Penguin Books Australia

Jennifer Graham started out making cupcakes to display on the range of old fashioned cake stands she was selling at craft markets around Victoria, in a bid to encourage customers to buy her wares. After only a couple of weeks the customers were not coming to buy her cake stands but to buy her beautiful cupcakes.

After only six weeks Jennifer found herself in the cupcake business and set out to make the most beautiful cupcakes in the world. The Crabapple Cupcake Bakery was born. For the next 18 months the business involved the entire family. Jennifer baked all the cupcakes in her home oven, decorating the larger cakes herself and designing ever-more intricate cupcakes. Her husband John quit his job and looked after the making of the tiered cupcake stands, packing all the cookies, boiling up the plum puddings and getting everything and everyone to market each weekend. Their three daughters Natalie, Hayley and Laura became creative cupcake decorators, with Hayley (only 14 at the time) designing the Crabapple signature swirl that the bakery is now known for.

Jennifer worked diligently to master the best vanilla cupcake recipe and then increase the range of cakes to 40 flavours, while the decorators kept coming up with more and more beautiful designs. The Crabapple Cupcake Bakery was to produce more and more cupcakes over the next three years, until they were making up to 5000 cupcakes a week in the busy season.

The Crabapple Cupcake Bakery retail store is situated in the Prahran Market in Victoria, where cupcakes are baked fresh daily and are presented on pretty floral china, with pots of tea served up in original silver Robur teapots.