Mystic Sugar Bakery: Holiday Cupcakes: ‘Jack Frost,’ ‘Gingerbread Man,’ and ‘Humpty Dumpty’ | Party

“I was always the one baking the cakes,” she said of gatherings with family and friends.

With the support of her husband, Jason, she realized she could keep her job and still go to culinary school. So Skinner decided to pursue her passion.

“Once I got my degree in pastry arts, I said, ‘now we have to do something with it.’ So we jumped in and bought the trailer and started there.”

Mystic Sugar Bakery started out of a trailer in the parking lot of a North Conway resort. From the start, Skinner baked up a glittering gala of treats like jumbo cupcakes, crackers and cookies, and cakes, though the options weren’t as many as there are today.

Eventually, they found a building with more kitchen space in North Conway Village, where she makes hand-sized cookies (so her customers say), giant cupcakes with various whimsical frostings piled on top, tarts and macarons, when the weather is nice. .

Skinner, originally from Virginia Beach, thought it would be fun to name the cupcakes after various fairy tales because “it makes it easier to name the cupcakes.”

The topic went hand in hand with her experience as a preschool teacher. “She just came out naturally,” she said.

And the flavors match the names, somehow. “Wicked Stepmother” is a chocolate cake filled with raspberry jam and fudge buttercream. “This Little Piggy” is a maple-soaked blueberry pie, maple buttercream, a waffle slice, and candied bacon. “True Love’s Kiss” includes “moscato-scented pie filled with moscato-soaked peaches, moscato buttercream, and sprinkles.”

They’re not all fairytale names, though: there’s also Pixie Kisses, Mystic Unicorn, and The Three Lemons: vanilla cake with lemon curd, lemon buttercream, and sour lemon caramel.One elusive item is her macarons, which she calls her “unicorn,” because it takes more time and skill to put together.

“They are super picky. If it rains outside, they don’t work… if it’s too hot, if it’s too cold… . It’s a meringue-based cookie and slight differences in humidity (will affect) them.”

There’s a dash of decadent mystery to Mystic Sugar’s delights, too. The “Dark Magic” cupcake is a devil’s food cake with fudge buttercream and a “sprinkling of magic”.

It’s unclear what the ‘magic’ is, but the mystery has helped the popular local shop’s reputation continue to grow.

New Hampshire has noticed his handiwork. In honor of National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day on August 4, Skinner’s Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookie was nominated Best in the State by Yelp and was listed by Bake Magazine.

“Our claim to fame right now is our chocolate chip cookie. We are very proud of that.”

Her special ingredient, she said, is browning the butter before using it in the recipe.

“We have some little secret ingredients in there. They are very rich. And they are huge. And they are loaded with very good chocolate. But the brown butter is what makes the difference,” she said.

Michele Marks and Mike Nicholaou from Chicago often drop by when visiting relatives in the area. They were hooked on their chocolate chip cookies and from there they went down the list of fairytale cupcakes and other treats.

It was easy for both of them to name the cupcakes, but difficult to choose their favorites.

Nicholaou is a big fan of the brown butter chocolate chip cookie; Marks’s favorites were many. They included Pixie Kisses, Dark Magic, Fairy Godmother, Mystic Unicorn, and Wicked Stepmother, “a chocolate cake with a big swirl of chocolate frosting, with all the glitter and a raspberry on top,” Marks said.

And she’s partial to the “Everything But The Kitchen Sink” cookie: a buttered popcorn cookie with pretzels, potato chips, caramel, and white chocolate chips.

His first pick was Big Bad Wolf: chocolate cake filled with cannoli cream, vanilla buttercream with chocolate chips, and a cannoli sprinkle.

One day, the two surprised Skinner by walking into the store wearing homemade T-shirts with the store’s logo and the words “Official Taste Testers.”

Forget dainty, dainty things like petite fours—Skinner goes big and bold.

“Instead of going really small and cute, we just go giant and exaggerated. People have come to expect that this is where you come when you need a lot of important things.”

“The cupcakes are bigger than what you can get at the store. Ours are the size of giant muffins.”

Marks put it another way.

“If you were to put a cookie in your hand, it would easily rise from the palm of your hand to the tip of your finger.”

“Cupcakes are bigger than a baseball. The cookies are like a thick coaster. It gives generous portions,” Nicholaou said.

Skinner also makes sure to use a generous helping of sparkly, edible glitter.

“Everything is shiny (and) very shiny. They are as pretty as they are good,” she said.

According to Marks, Skinner’s black Kitchenaid mixer is “totally blacked out” and covered in shiny gold stickers.

This holiday season, Skinner is planning pies, charcuterie dessert boards, cookie tins, trays of cinnamon rolls, peppermint bark (with sprinkles and glitter), and boxes of truffles. Other signature items include Eggnog Cheesecake with Gingerbread Cookie Crust and Buttermilk Cookies,

The cinnamon roll tray features four flavors, “Cinnamon Rolls with Cream Cheese Frosting, we have a Cinnamon Roll with Blueberry Streusel, a Cinnamon Roll with Caramel Apple Pie, and Drunken Monkey Bread.”

There are also new giant cupcakes for the season.

The “Jack Frost” is a chocolate cake with peppermint ganache and peppermint buttercream. The “Gingerbread Man” cupcake has gingerbread cake, cream cheese buttercream, and cinnamon, and has a little gingerbread man on top. A “Humpty Dumpty” cupcake is a vanilla cake, eggnog custard, and bourbon buttercream.

Their charcuterie dessert trays include waffle pieces, cookies and other treats with four different buttercream frostings for dipping. “We have the cookie wedges, the brownie bites, the Rice Krispie treats, and our Belgian waffles. It’s like a little biscuits and gravy situation. A group of 10 could nibble on them very easily,” she said.

Skinner appreciates her local clients who have followed her to new locations while she has moved.

“It’s just that kind of town…we have a lot of loyal local customers that come all the time,” he said.

And he likes to try different recipes with his customers.

“I love experimenting with different flavors. We have a Chinese five-spice caramel cookie that took a while to catch on. Once they tasted it, they realized it was really good.”

Another welcome addition is a mint chocolate pan dulce. “That one was very well received because you don’t see chocolate shortbread cookies very often,” he said.

“Our customers don’t hesitate to tell us if it’s something they really enjoy. We try to keep them in rotation; we will accept applications,” she added.

She advises people to check her Facebook page, call ahead, or head to the store to place holiday orders. The Friday before Christmas is the last day to pick up orders.