Former nurse opens homemade cupcakes shop

GLUCKSTADT — Christy Everett said the cupcakes served in her new Smallcakes Cupcakery are as homemade as you can get since everything is made there by hand.

“We bake our cupcakes fresh every morning,” Everett said. “We’re here at 5 a.m. each day baking, and we make everything by hand. No mixers here.”

Smallcakes had a soft opening on Monday and Tuesday of this week and officially opened to the public on Wednesday (Feb. 8). It is the newest location in Mississippi and joins a batch of over 200 locations across the United States.

Everett, owner of Smallcakes Cupcakery in Gluckstadt, was not always in the cupcake business. Everett worked as a nurse for 17 years before starting her job at Smallcakes.

“I started out working in the ER at Baptist Medical Clinic in Madison,” Everett said. “I also worked with the Veteran Affairs Department. I worked at the Mississippi Center for Advanced Medicine in Madison most recently, and I still go in there part-time. My boss there supported me 100 percent with this Smallcakes job, and he comes in here to see me along with a couple of doctors occasionally on their lunch break.”

Everett said the inspiration to open her own Smallcakes shop came from several factors, including her mother, encouragement from Mayor Mary Hawkins-Butler, and how much she loved Smallcakes after visiting a location in Monroe, Louisiana.

“I lost my mom two and a half years ago, and she was my best friend,” Everett said. “She always wanted to have a place of her own, like a café or store, but she wasn’t able to since she was a single mom with five daughters and had to work all the time with limited funds. On a whim, we went to Monroe one weekend and found a Smallcakes location there. We met the owner, and the people there were wonderful. After that, we felt that was our sign, and we fell in love with the product.”

Everett also consulted Mayor Mary Hawkins-Butler and expressed her uncertainty of pulling off her cupcake shop.

“Mayor Mary, who is also a good friend of my family, said to me, ‘Honey, you can do whatever you put your mind to, and don’t let anyone tell you differently. Your momma would’ve wanted you to do this,’” Everett said. “That right there was the deciding factor for me. I knew if I had her support, someone who has done so much for Madison and made it such a beautiful and great place to live, I could do it.”

Smallcakes in Gluckstadt is open Monday through Thursday from 10 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. and Friday and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. They boast a menu of 13 signature cupcake flavors served every day, including Birthday Cake, Lemon Drop, Chocolate Crème, Peanut Butter Cup, Chocoholic, Pink Vanilla, Cookies & Cream, Pink Chocolate, Southern Turtle (Everett’s recommendation), Strawberry, Red Velvet, Vanilla Chocolate, and Wedding Cake.

They also offer daily specialty cupcake flavors such as Strawberry Cheesecake, mini cupcake shots, which are half a cupcake with icing in a small cup, and “Pupcakes,” cupcakes specially made for dogs with a carrot cake base, peanut butter cream cheese icing, and a Milkbone dog treat on top. They also make ice cream in small batches with cookies and cupcakes infused.

“Opening this shop is surreal,” Everett said. “I’ve been a nurse for my entire career, and with all the negativity in the world that came with the pandemic, I felt I needed to do something different. We didn’t have something like this here in Gluckstadt, and I thought we needed something happy and cheerful.”

Everett said she got her whole family involved, including her husband Seth and four daughters, two of which go to Germantown and the other two go to Mannsdale. She said her two oldest daughters, Addison and Morgan, work in the store in the afternoons and weekends, and her two youngest daughters come in and sweep floors in the afternoons and love it. She added that she and her husband did all the painting, plumbing, and carpentry.

Tamara McCardle, an employee for Smallcakes, said she works at Donut Palace off Highway 51 and comes straight to Smallcakes to work after her shift at Donut Palace is over.

“Working those two jobs is great, and I love it here,” McCardle said.

Everett said she hopes Smallcakes is a bright, shining light here in Gluckstadt.

“I hope we’re something positive,” she said. “I hope it can be a place for kids and adults to come and have fun after a football game on Friday night or a date night. I think Gluckstadt has nothing but potential and growth ahead, and we want to be a sign of hope for the city.”

To learn more about Smallcakes, visit their website at www.smallcakescupcakery.com.