Elgin couple turns home-based side business into retail cupcake shop
After years of “baking in the shadows,” a hobby that turned into a side hustle for Wendy Medina of Elgin has become a brick-and-mortar reality with the opening of Sunshine’s Cupcakery.
The new Elgin cupcake shop will hold a grand opening and ribbon cutting at 2 p.m. Saturday at 1012 McLean Blvd., in the shopping center at the northwest corner of the intersection with Bowes Road.
The first 50 people in line on Saturday will receive a free cupcake.
The retail shop was a big step for Medina and her husband Jorge after she had been selling cupcakes on the side for over 15 years while working full time.
“It’s overwhelming. It’s surreal,” Wendy Medina said. “I’m still walking in here wondering how my side hobby has become this. I’m really overjoyed.”
Like many home bakers, she started doing it to relieve stress, first in college and then when she would come home from work.
“It’s so calming and therapeutic,” she said. “It’s just me in the kitchen with the flour and sugar. It’s like the calm before the storm to help me face tomorrow.”
Medina spent years doing pop-up events and taking large orders for local churches and groups like the Boys and Girls Club while first working out of her home kitchen and then renting time in a commercial kitchen last year when she ramped up her events, adding Elgin’s downtown farmers market and Juneteenth festival.
Medina didn’t want to leave her career working for the federal government, so she never thought she could open a storefront. But when her husband suffered a back injury and could no longer run his flooring company, she found the partner she needed to take the leap.
“I asked him, ‘Jorge, take a risk with me. Will you do these cupcakes with me?’” she said.
It’s been a welcome change for Jorge, who will run the business during the day while Wendy is working.
“I enjoy it, and it doesn’t feel like a job,” he said. “So far, so good.”
The couple got help from an architect for the layout but did all the design work themselves, including the rose-covered section of a wall with their logo.
Medina said her parents have called her Sunshine since she was a baby, and she doesn’t remember her dad ever calling her Wendy.
“They’re fighting over who gets credit for the name,” she said.
The shop will feature 15 signature flavors of cupcakes, priced at $3.95 each, along with special flavors when inspiration strikes. They’ll also have four different ice creams and roughly half a dozen smoothie offerings.
They are working on bringing in an espresso machine, but for now, have coffee and tea drinks.
The store has been open for limited hours for the past week as a soft opening in preparation for Saturday. Medina still can’t believe it’s happening.
“Here I am, 17 years later, a dream that I couldn’t even imagine having is coming true,” she said.