Our Story — Cupcake Queen's Journey from an Idea to a Coffee Shop with Character

2019, Krasnodar

After an unforgettable holiday in Kaliningrad, where we enjoyed the Baltic air and the inspiring atmosphere, we made two life-changing decisions: to quit our jobs and move to Kaliningrad to begin our pastry journey.

The first six months in Krasnodar were a time of preparation. We took a professional course, bought the equipment we needed and began experimenting. Our first tasters were our colleagues, friends and acquaintances. Their enthusiastic feedback was the best motivation we could have had. We launched a website, started building our social media and gradually immersed ourselves in the world of sweet artistry.

So what prompted us to take this step? It all started with a cake we ordered from one of Kaliningrad's popular and expensive pastry shops. We ran into problems with the service, the taste and much more. That was when we realised we could do better.

Our head pastry chef also adores baking. For her it is not just a job but a kind of meditation, creating new flavours and colours that bring joy to everyone who tries her desserts.

And so our story began, full of experiments, inspiration and sweet moments.

2020: Covid.

We moved at the most unusual moment — on the last day that flights were still running. Cold weather, empty streets, the closed doors of cafés and shops, restrictions on movement — all of this became our new reality. But we didn't give up. We were looking for a flat not only to live in, but also to start our pastry business. And we found one.

From the very beginning we decided: we would take only a professional approach. We took a new course for pastry businesses to understand which standards to aim for and how to do everything to the highest level.

We took out a loan of 500,000 rubles. With that money we bought two separate refrigerators, a new professional oven and special utensils, and even fitted screens on the windows. There were no children, guests or pets in our flat — only us and our dream. We baked exclusively with high-quality imported ingredients, used only pasteurised eggs and closely monitored every stage of production.

And do you know what turned out to be the most important thing? We got married. Our business became a family business.

At the end of May we received our first order. Two cakes, one of them a temperamental "Pavlova". This dessert, as it turned out, is very fussy about Kaliningrad's humid climate, which was very different from dry Krasnodar. Our recipes had not yet been adapted, and we struggled with the order all night. But by morning we had done it!

We delivered the order in the morning and then slept for half the day. Mission accomplished!

That is how our story began — the story of a family that turned its passion for sweets into its life's work.

2021: Growth

We didn't rest on our laurels. To grow and improve, we took several additional master classes. Pastry chefs even came to us from Moscow to share their secrets and inspire us to try new things. We invested in new professional courses and bought more tools and equipment so that each of our desserts would become a small work of art.

Gradually we gained many regular customers. Their trust and glowing reviews were the best reward for us. By the end of the year we managed to pay off the loan. Yes, all the money we earned went to the bank, but it was worth it. We wanted to feel a little freedom — and we did!

It was an important stage of our journey. We were not just building a business, we were creating something bigger — a place where every sweet becomes part of someone's happiness. And we knew this was only the beginning.

2022: The Military Events.

The number of orders grew exponentially. We were delighted, but we soon faced new challenges. The electrical capacity in our flat was no longer enough, and space had become desperately short — by then we already had three refrigerators, and they could barely cope with the volume. We realised it was time to look for premises for a real pastry kitchen.

We took out a loan of 1,000,000 rubles and found a suitable place. We had only just moved in, done some light renovation and bought new equipment and tools when the military events began. It was a difficult time, but we didn't give up.

We are endlessly grateful to our customers who stayed with us in those days. Thanks to their support we kept receiving orders, and we not only held on but continued to grow.

What we value most are the hundreds of reviews we receive every month. People don't just write — they share their emotions, their delight and their gratitude. These words warm us to the depths of our hearts, inspire us and give us the strength to keep moving forward.

We know that our journey is not only about cakes and desserts. It is about the joy we give people, and about how their happiness becomes part of our story.

2022–2024: Three Years of Trials and Choices...

These three years were a real test for us. Ingredient prices shot up, and we faced a sharp drop in orders. Many of our customers found us too expensive, and we could feel their uncertainty. Every year we faced the same question: stay true to ourselves or, like many others, move into the cheap segment?

But for us, taste is not just a pretty picture and a high price. It is a huge amount of work, years of experience and only quality ingredients. We chose this path — the path of honesty towards ourselves and our customers.

