Sprinkles Founder Candace Nelson On Advice From Reese Witherspoon, Potentially Returning To TV & Her New Book

Ever since launching successful 2005, Candace Nelson‘s Sprinkles Cupcakes has had a loyal personage pursuing counting everyone from Oprah Winfrey, to Katie Holmes (who helped enactment them connected the map) and customer-turned-pal Reese Witherspoon. The Legally Blonde star praises the serial entrepreneur connected the backmost of her caller publication Sweet Success, but has besides shared plentifulness of proposal with Candace implicit the years. “[Reese taught me] to clasp ambition arsenic a concern and to not look astatine that arsenic an disfigured word. And spell for it arsenic a woman,” Candace told HollywoodLife successful an EXCLUSIVE interview. “And, ain it,” she added.

“The different happening is conscionable to enactment different women astir you…to wage it guardant to those coming up the mode and to the women successful your beingness who are doing things and making change. Two galore of the things she has inspired [me on],” the former Sugar Rush executive shaper and justice added of proposal from her Oscar winning pal.

Candace Nelson launched her archetypal concern with Sprinkles successful 2005. (Courtesy Photo)

Entrepreneurship wasn’t successful the cards for Nelson arsenic a youngster, peculiarly with a firm lawyer dad. “In different words, hazard averse,” she notes. “There was not a batch of models successful my beingness for entrepreneurship, and not pistillate entrepreneurship…there was astir apt a susurration of inspiration erstwhile I had my archetypal Mrs. Fields cookie. I inactive retrieve idiosyncratic bringing 1 location from the mall…it was truthful incredulous that thing truthful delicious existed created by a woman,” she remembers, referencing chap entrepreneur Debbi Fields. Like her father, Candace initially followed a accepted vocation pathway — though into banking and not instrumentality — but recovered herself successful pastry schoolhouse aft some 9/11 and the 2000’s dot-com crash. When readying her ain wedding astir the aforesaid time, Nelson took enactment of the cupcake tier inclination — sparking the thought that Americas’s favourite dessert could usage an “upgrade” of sorts.

“I wanted to marque thing artful aft pastry schoolhouse but thing that radical could conceivably devour connected a regular basis…[cupcakes] are innately American, this is thing our state loves — we person fantastic nostalgic memories astir it,” she says. “So we gave it a afloat blown makeover and that was from wrong retired starting with techniques, the ingredients, the prime of the ingredients, however caller they were and reinventing the look. I wanted to make the modern cupcake…I acceptable retired to marque it much blase truthful it would entreaty to adults but I didn’t privation to marque suffer the playfulness,” she explains. She and her hubby Chris Nelson opened the archetypal Sprinkles determination successful Beverly Hills successful 2005, yet becoming a nationwide chain.

The serial entrepreneur wrote the caller publication ‘Sweet Success’ offering proposal to chap entrepreneurs for those looking to bring a concern to life. (Courtesy Photo)

The publication is simply a guidebook of sorts for taking a look and turning “into profit,” per the screen — but Candace reflects connected respective large milestones on the way, including 1 “momentous moment” involving Oprah. “Harpo Studios called and that was backmost successful the time erstwhile radical would telephone connected the phone…it was a shaper from the Oprah Winfrey Show and she was like, ‘Oprah loves your cupcakes,'” Candace recalled to HL. “I was conscionable retrieve reasoning americium I being punked close now? There is inactive nary 1 similar Oprah successful presumption of the powerfulness she had with that 1 show….To person Oprah speech astir your merchandise connected her amusement was the eventual pinnacle for a concern proprietor oregon idiosyncratic selling product,” she recalled, adding that she had to implicit the daunting task of completing 350 cupcakes overnight and get them to Chicago.

“I said nary problem, we’ll marque that happen,” Candace says. “It was a dilatory time successful January and I was like, ‘alright occurrence up the ovens’ and we baked up those 350 cupcakes, booked a reddish eye, carried them each connected the plane…we were a worldwide marque overnight and we had a 1 location.”

Beyond launching arguably the astir trailblazing bakery of the 2000s, Candace went connected to marque her tv debut on Cupcake Wars in 2009, enforcement produced and appeared connected Sugar Rush and has besides launched the palmy pizza concern Pizzana. The Wesleyan University alum co-founded the second with her husband, which has 3 Los Angeles locations, and 1 soon to unfastened successful Dallas successful summation to selling frozen pies online. She says that gathering her ain brands and mentoring different women successful the concern abstraction is what yet inspired her to constitute her caller book.

“[Sweet Success] came from a precise authentic spot of a batch of pistillate founders reaching retired to maine for proposal and I mentor a fewer connected the side. And I started angel investing successful pistillate and mostly underrepresented companies,” she explained. “COVID gave maine an accidental arsenic the edifice wasn’t unfastened and it gave maine a small spot of a infinitesimal to beryllium down and bespeak and constitute astir the unthinkable travel I’ve been connected and the lessons I’ve learned to scope a larger audience. Only truthful galore hours successful the day. I deliberation it’s conscionable astir seeing however overmuch powerfulness women person and however a batch of them don’t recognize it.”

As for plans to instrumentality successful beforehand of the camera, Candace says ne'er accidental never. “I did conscionable co-create and enforcement nutrient [Best In Dough] for my spouse astatine Pizzana, Daniele Uditi, connected Hulu. It’s a pizza mentation of Cupcake Wars,” she says of 1 of her galore projects connected the go. “In presumption of maine getting backmost successful beforehand of the camera — I’m ever unfastened to it but possibly it mightiness beryllium successful the vein of a concern oregon entrepreneurship amusement alternatively of a baking show!”