Brand Spotlight: Vicky Cakes

Supporting this unique brand is such a no-brainer and we’re so excited to get to know the story behind how this family created this amazing pancake and waffle mix and their delicious flavors. Here with us to tell their story is Christian, the co-founder of Vicky Cakes. 

Let's start with the beginning. How did this business idea come to life? 

For sure. I'm the youngest of four. My mother is Vicky. And oddly enough, the idea of this entire business comes from my husband, Cortney. So, if there were no him and I, there would be no Vicky cakes.

It's funny because this is a 40 year family recipe. My mother Vicky created it out of necessity. She's born and raised in Cleveland, Mississippi. She became a transplant to the Midwest and moved to Gary Indiana when she graduated from high school in Mississippi. My father and her got married when she was 24 or 25 and they got divorced when I was two. So she became a single mother of four and didn't have any disposable income or anything like that. And this recipe was a staple in our household because it was just basic pantry shelf ingredients that she perfected.

So, it was in 2013 after my husband and I had been married for four years, we went back to Indiana for Thanksgiving and my mom made them. He'd never had them before. I had the recipe but had been sitting on it for three years and didn't do anything with it. And when he tasted them for the first time sitting at her table, he was looking at us like “Why are y'all sitting here acting like this is normal? These are some of the best pancakes I've ever had.” “Miss Vicky.” he told her, “You all should be selling these. There should be a business and they should be called Vicky cakes.” And my mom laughed. We all laughed. Our mom said, “No, Courtney, I could never do that. I'd end up giving them away. Like I wouldn't be able to sell them.” And so I always like to say my mom's in the ministry of donations and I'm in the ministry of deposits. That was 2013. In 2019 we brought Vicky cakes to the table, and now America is enjoying them all over the world every Saturday and Sunday.

That's the best story. So, I must ask, how is Miss Vicky now thinking back to 2013, that conversation? 

She is doing well. The thing about it is none of my family has an entrepreneurial background, so I'm a first-generation entrepreneur and nobody really understands what it takes to a start a business, run a business and scale a business, the way that we have in such a short time span. We just turned three earlier in May. So it's still surreal to her, like everything that goes into it and how we got into this point. She loves it. She's a background player. She's not big on the scene. I have to be the face of the brand. I'm still trying to push her out there, but I appreciate her support and her love and her blessing in allowing me to share her recipe with the world.

Let's talk about this recipe and I know, obviously, you can’t tell everything, but we'd love to know what is so special about how she makes her pancakes?

It definitely had love in every batch that she made when I was growing up. She literally would stand at the stove and flip every pancake individually for each of us. And so that's what we now put into every product. The love. But that's not what make them special. Let me be very clear. It's definitely the measurements. It's the perfect measurements of your basic pantry staples. And she literally knows her stuff. Thank God for the Southern up bringing because she perfected it. And she said it took her almost 12 to 15 years to get it right. Because she kept adding this or not enough that, and so when she figured it out, that's when it was perfection. And our mixes are not “add water only”. So, you do get to add your milk. Which tightens the taste of it all and it’s vegan friendly. There are no dairy products in our mixes. Vegans can enjoy their soy milk, they're almond milk, they're coconut milk. We're not average. We're beyond average. We're not just the pancake. We are a Vicky cake. And we're fluffy and perfect every single time.

I love it. I want to touch on the flavors because that's really what attracted me to your brand. So, tell us about the flavors that you offered and, and maybe what's your personal favorite? 

So, the flavors that we offer currently to date are the original mix, which is my mom's base, and then that's the base for all of the flavored mixes. So, we have blueberry pancake and waffle mix with the real dried blueberries, not the artificial colored or flavored sugar crystals that other brands use. We have real blueberries. We have pecan with real chopped pecans, and we have chocolate chip, which is our only non-vegan friendly mix right now because of the milk chocolate chips. But soon, everything will be dairy free because we're going to be switching over for everyone to enjoy chocolate chips.

So those are our OG flavors, and we just launched our short stack collection, which includes a variety of flavors like banana pudding, strawberry shortcake and cookies and cream pancake and waffle mix. 

Yes! How could you not find something you love in this brand. What do you want people to feel when they get in the kitchen and start making Vicky cakes?

I want them to feel so much joy. In my mind and with our brand, when we first started and were getting the concept together, we almost went with like a brown and red for our brand color. And the more I looked at it, I said, no, that's not what Saturday feels like to me. That's not what the weekend feels like. It feels like the sun coming through the windows. It feels like me waking up as a kid and seeing my mom water her plants that she had in the front of our living room, that's what goes through my mind. And then after that we would smell the vanilla flavor and we knew she was making pancakes. 

So, I want families to feel that, the nostalgia. I want them to feel the freedom to play, to run around, to laugh and joke at the table and to gather the orange juice and the bacon and the sausage and help stir and mix because that's what it is. It's about family value and it's about bringing people together with one of the best things that we all can connect over, food. So that's why we like to call Vicky cakes. The heart of breakfast.

Well, Christian, I am blown away about how you and this family are owning mornings. You are owning a Saturday morning and you are giving us a piece of your family, the heart of your family. And I know it wasn't easy to do that. I know it is not easy to do it with as much success as you guys are seeing. Now you're just getting started. So, welcome to Flourysh. You have a beautiful story, and I can't wait for more and more people to fall in love.

Thank you all so much for having us. We are honored to be here.