When walking through the front door of Daisy Pops in Kent, customers are greeted by decorative and colorful desserts with scents of batter and frosting that gives the shop its unique character.

Amy Mucha, founder of Daisy Pops, retired from teaching high school math at Cuyahoga Valley Christian Academy to pursue her cake pop business full time in April when the shop opened. Named after her daughter, the business provides the community with fun and flavorful cake pops. 

The community has treated Mucha and her business well since the opening, with recurring faces consistently walking through the door, she said. 

“Opening day was pretty pretty special,” Mucha said. “It was great to see so many people who you know, just from different areas of my life… all being there celebrating together, which was so special.” 

Mucha said the business, to her standards, gained success and now has increased production.  

“[Business has] been popping,” Mucha said. “We have increased the number of cake pops that we are going through, which is always the goal. My goal for the Pop Shop is always that it would bring in enough revenue that it would cover the rental cost and the cost of operations of the bakery behind it. So we are happy with that.”

Holidays and special events, such as Wizarding Weekend, have given the team members of Daisy Pops the ability to expand upon their products and stay festive, Mucha said. 

“Wizarding Weekend here was crazy,” Mucha said. “We were also doing make your own [Wizarding] house cake pops here at the Pop Shop. And it was incredibly busy but so much fun.” 

Mucha said her business benefits from being so close to the university, as students come pop in to check out what is in the display cases. She is also looking at ways to increase the engagement with the student demographic. 

“College kids will pop by every now and then,” Mucha said. “We’re talking to some college groups now about doing ‘cake pops for a cause event’ where you know, they come help us sell cake pops for a couple hours and then they get a percentage of the proceeds. So we’re looking forward to that.”

Gabby Schmidt, an employee at the shop and a freshman early childhood education major, began working in the middle of September and enjoys the fun work environment. 

“Everybody’s very positive,” Schmidt said. “The coworkers are around my age. And one, she is the same major in everything as me.”

Schmidt said the Pop Shop connects with the local communities, those of both the city of Kent and the university.

“It’s a lot of younger kids, and they get really excited,” Schmidt said. “So like we’ll ring a bell and then the yell cake pops and then we all yell like woohoo, really loudly so like, it’s kind of just like upbeat.”

Daisy Pops is located at 154 N. Water St. and is open 11 a.m. – 7 p.m. from Monday –  Saturday.

Lex Ogilvie is a reporter. Contact her at [email protected].