‘Fancy Something Nice’ Baker Turns Hobby into Business

When Trishelle Cummings would visit her Aunt Mary’s farm in rural Indiana as a kid, she had two options: either play outside with the sheep, or help her aunt bake in the kitchen.

Trishelle, 30, said she almost always chose the latter. Nothing against sheep, of course, but baking was something that really interested her.

As she got older, baking became a way for her to relieve stress that built up during the day at her mortgage company job.

“I wanted to make something different every weekend,” she said.

Now, she’s turning her hobby into a small business. She and her husband, Gavin Cummings, 33, started Fancy Something Nice, a home-based custom treats business, in October.

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Trishelle said she first thought about selling her confections when a co-worker asked her to make some cupcakes and offered to pay her.

“It kind of took off from there,” she said.

Fancy Something Nice offers customers homemade sweets for all occasions. The Cummings operate under the Florida Food Cottage Act, which allows them to make, sell and store their treats in their unlicensed home kitchen in Temple Terrace. Their annual sales can’t exceed $15,000, and their products can’t be sold online or at wholesale.

Gavin is from Northern Ireland and met Trishelle online. They married four years ago and moved to Temple Terrace three years ago.

“We like it a lot,” they said of the city.

The Irish love their “tea time,” during which they eat sweets, the couple explained. When Gavin moved to the states, tea time morphed into enjoying Trishelle’s treats.

“We’d be sitting on the couch, and he would say, ‘I just fancy something nice,’” Trishelle said. The name stuck.

Cupcakes are seemingly more popular than ever before. TV shows like Cupcake Wars on the Food Network present bakers who create innovative flavors with bacon, basil and cayenne pepper. CBS’s 2 Broke Girls chronicles the adventures of fictional diner waitresses with dreams of starting their own cupcake business. Unlike the characters on the show who use a combination of two box mixes for their cupcakes, Trishelle creates her own cupcake recipes and makes her treats from scratch.

Since October, Trishelle said she’s been making continual sales.

“I’ve kind of kept pretty steady between cupcakes and cookie orders,” she said. “I’ve gotten my first cake order, too.”

Her customers’ reactions make baking so fulfilling to her. She said she loves to see people enjoy what she’s created. Her dream is for her business to take off so she can work at it full time.

“I really enjoy doing it,” she said. “This is what I’ve found that makes me happy.”

For more information, visit Fancy Something Nice online or on Facebook.