Cake designer Lara Stuckey outgrew her commercial kitchen earlier this year and needed additional space for the daily cycle of baking, cooling, icing and hand decoration. “With the growing wholesale accounts and more retail customers, we simply ran out of room,” says Stuckey, who opened her McLean cake shop, Fluffy Thoughts, in spring 2010, with custom cakes starting at $45. Down came a wall into an adjacent, unoccupied 1,500-square-foot space, and a far bigger Fluffy was born.
In addition to providing more elbow room for the bakers, the expanded space now includes a central area for cake-decorating classes and cake-tasting parties (in which as many as 12 guests can try six cake flavors and a dozen fillings for $10 per person). Floor-to-ceiling windows let passersby in on the baking action, while six café tables provide outdoor seating for, say, a glass of fresh-squeezed lemonade and a Key Lime cupcake.
Tired of cupcakes? Fluffy’s repertoire also includes blondies, cake pops, coconut and chocolate-covered macaroons, French macaroons, lemon bars and Mexican wedding cookies, which range in price from $1.25 to $4 each.
Plus, the bigger store isn’t the only expansion. For baseball fans seeking sweets to accompany their beer, Fluffy Thoughts now has a new on-site kiosk at Washington Nationals Park offering cupcakes, sugar cookies, chocolate brownies and Rice Krispies treats. Batter up!
Fluffy Thoughts Bakery, 1320 Old Chain Bridge Road, McLean, 703-942-5538, www.fluffythoughts.com