How a Chance Encounter Turned La Cañada's Newest Businesswoman Into a Cupcake Celebrity

Just a few years ago, Annette Starbuck was a bored accountant who enjoyed baking as a hobby and would sometimes offer up her cupcakes at charity events. 

Then one day a producer of the Food Network's Cupcake Wars tried one of Starbuck's cupcakes at an event. Before long, Starbuck was winning thousands of dollars on the show, walking the red carpet at glamourous Hollywood events and gaining enough fame to parlay it into her own successful cupcake shop, Goodie Girls, which is located in Glendale and opened in 2011. She's also appeared on several local television news shows and now she's opened up a second shop in La Cañada Flintridge. All of this happened because she was "bored" and enjoyed baking as a hobby. Only in L.A.?

On Saturday, Starbuck celebrated the grand opening of Goodie Girls in La Cañada. Her story is an interesting and inspiring one, read our interview with her below:

Patch: How did the grand opening Go?

Annette Starbuck: It was awesome. We had a line past Rite Aid most of the time. It was insanely intense; we couldn’t stop cooking, so that was a good thing. We had a lot of fans come out. Especially since we only posted it about a week before we opened, that was amazing support from the community. There were people, past fans and friends, and lots of new people up here.

Patch: So some of your old customers from the other store came?

Starbuck: We always have the little girls in the tutus because I wore a tutu on Cupcake Wars, so anytime you see a little girl in a tutu, it’s because they know. They are so cute. They come dressed.

Patch: And what’s behind the tutu idea? 

Starbuck: I have no idea. I just like everything girlie.

Patch: So what made you pick La Cañada as a second location?

Starbuck: Our Glendale location, a lot of customers come from La Cañada. And so, I was looking to build out a kitchen because our other location doesn’t have one. And I didn’t want traffic. So, I put two and two together and we started looking up in this area. And then we found this spot. I used to go to Jane’s, and still do all the time. So it was perfect. I saw the address when I pulled up and I loved immediately where I was at because of going to Jane’s.

Patch: How do you plan on spending time between here and your old shop? Are you here mostly now to kind of get things established? Should people expect to see you when they drop by?

Starbuck: Yeah, I’ll be here all the time. I’m here four in the morning until 8 at night most of the time. I have a staff that comes in to help, but Glendale is run by my sister right now, along with one of the first girls I ever had working for me. So they are taking care of that store.

Patch: So what made you decide to open up a cupcake/treat shop? What was behind the idea originally?

Starbuck: I have no idea. I was an accountant in Malibu and I was just doing cupcakes on the side for like big charity events because I was bored. And so I would just do them. And then one of the producers from Cupcake Wars was there, and she was like, “You’ve got to be on the show, this is amazing.” And I was like, “No, I have no idea.” And she was like, “No, I’m calling you Monday to be on the show.” And I thought, you know, it’s showbiz, they’ll probably forget. They’re not going to give me a call. And then she called me on Monday and was like, “Okay, this is going to be your shoot date.” From that point, I didn’t even know how to bake from scratch. I was still like box mix, but kind of making it my own. I was like, oh my gosh I have to learn how to bake from scratch! I’ve never been to school. I had like three weeks.

Patch: And then you won!

Starbuck: I won.

Patch editor's wife, Ivy, who is sitting nearby: What was your winning cupcake?

Starbuck: We did four, because we did the Kentucky Derby.

Patch: Do you watch that show, honey? She watches the Food Network all the time.

Starbuck: Okay. Yeah, we did milt julep, blueberry pancake, peaches and cream—which we have today—and bubbly, which is chocolate strawberry champagne.

Patch: Okay, so take me through what happened then. You won, and you think you should open a store? Did I read that you took some of the winnings and invested in your first shop?

Starbuck: Well, you don’t’ get the winnings right away. You get it later as a bonus, which is nice. But, um, honestly it was just like, I didn’t know that you could do something as a passion, that you are passionate about, for a job. It’s kind of like, you know you go home and do your things that you like to do as a hobby. You don’t ever think that a hobby could become what you do for a living, so at that point I was kind of like, well, I’m a good businessperson. So I might as well—I can either say, “Well, that was fun.” Or I can do something about it. So that’s what I did.

Patch: So how did you go about opening up your first shop then?

Starbuck: I rented a kitchen in Pasadena so I didn’t have to build out a kitchen, and then I just opened a small storefront. 

Patch: And you brought the cupcakes in?

Starbuck: Uh huh. Every morning. It’s prepackaged only there. So every morning we would, I’m all about packaging, so I would find cute containers and I would just doctor them up and then we would drive them over every morning. So we would bake them up over there at four and then drive them over. So, this is our first kitchen.

Patch: Yeah, I see you have it set up so people can kind of watch the baking.

Starbuck: I like the viewing. I love to cook at all that.

Patch: And you were an accountant so you know how to keep the books.

Starbuck: I hate keeping the books. You don’t ever want to keep your books. Now that I actually get to do what I love I don’t want to go back to doing that. But I do.

Patch: Now, I know you were on the show twice. Are there any more appearances coming up?

Starbuck: They asked us to be back on. So we’ll see.

Read more about Starbuck and find clips to her TV appearances on her blog. Goodie Girls is located at 637 W Foothill Blvd. in La Cañada Flintridge.

Editor's note: This Q&A interview has been edited slightly for content and clarity.