Nobody ever said that being a high school senior was a piece of cake, but seniors Katelynn Phipps and Nick Jambe are determined to make it as sweet as possible.

The duo of entrepreneurs recently founded the Hidden Bunny Cupcake bakery, based off of their website, hbcupcakes.com. There, customers can find their up-to-date menu, social media sites, story, and more. After receiving cupcake orders, Phipps and Jambe deliver the treats themselves.

The inspiration for Hidden Bunny came from Phipps’s own love of baking. She said that she always used to bake with her mom, and was inspired by the dozens of recipe books that have been passed down in her family. Phipps graduated from following recipes to creating her own, coming up with her signature cupcake innovation last year.

“Last year, I came up with this crazy new idea to put a cookie inside of a cupcake,” said Phipps. “That’s what kind [of] started it all.”

Hidden Bunny’s best-sellers include the classic vanilla cake, cookie combo with Nutella icing, and chocolate brownie cupcake. While their customers are usually friends and students at SHS, the duo is eager to start branching out. A recent order came from an SHS administrator, Ms. Erin Dehlinger, who requested cupcakes for her upcoming wedding in February.

All of the cupcakes are made from scratch following original recipes by Phipps, tweaked over time to perfection.  Although developing the recipe for their “top 10” homemade cookie dough was easy, Phipps said that other recipes were a challenge.

“The vanilla and chocolate cupcakes took us a week to perfect,” noted Phipps.“ Pumpkin Spice and Red Velvet are the tricky ones. Those two sometimes come out perfect and other times [they] don’t. We don’t change anything so it’s completely hit or miss.”

However, running the bakery isn’t always as easy as pie. Being an entrepreneur is definitely more challenging than expected. Between balancing costs, time, and high school life, Phipps and Jambe have had to work hard to bring the bakery to life.

“It’s difficult but I still love it. It’s a give and take,” said Phipps. “It’s also a great learning experience. Last year we sold our product at too low of a price. Now we have made it worth it for us and affordable enough for our customers. I think now we have a happy medium, and we are earning more money per individual cupcake and our customers are happy too.”