Strawberry-filled chocolate cupcakes with chocolate buttercream from Your Mom’s Bakery are equal parts tasty as visually appealing.
Writer: Karla Walsh
Each week in dsmWeekly, we’ll introduce you to a local food company owned by a person of color. Catch up on the first four features: Street Eats DSM, G.G.’s Chicken & Waffles, Palm’s Carribean Cuisine and Artis T’s Catering.
Amanda Hupton’s passion for baking began with her Easy-Bake Oven. It became real when “we couldn’t fit enough brownies into the small Easy-Bake and had to start using the real oven” to bake at a scale that would cure her siblings’ cravings.
Her baking talents rose to the occasion in a middle school home economics class, and came in handy when her daughter, Alyce, started noticing stomach symptoms that appeared to be linked to gluten intolerance.
“We’ve cut a lot of bread from our diet and started using gluten-free flour for pancakes,” Hupton says. “One test came back positive, but not enough for an official celiac disease diagnosis.”
Still, Alyce felt a lot better without the wheat, so Hupton made it a priority for her family, which she says “was actually a fairly easy switch.” That switch inspired her to research local bakeries with gluten-free options, and while she found many that offered these products, few were certified gluten-free and could promise no cross-contamination.
That’s how she came up with Your Mom’s Bakery, which passed its inspection on May 22 — yes, mid-pandemic — and is one of the newest food businesses in Des Moines. While you might guess the name of the cookie, cake and cupcakes bakery is a tribute to her mother, it’s actually a nod to owner-operator Hupton’s sharp sense of humor.
“My mom was a busy single mom and not that great of a cook herself,” Hupton says. “My older brother watched us while mom worked, my older sister cleaned and I learned how to cook. My mom loves my bakery now and is so excited to see where those brownies have taken me.”
To make people giggle, Hupton’s response to questions is occasionally “your mom.”
“So I thought it would be funny if, when people asked, ‘Where did you get those cupcakes?’ my customers could say, ‘Your Mom!’ My daughter Alyce laughs, ‘Wait, it is my mom’s bakery!’” Hupton laughs.
To spread the word about her new company, Hupton has been hosting giveaways on her Facebook page and will be partnering with Bess’s Kitchen, another local Black-owned business, to provide desserts at their pop-up picnics this summer. By day, she’s a security officer at a data center and a full-time mom of two (a son and daughter). By night, Hupton is developing a diverse array of her signature stuffed cupcakes (“my favorite is a chocolate cupcake with strawberry filling and cream cheese icing,” she says.)
Eventually, Hupton hopes to have a storefront and make Your Mom’s Bakery her full-time job. She dreams of baking large-scale cakes for weddings, birthdays and other events, and promises that she can convince even the skeptics that “gluten-free can be amazing and moist when you have the correct flour combinations and don’t overmix. When you put love into what you do, it’s going to come out lovely. And a lot of practice and hard work helps, too!”
Check out the current menu on Facebook and contact Hupton via email (yourmombakes4u@gmailcom) or phone (515.257.3092) to place and order.
Each week in dsmWeekly, we’ll introduce you to a local food company owned by a person of color. Catch up on the first four features: Street Eats DSM, G.G.’s Chicken & Waffles, Palm’s Carribean Cuisine and Artis T’s Catering.
Amanda Hupton’s passion for baking began with her Easy-Bake Oven. It became real when “we couldn’t fit enough brownies into the small Easy-Bake and had to start using the real oven” to bake at a scale that would cure her siblings’ cravings.
Her baking talents rose to the occasion in a middle school home economics class, and came in handy when her daughter, Alyce, started noticing stomach symptoms that appeared to be linked to gluten intolerance.
“We’ve cut a lot of bread from our diet and started using gluten-free flour for pancakes,” Hupton says. “One test came back positive, but not enough for an official celiac disease diagnosis.”
Still, Alyce felt a lot better without the wheat, so Hupton made it a priority for her family, which she says “was actually a fairly easy switch.” That switch inspired her to research local bakeries with gluten-free options, and while she found many that offered these products, few were certified gluten-free and could promise no cross-contamination.
That’s how she came up with Your Mom’s Bakery, which passed its inspection on May 22 — yes, mid-pandemic — and is one of the newest food businesses in Des Moines. While you might guess the name of the cookie, cake and cupcakes bakery is a tribute to her mother, it’s actually a nod to owner-operator Hupton’s sharp sense of humor.
“My mom was a busy single mom and not that great of a cook herself,” Hupton says. “My older brother watched us while mom worked, my older sister cleaned and I learned how to cook. My mom loves my bakery now and is so excited to see where those brownies have taken me.”
To make people giggle, Hupton’s response to questions is occasionally “your mom.”
“So I thought it would be funny if, when people asked, ‘Where did you get those cupcakes?’ my customers could say, ‘Your Mom!’ My daughter Alyce laughs, ‘Wait, it is my mom’s bakery!’” Hupton laughs.
To spread the word about her new company, Hupton has been hosting giveaways on her Facebook page and will be partnering with Bess’s Kitchen, another local Black-owned business, to provide desserts at their pop-up picnics this summer. By day, she’s a security officer at a data center and a full-time mom of two (a son and daughter). By night, Hupton is developing a diverse array of her signature stuffed cupcakes (“my favorite is a chocolate cupcake with strawberry filling and cream cheese icing,” she says.)
Eventually, Hupton hopes to have a storefront and make Your Mom’s Bakery her full-time job. She dreams of baking large-scale cakes for weddings, birthdays and other events, and promises that she can convince even the skeptics that “gluten-free can be amazing and moist when you have the correct flour combinations and don’t overmix. When you put love into what you do, it’s going to come out lovely. And a lot of practice and hard work helps, too!”
Check out the current menu on Facebook and contact Hupton via email (yourmombakes4u@gmailcom) or phone (515.257.3092) to place and order.