We reworked recipes, experimented, created new flavours and improved old ones. Every dessert became for us not just a product but a small work of art.

In 2023 we began developing a new website, and in 2024 we started on the design. We dream that it will appear next year and become a convenient and beautiful window into our sweet world for everyone.

We also rebranded. Our new corporate style and colour are not just visual changes. They are the mood we want to give everyone: celebration, joy and inspiration.

We know that our path is not just a business. It is our philosophy, our passion and our love for what we do. And we keep moving forward no matter what.

A New Year's "Surprise" from Meta* (an organisation banned in the Russian Federation)

On 31 December, while the whole world was getting ready to celebrate, we were handed a "gift": our Instagram account, which we had honestly built up for years, was suddenly blocked. The reason? In the opinion of Meta (an organisation banned in Russia), we were an "unverified fake identity". We sent photos of our passports and all our details — but that did not convince them.

No fake followers, no promotion services — only honest work. That evening, after handing out the last orders, we didn't even try to find any festive spirit — we just went to bed. Imagine: you put in your energy, your time, your soul, and then in a single moment it can all disappear on someone's whim.

For several weeks we tried to get the account back — and came up against an army of scammers ready to "help" for crazy money. But we were lucky: thanks to friends, we found the one person who was able to solve the problem. And now we are endlessly grateful to him — and to everyone who supported us in this strange and unfair situation.

The lesson? Even when it seems that everything is against you, don't give up: do your work honestly and take care of your customers.

2026: Big Changes

The Beginning

It all began — or rather ended — with our long holiday; we had a feeling this year would be a hard one for us. We went to see our family and spent more than a month with them. Since the start of the special military operation it has become very difficult to get to them, and we see each other extremely rarely.

Fortunately, there used to be excellent foreign video-calling services; unfortunately, by 2026 many of them have been blocked. And the replacement? Why would we even need a replacement — they toss people a gnawed bone (sorry, Max), people will survive.

But that's not the point. After the trip we wanted big changes: to finish work on the website, refresh our range and open our own pastry shop.

Unfortunately, we now often regret that we simply did not leave the market in time. The current situation has made it clear, first of all, that most Kaliningraders don't need and don't share our vision; the city is geared towards cheap calories, no matter what's in them.

Yes, there are a few — our golden customers, with whom it is a pleasure first of all to talk and discuss all sorts of things, and who of course value quality in their food, the terms and the service we provide

Looking for Premises

As it happened, at the same time we urgently had to move out of our old premises — not through the landlord's fault but because of our own miscalculations, plus a new landlord for whom agreed terms meant nothing and who could change them however he liked. But, believe it or not, they didn't keep our old premises let for long)

We spent a very long time looking for premises; unfortunately, food service is an area where, even with plenty of premises available across the city, it is hard to find the right one.

The criteria were simple: close to home (sometimes you have to go to work in the evening or early in the morning), a power supply of 30 kW or more, enough floor space to combine a display and a kitchen, and much more.

But that's not the main thing. The main thing, first and foremost, is the landlord. The first premises we chose were in the new Istoriya residential complex back in 2024; we waited about 7 months for them, and there was an agreement on a specific space.

When it was finally possible to view it, we went there and on the whole we liked it; we even spent about an hour there taking measurements, working out and roughly planning whether everything we had in mind would fit. We shook hands.

But it was not to be: unfortunately, the landlord turned out to be very sly, and just before signing, our premises were given to a dental clinic.

In fact, having lived here for 6 years now, we have realised that for Kaliningrad business this is more the norm than an exception. People are so cut off from the world, everything is so sheltered, that they don't really know how to do business; your word and your reputation in the city count for little, nor does what people say about you. It has all gone.

Everyone should answer for themselves, no matter how others have acted — that is how I advise everyone to do business. I was born in Crimea and saw how my father did business in Ukraine; the whole region knew him, and deals worth hundreds of thousands were sealed with a handshake.

Everyone knew that if something was said, that's how it would be — and that's how it was. Contracts, lawyers and so on were an add-on; what mattered was the person and what people said about him.

