‘Cupcake Guys’ Pivot From Soccer To Baking On Food Community

Remember the Cupcake Fellas? Last yr, Brian “Rak” Orakpo and Michael “Griff” Griffin starred in a industrial for Microsoft Surface area Pro 6 in which the former NFL players introduced their cupcake organization, a bakery they opened a few years ago in Austin, Texas, with business lover and faculty buddy “Little Bryan” Hynson.

Now the Cupcake Men are heading bigger. They have a specific airing Saturday at 1 p.m. on Food items Community and streaming on discovery+. It is no coincidence the program’s airing on Super Bowl weekend, when all things soccer-connected get a tiny extra focus.

In Cupcake Guys Instruction Camp, executive manufactured by Michael Strahan, the threesome support 3 bakers in pursuing their goals of possessing their personal bakery. All through a 48-hour time period, just about every receives a baking truck and attempts their baking and advertising capabilities, with a person winner receiving seed income to assistance them achieve their entrepreneurial drams.

The Cupcake Guys recognize the complex facet of baking, and their capabilities are on display screen during the the display.

“I imagine it’s a minor various when you get a baker outdoors of the kitchen area and into a foodstuff truck,” claims Griffin. “It’s a smaller sized area. They are not common with these ovens. Distinct points can transpire, it can modify the product or service when you cook dinner underneath unique conditions, so it was genuinely attention-grabbing to see how the bakers adapted.”

“Being financially rewarding, currently being reliable is hard in that environment,” suggests Orakpo. “When you commence a business at residence, it is a comfy area, you can take your time with preorders. You can be quite consistent.”

They know from knowledge. Griffin and Orakpo, who performed at University of Texas alongside one another and later on had been teammates with the Tennessee Titans, were being wanting for entrepreneurial options immediately after soccer.

“We wished to get a jumpstart on the upcoming portion of our job whilst we have been playing. We appeared at a couple different possibilities, and we decided the ideal point for us to do was what we liked to do—eat sweets and make sweets. We place two and two together,” Orakpo says.

They immediately realized franchising was their greatest alternative and linked with Gigi’s Cupcakes, a bakery chain with spots across the country. “We lacked business enterprise expertise, so franchising was a additional simplistic, turnkey solution. We experienced to do a large amount of compact factors, but we had a huge company to support us make the changeover smoother,” Orakpo suggests.

“The procedure was now in place, and we have a fantastic aid procedure,” Hynson states.

The pandemic strike as the Cupcake Guys’ bakery completed its 2nd year. Like other modest firms, Gigi’s experienced to make changes.

“We created a ton of new procedures to keep risk-free, and I believe we’ll use a good deal of these going ahead to enrich our retailer,” Griffin suggests. “They guarantee we keep the retail store clean up. And we obtained our decide on of a leading crop of workforce. They’re terrific and they’ve actually assisted us as a result of COVID.”

Of course, the massive issue, because the Food stuff Network unique is bowing this weekend, is: Who do the Cupcake Guys think will get the Tremendous Bowl? Hynson says he’d like to see Tom Brady decide up a further ring. Griffin and Orakpo disagree.

“It has to be Kansas Metropolis,” Griffin claims. “Patrick Mahomes is representing the Major 12.”