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Berwyn, Ill. —
Sweet memories of her mother who loved to bake surprise treats for her family are at the center of Tootsies Cupcakes, which opened in May in Berwyn. Rita Olguin used her mom Josephine’s nickname Tootsie to name the shop.
“We also have other sweets,” Olguin says. “We have caramel apples (with vanilla bean homemade caramel). We have fudge, peanut brittle, Rice Krispies Treats, cookies and biscotti, all homemade … in small batches. That’s why people are guaranteed to get the best.”
In June, Olguin pitted her signature Toffee Crunch Cake against 40 competitors in Oak Park’s CupQuake contest, and won second place.
“It was a big thrill,” Olguin says. “It’s a cupcake people come out to try.”
Choosing from among her inventive flavors isn’t easy.
“We do try to play around a little bit,” she says. “In October, we have Candy Corn Swirl: Orange cake and vanilla cake swirled together (with) orange butter cream frosting. … It’s a lot of fun creating these.”
With years of experience catering desserts and baking wedding cakes, she approaches her cupcakes as “little cake creations,” and pays attention to presentation.
“Half the fun (is) the eye candy, the anticipation,” she says. “And everything is made from scratch (with) real butter, whole milk, fresh eggs. There’s no oil, water or preservatives or high fructose corn syrup. We believe in that very strongly. We have no freezer here. Everything is fresh. We use organic bananas, when we can. Organic pumpkins. I have four children of my own. I watch what they eat.”
She says she bakes the old-fashioned way like her mother, whose Czech and Bohemian background provided “amazing techniques for doing different things, (including) butter cream frosting and cream cheese frosting. Those recipes come straight from my mom. (They’re what) everyone raves about.”
And she keeps them top secret.
Olguin makes wedding cakes, as well as elegant cupcake towers for the occasion, which lets guests pick their favorite flavor.
She helps the Chicago Food Pantry with unsold goods, and this month offers a chocolate cupcake with pink icing, whose proceeds go to breast cancer research.
“We’re all about pink here,” she says about her shop, whose cheerful color scheme is hot pink and white.
A self-described “big fan” is Amanda Birtell of Berwyn.
“We don’t have a lot of smaller specialty shops,” she says. “It’s small and absolutely darlingly decorated, and their cupcakes are amazing.”
Sweet memories of her mother who loved to bake surprise treats for her family are at the center of Tootsies Cupcakes, which opened in May in Berwyn. Rita Olguin used her mom Josephine’s nickname Tootsie to name the shop.
“We also have other sweets,” Olguin says. “We have caramel apples (with vanilla bean homemade caramel). We have fudge, peanut brittle, Rice Krispies Treats, cookies and biscotti, all homemade … in small batches. That’s why people are guaranteed to get the best.”
In June, Olguin pitted her signature Toffee Crunch Cake against 40 competitors in Oak Park’s CupQuake contest, and won second place.
“It was a big thrill,” Olguin says. “It’s a cupcake people come out to try.”
Choosing from among her inventive flavors isn’t easy.
“We do try to play around a little bit,” she says. “In October, we have Candy Corn Swirl: Orange cake and vanilla cake swirled together (with) orange butter cream frosting. … It’s a lot of fun creating these.”
With years of experience catering desserts and baking wedding cakes, she approaches her cupcakes as “little cake creations,” and pays attention to presentation.
“Half the fun (is) the eye candy, the anticipation,” she says. “And everything is made from scratch (with) real butter, whole milk, fresh eggs. There’s no oil, water or preservatives or high fructose corn syrup. We believe in that very strongly. We have no freezer here. Everything is fresh. We use organic bananas, when we can. Organic pumpkins. I have four children of my own. I watch what they eat.”
She says she bakes the old-fashioned way like her mother, whose Czech and Bohemian background provided “amazing techniques for doing different things, (including) butter cream frosting and cream cheese frosting. Those recipes come straight from my mom. (They’re what) everyone raves about.”
And she keeps them top secret.
Olguin makes wedding cakes, as well as elegant cupcake towers for the occasion, which lets guests pick their favorite flavor.
She helps the Chicago Food Pantry with unsold goods, and this month offers a chocolate cupcake with pink icing, whose proceeds go to breast cancer research.
“We’re all about pink here,” she says about her shop, whose cheerful color scheme is hot pink and white.
A self-described “big fan” is Amanda Birtell of Berwyn.
“We don’t have a lot of smaller specialty shops,” she says. “It’s small and absolutely darlingly decorated, and their cupcakes are amazing.”
She recalls buying her first one and stepping outside, where she couldn’t resist trying it before arriving home.
“I was finishing that first magical bite, (when) a wind came through and knocked it out of my hand,” says Birtell, who went right back, and since then has purchased them for her office, birthdays and entertaining. “They have been a crowd pleaser.”
The shop also brews its own coffee in a variety of flavors to go. And sugar-free or vegan cupcakes are available by special order for a dozen or more.
“My mom always had a dream of opening a bakery, but it didn’t come to fruition,” Olguin says. “She’s hopefully looking down on us now.”