In Russia, and in Kaliningrad in particular, it is a sheer horror and a nightmare in this respect. We don't work with every supplier, only with those with whom we have found common ground and mutual trust.

We found the next premises only in April; again we viewed them, discussed the contract, went to the owner, finally agreed on all the clauses and shook hands.

But here's the problem: the day before signing, they sent us a completely different, one-sided contract. I don't know what they were counting on, but we decided not to do business with people like that. The premises at 25A Artilleriyskaya Street are still standing empty

We also had the option of premises in the Nakhimovsky Kvartal residential complex, but fortunately I always talk to the people around me and find out what's what.

The people from the premises we wanted to move into had invested about a million in renovation and then moved somewhere else. I don't recommend dealing with these people when it comes to renting commercial premises. They are very unreliable and will promise you anything in words.

In practice, you will see a superb renovation, but it wasn't done by them (of course they'll lie to you and say they did it); people simply fled from landlords like these. Draw your own conclusions about what could be going on if people invested money and simply moved out.

Next to them, another of their premises is also up for rent — the former Fasol shop, which couldn't put up with these landlords either…. As if businesses didn't have enough problems — very strange people.

At last we came across the premises where we are now. I won't say everything went smoothly, but it is an acceptable golden mean that we are willing to live with. They listen to us.

Renovation

Renovating commercial premises is nothing like renovating a flat. At home you can break the rules in many places, do things your own way and use cheap materials.

When you fit out premises as a production kitchen, you need qualified, licensed specialists who sign off on their work, and the paint must be certified to medical-grade standards.

Pipes must be laid according to the requirements, and so on. You balance what you want with what the regulatory authorities require.

This would come in handy for us in 2026, when competitors would report us and trigger an inspection by a state supervisory authority — which we would pass, because from the very start of the renovation we had done everything properly.

We completed the renovation in a month and a week — an extremely tight deadline. We chose our specialists carefully, and our landlord later used their services more than once, seeing their professionalism (even though he had his own contractors).

Choosing people, choosing the right faces — that is what matters most in any business. That is how I was taught and how I was raised. Details and nuances are hard, tedious and dull, but they pay off: in the end the renovation doesn't drag on for months.

You don't have to stand over the workers' shoulders and can get on with your own work.

After the renovation we began to develop in our new location. Of course, there was a lot of negativity from locals — the self-styled "True Kaliningraders" — who came to pour out all their negativity: how awful we are, how awful our prices are, and so on.

Never mind what we have to do with it, when it is the State that dictates the conditions and everyone has to adapt to them. It is easier to go and scold defenceless business owners than to go out to the square with your grievances; business owners don't have that protection, and cowards always act this way first.

The Opening

The opening — oh my, how much there is in that word. We hardly slept. The first thing we did when we arrived at the premises was to take my wife's blood pressure.

She is the person who worries about every one of your orders as if it were her own. She can't work any other way. We sent out a mailing to our customers.

"I'm worried — what if there isn't enough? What if they don't like it? What if something goes wrong?" my wife said. "Why are you worrying? Maybe 10–15 people will come, everything will be fine."

How wrong I was….

For us, the opening was a complete sensation. It was hard to count the number of people, but we did count the receipts! More than 300 receipts, and many people didn't come alone — I'd say few came alone)

My goodness, for me it was the hardest and the most delightful celebration. I managed to talk to only a few people, BUT — the smiles and good wishes from our customers are why we love you: a kind, even-handed attitude without condescension, understanding and support.

Yes, we don't work with everyone — we have written this many times. Money is not the main thing; the people we are willing to work with are. We want to work with you not for money but out of human affection and, to some extent, love.

We want to give you sweet pleasure and express our love through it

We had no DJs, no cake cutting and many other things. Just modest balloons and a tasting. But we didn't expect such an effect.

What Does the Coming Year Hold?

And what's next? Mother's Day and New Year. We were worried, based on experience, that something bad might happen in January, but we were given a chance to catch our breath)

And after that? Taxes, inspections and much more

2026 to be continued

Legal entity name: Individual Entrepreneur Darya Sergeevna Guminskaya, INN 553904375491, OGRNIP 324390000066351; Individual Entrepreneur Vadim Sergeevich Guminsky, OGRN 322265100006311, INN 920454923920