Cupcaked x B Sweet Designs: Finding Healing & Strength in a New Partnership

Operating a business is just about the closest thing I’ve experienced to putting all of my trauma, all of my insecurities out on the table for everyone to bear witness to.
There is nowhere to hide. You must meet your shadow self & heal your wounding, otherwise you’ll operate your business from that very wounding instead of from your heart center, your intuition. Understanding deeply that the collective is deserving of your authentic expression, that YOU are WORTHY of authentically expressing yourself, takes time to get comfortable with.
I thought I could do it all…all by myself. I rarely said no. I was people pleasing, anxious, exhausted and trying to control every little detail as I went along. For over seven years, I just wanted to be seen, to be “successful,” as I defined it. And eventually, it burned me out.
Sound familiar to anyone else out there?
I was ready to throw in the towel, even though I knew there was a very faint voice in my mind telling me I should consider otherwise…

Little did I know, one of my very good friends and longtime supplier, Annie, founder of Cupcaked, was wading in the same waters.
I’m a big believer in divine intervention. If we can surrender to the Universe and allow ourselves to let go, having nothing short of pure faith that we’ll always be guided, protected and provided for, we really can witness magical alignment.
After expressing to Annie how I felt about my business, B Sweet Designs, where I was at with it and where we both thought it could go, we let the Universe guide us, and with an open mind & an open heart, redirect all of our initial expectations.
That’s when we ultimately decided to form a joint partnership.

For about six months, we worked out all of the kinks. We shared so much with each other about how we operate, not only as business owners, but as humans first…what our values are, how we think, how we set & maintain boundaries, what parts of our businesses were flowing with ease and which became stagnant, what our passions are, where we needed help. We played around with the lightness & heaviness of energy when making decisions in our business, we shared our deepest truths with one another and it sparked many triggers along the way. It became a beautiful communion of two, like-minded souls, and I quickly knew this was one of the best decisions I had ever made.
This is how we operate our new partnership, Confectionery Design Group. From the heart. It is apparent in all that we create. Underneath the umbrella of Confectionery Design Group is both Cupcaked, our bakery, and B Sweet Designs, our dessert design boutique.

B Sweet Designs was founded in 2015 by Marisa Battaglia as a dessert table design business in Buffalo, NY. Over the years, we have been featured in many high-end wedding magazines, such as Martha Stewart Wedding & BRIDES, among others, and have become a household name for high-end dessert tables for weddings & special events. We are so proud of what we’ve accomplished up until this point, and we are also so humbled and grateful for the continued support & interest we receive from our community.

Cupcaked was founded in 2017 by Annie Coe as a boutique bakery experience in Ellicottville, NY. Throughout the years, there have been many iterations of our bakery, from Salamanca all the way up to Orchard Park, but as of December 2022, it all came back full circle to where our heart resides, Ellicottville. We’ve received a number of awards & accolades for our baked goods and are so incredibly honored to be recognized & received with open arms amongst the community we cherish most!
This partnership is both strategic and also a leap of faith. It feels SO ALIGNED to have a business partner to carry the load with, to bounce ideas off of. We learn & grow with each passing day together.
And now, you’re all in for a real treat ;-)

Not only have we launched the expansion of Cupcaked Bakery next door to its former location in Ellicottville, NY, now including comfortable, gorgeous seating for up to 10, decorating classes coming soon, espresso, coffee & tea drinks, a penny candy wall, milkshakes and ice cream sundaes, in addition to what we’re most known for: our baked goods, but we’ve also got one heck of a wedding season planned this year! And we’ve got something major in the works for B Sweet Designs as well, so stay tuned!
Our plan for this blog is to share with you all our offerings, including recipes, how-to videos, product highlights, giveaways, specials, events, our monthly subscription dessert boxes & more!
We are so excited & grateful that you are here, and we are so looking forward to continuing to authentically express ourselves in this little corner of the Internet with you all!
xoxo,
Marisa & Annie