The Thundercakes menu is about to get even sweeter.

Thundercakes, a delivery-only dessert business, will reopen and start a promotion called the Thunderous 5 on Tuesday. Five selected desserts will be available for same-day delivery, rather than the usual two to three day delivery time.

The Thunderous 5 promotion will continue all year and rotate flavors seasonally. During the first week of each new rotation, each dessert will be 15 percent off. The first rotation will include gold ganache cake, chocolate pecan turtle cookies, maple bacon cinnamon rolls, Georgia, Honey! cupcakes and chai tea cupcakes.

Courtnee Futch, a senior communication and rhetorical studies major and CEO of Thundercakes, said that with the Thunderous 5 promotion, she hopes to reach out to impulse buyers. When customers think of something they want to eat, they don’t want to wait, she said.

“This is people having the ability to place their order by 2 p.m. and receive it no later than 7 (p.m.) on the same day, which is definitely unheard of,” Futch said.

Futch started Thundercakes from her dorm room three years ago. She sold baked goods to other students because she was low on money. Now, she has a bakery space and a trained staff that fulfills 70–80 orders a week.

The amount of support Futch has received from her customers came as somewhat of a surprise, and she said she has a plan for her business to further expand, possibly through a location on Marshall Street.

“I don’t think I was expecting for people to be as willing to share my dream with me,” she said.

There are now Thundercakes regulars, including one mom who places an order for her daughter every 10 days on the dot, Futch said.

From sweet potato cheesecake to chocolate covered potato chip cupcakes, the menu contains flavors that customers wouldn’t normally find in other bakeries. Futch said her mantra is that each item is made “with love and butter.”

Futch predicts that of the first set of Thunderous 5, the chai tea cupcakes will be the most popular because they have always been a bestseller since added to the original menu. The cupcakes are infused with spiced chai tea reduction, iced with salted caramel icing and sprinkled with cinnamon cayenne sugar.

When coming up with new flavors, Futch likes to add her own twist to trendy desserts. She is in the process of coming up with her own take on the “cronut,” a cross between a croissant and a donut. She also likes unexpected pairings, such as pumpkin with salted caramel.

A self-proclaimed “go with the flow type,” Futch said she is experimental when it comes to making additions to Thundercakes’ menu.

“Whenever I think of something new, I kind of just put it on the menu and wait for somebody to order it, then I just kind of go in the kitchen and play around with it,” Futch said.

Previous Thundercakes promotions have played a part in the business’s success, said Gabriela Carrero, a senior international relations major and friend of Futch.

“She is very successful when she does her promotions.” Carrero said. “Even when she started I remember it was her promoting her baked goods as, ‘I know you’re tired of studying right now and you need that little pick me up.’ That’s what she did freshman year in the dorms, and a lot of people obviously went and bought her stuff.”

Carrero finds Thundercakes marketing hard to resist, especially the pictures that are posted on Instagram, and said one reason is because the Thundercakes desserts are deliciously indulgent.

Futch’s combination of baking skills, creativity and business savvy have allowed her business to grow, Carrero added. Even through her successes, Futch is always looking to improve.

“She just has the whole package — she really does,” Carrero said. “And she understands that she has a long way to go, and she understands that she can only get better at anything else she does. But that’s also what helps her, because she’s always striving to do better.”

Published on November 10, 2014 at 12:01 am