The recent imposition of tariffs on Canadian products entering the United States has left a sour taste in the mouths of many, but a Barrie bakery has found a sweet way to address the issue.
Sugar City Cupcakes, located on Veterans Drive in the city’s south end, has recently changed the names of all of its cupcakes that had been named after U.S. cities to instead represent Canadian locales, says owner Kerry Hayward.
“Naming all our cupcakes and squares after cities was our thing. With about 32 flavours, we had lots of names to choose from,” she told BarrieToday, adding the majority of the cupcakes have Canadian cities.
What was once known as Atlantic City is now the Calgary Chocolate Stampede, the New York Red Velvet is now the North York Red Velvet, and the Ooey Gooey St. Louis is now known as the St. John’s Kitchen Party.
The Kansas City Twister has been changed to the Thunder Bay Twister, while the Portland Peanut Butter Cupcake has been changed to Grand Prairie Peanut Butter Cupcake.
“We now have our Thunder Bay Twister and the Montreal Meltdown. We used to do a Baltimore Butter Tart, which is a vanilla cupcake with a butter tart baked inside, and we’ve changed that to Banff. We have also changed our Chicago Blackout Square to the Cape Breton Bar,” she said.
Hayward says she was in shock when news of the tariffs was announced, and she quickly got to thinking how the local bakery could be supportive of Canada.
Despite the large undertaking it would require in changing more than a decade’s worth of branding and name recognition, Hayward says it was worth it.
“We have been open for 14 years, and when we first opened and were developing, we used names from all over the world. Because we are Sugar City, we name all of our stuff after cities, and it all worked really well,” she said. “But in light of things, we decided to make that change.”
In recent weeks, the bakery has also updated its signs, media and website.
Aside from the cupcake names, the only other change is where the bakery gets some ingredients, said Hayward.
“We are shopping more Canadian now. We are getting more involved in trying to stay Canadian, trying to stay local. Being a baker, it’s kind of easy because … it’s all of that stuff that you can get right here,” she added.
The response to the change has been overwhelmingly positive, she said.
“One of the favourites is the Atlantic City. (Customers) will look around for it … and then they will see it is there; it’s just a different name. It’s a positive response,” she said.
“Only on Facebook have I had one negative response of somebody accusing me of being patriotic when it’s convenient. I have to laugh, because I think the whole country is turning this patriotism into a strength.”