Divine, dainty, and delicious. Freshman Olivia Galas’s cupcake business, Olivia’s Originals, is on the rise. Just like the businesses on Cupcake Wars, Olivia makes more than just chocolate and vanilla, she also makes cupcakes such as salted caramel and cookies and cream cupcakes for students at FHC.

Olivia began baking cupcakes about a year ago and fell in love with it. Her business has begun to grow, so she’s not just making cupcakes for friends, but also other students of FHC. She takes her orders throughout the week and only bakes on the weekends because of school. The balance between doing something she loves versus school is difficult for her because she wants to be baking but has to do school work at the same time.

“I started watching Cupcake Wars last year,” Olivia said. “I just fell in love with baking cupcakes. It just kind of came naturally, and I started looking up recipes to bake.”

Olivia has been receiving orders so often that she has enlisted the help of sophomore Payton Bidwell.

“She has a lot to do, so it goes by faster if I help,” Payton said.

Payton and Olivia met a few years ago in gym class at the middle school and became close friends. Payton enjoys baking with Olivia, but does not share the same aspirations as her.

“I met her in eighth grade and started baking with her about a year ago,” Payton said. “It’s just fun. I’ve been friends with her for a while, and it’s just fun to hang out, but it’s her thing.”

Olivia is hoping to take this hobby of baking and turn it into a real bakery. She enjoys it so much that just baking on the weekends is not nearly enough, especially since she is receiving so many orders. Once she is older she would like to form a business and take it further than just Grand Rapids, similarly to Sprinkles Cupcakes, an original and iconic cupcake shop.  

“I would like to create a business out of it,” Olivia said. “A food truck would be cool, but I mostly want to stay stationary.”

Payton is supportive of Olivia’s goals to create a business. She thinks that Olivia is a very talented baker, and could be even more successful than she is right now. And sometimes, all you need is a good friend’s support to achieve your dream career. Working with friends can mean having a blast, but sometimes that also means little mistakes happen, but they just get laughed off, and Payton and Olivia move on.

“We messed up this one time,” Olivia said. “She put too much vanilla in the batter, and we had to dump it out.”

Since making her own Instagram account, @OliviaOriginals, her small business has been booming. Another friend of Olivia’s, freshman Jessica Hurbanis, is hoping to help her bake as well. She loves Olivia’s cupcakes and think what she is doing is inspiring.

“It’s just fun to do it and make [cupcakes] for people,” said Olivia. “And they taste good too.”

With both Olivia and Jessica having a busy schedule in addition to school, Jessica has not had a chance to assist Olivia on the weekends, but is looking forward to doing so. Jessica is not looking to create a business, but baking with her sounds like a good opportunity.

“I want to help her out more as a friend thing just because it sounds like something fun to do mostly,” Jessica said.

Cupcakes have a way of bringing groups of people together and are fun to share with friends. Olivia works very hard to help create these cupcakes to bring people together. She wants to make something that people can enjoy together and her cupcakes do just that.

Olivia is not in the business for the money. She just enjoys baking. She makes cookies also, but mainly focuses on cupcakes because she enjoys it more. She loves to make things for other people that they can enjoy. Her beautiful and delicious cupcakes are wonderful and easy to order by direct messaging on Instagram. They are inexpensive, and worth way more than what she charges. Olivia is very motivated to find the time it takes to bake so many things for people.

“I’m motivated just because I think [baking] is really relaxing,” Olivia said. “And I get paid to do what I love.”