Jamie Sanchez and Josie Veloz spent their weekend swimming in cake batter and colored sprinkles.
They baked a batch of 55 red-coated, lemon-flavored, bite-sized cakes, which they handed out as samples on the UF campus.
Sanchez, 19, and Veloz, 18, have created Gator Pops Bakery, a specialty bake shop, out of their apartment kitchen. The bakery specializes in catering "cake pops," bite-sized, coated balls of cake on a stick, akin to lollipops.
Sanchez, a linguistics sophomore at UF, first made a large batch of cake pops for a meet-and-greet event for a community service group.
"I wanted to bring something different, not the traditional cookies or cupcakes," she said.
The positive reaction she received from guests at the event encouraged her to start the business with best friend Veloz, whom she met four years ago in a high school chorus class.
"Baking the cake pops started as a hobby," Sanchez said, "but now that others are enjoying it, we're excited to see where the bakery takes us."
The two friends, who refer to themselves as baking sisters, look to market their cake pops to sororities and other on-campus organizations hosting events.
Gator Pops Bakery, which is set to open officially within the next month, will offer the following flavors: brownie, chocolate fudge, milk chocolate, red velvet, yellow cake and lemon cake, which is its signature flavor.
To place a custom catering order, customers must choose the flavor, colors, design and, if desired, edible decorations.
Each order requires a minimum of 20 cake pops and must be placed at least two days before the date the pops are needed. While prices vary, a basic, minimum order - with any flavor and a simple coating - will cost an average of $25.
Customers can pick up their order or have it delivered.
Though not officially open, Sanchez and Veloz have created a website, gatorpopsbakery.weebly.com, and a Facebook page.
"Some people look at the cake pops and wonder how we even make them," Sanchez said.
"But, we make everything from scratch," Veloz said. "It takes a long time and it's messy."
"We make the cake, destroy it, make it again, freeze it, decorate it. It's not like a one-stop shop."
