it’s, ‘I have this to do, and now it’s done.’”
Glanzer does not have a favorite part of the baking process. She does however have favorite things to make.
“I love making cakes for little girls, because they tend to be brighter colors, sparkly, you know, unicorns, those types of things,” she said. “I certainly will make tractor cakes and the boy stuff too, but it’s just it tends to be more fun doing little girl cakes.”
Family birthdays come around as exactly half and half on the girl-boy cake spectrum. Glanzer has three daughters, 11-year-old Savannah, 5-year-old Amaya and 2-year-old Ivy. Her two sons, 9-year-old Owen and 7-year-old Emmitt, will have a third brother in August.
As much as Glanzer said she loves creating new sweet concoctions and delivering baked goods to celebrating families, one of the favorite parts about her job is that her own family can come first.
Jessica Glanzer, founder of Sweet Savannah Cupcakes, adds figurines and small detail to cakes to bring them to life.
“It just kind of fits well with our lifestyle. One thing that’s really nice is the hours that I put in are the hours that I choose. Of course, I have to get things done by a deadline, but if we have a busy day going to ballgames or whatever, I’ll just stay up at night and do it,” Glanzer said. “That’s a nice thing too, that it’s flexible enough that if my kids have something going on I don’t have to go, ‘Sorry, guys. I have to be at work.’”
Over the years Glanzer has added to her repertoire PB&J cupcakes, gingerbread cupcakes, pumpkin spice latte cupcakes, marbled cheesecake cupcakes and more than 30 other flavors. Her cakes include basic chocolate or funfetti, followed by flavors like pink lemonade, pumpkin and others. Glanzer also makes ice cream pints from scratch for sale, ice-cream cakes and chocolate chip cookie cakes.
Taking “each day at a time” is the current Glanzer motto. With all that has happened over the last decade however, Glanzer cannot wait to taste the future with her growing family and add new layers to Sweet Savannah Cupcakes.
“I know so often we try to do things, and God just says, ‘No,’ and I just am really thankful that this is a way He’s blessed our family,” she said.
Business: Sweet Savannah Cupcakes
Owner: Jessica Glanzer
Address: Bakes from home
Hours: By appointment
Phone: 515-720-6109
Online: www.sweetsavannahcupcakes.com or Facebook
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