What makes this Lake Wylie sweet shop tops in three counties? It’s more than cupcakes
Three years ago, Joy Sanderson took the leap.
She knew she could bake. She knew a piece of property. She didn’t know how the community would respond to a new business. She certainly didn’t know COVID loomed.
Sanderson left her 14-year tenure and head baker title at a Harris Teeter store to open Fast Frog Bakery. The shop on S.C. 55, just off the old Five Points intersection, is the nearest bakery for tens of thousands of people in fast-growing Lake Wylie. Now customers come and call in, not only from there, but as far as Rock Hill, Blacksburg, Lancaster or Chester. She gets North Carolina customers from Charlotte and Belmont.
Those customers kindled a dream three years ago, stoked it again when a global pandemic hit and most recently earned Fast Frog the title of Battle of the Sweet Treats champion.
“We were put in the contest and we said, let’s have fun with it,” said husband Galen, who works the front of the store but insists Joy and her team of bakers make all the magic happen. “Wow.”
Sweet Treats bracket results
The Herald asked readers for their favorite donut, cupcake and sweet treat spots across its three-county coverage. Then, asked readers to vote. The competition generated more than 134,000 votes in two weeks.
More than 100 readers submitted shops they wanted in the bracket. More than 11,000 online votes poured in for the ‘Sweet’ 16 round. Fast Frog finished fourth overall, second in the Cupcake Region, to advance.
Fast Frog jumped to second overall, best in its region, when the more than 6,200 total Delicious 8 votes were counted. In the Flavorful 4, Fast Frog was third but edged fellow Cupcake Region favorite Cake Lady Cafe to advance to the final. The Flavorful 4 saw more than 50,000 votes, about three times what came in the prior two rounds combined.
Fast Frog took the lead over Cake Lady with two minutes left in the vote.
Fast Frog faced a juggernaut in the Tasty 2. Lancaster shop and Donut Region champ Flavor Factory finished first overall in every round heading into the final. Flavor Factory garnered a combined 29,092 votes in the first three rounds. Fast Frog got 9,662 votes in the same span.
Then came the final. Fast Frog leaped the competition with a whopping, single round record 48,643 votes. Fast Frog won 74% of the final round votes. For the entire competition, Fast Frog finished with a best total 58,305 votes. Flavor Factory was next with 46,526 votes.
“They went crazy,” Sanderson said.
Cookies, cupcake, customers
There are two answers as to what keeps Fast Frog hopping. The first one fills a display case. Cupcakes decorated as Thanksgiving turkeys, smore brownies, pecan bars, cannoli, cake pops and cookie decorating kits filled the store Friday morning.
“Our main thing is our blueberry white chocolate oatmeal (cookie),” Sanderson said.
There’s also a strawberry OMG cake with fresh strawberry in both the batter and icing. Fast Frog does the most business in custom cakes, between four and 15 per week.
“We have weddings, baby showers, gender reveals,” Sanderson said.
Like the turkey design cupcakes, there are plenty of seasonal options. Some ideas come from customer suggestions, like recent additions of cookie trays and cocoa bombs. Or arrangements and art work customers envision, and ask Sanderson if she can replicate.
“We’ve got some really creative customers,” she said.
Which gets at the second answer to the store’s success. It’s beyond a loyal fan base. Customers poured in for the grand opening. When COVID hit, the store shut down a couple of weeks. It reopened with walk-up service and a table at the front door. People lined into the parking lot.
“It was like when we opened,” Galen said.
Sanderson doesn’t quickly look past the community support that allowed her dream to flourish.
“We survived COVID,” she said, “which you can’t say for everybody.”
The Sweet Treats bracket came out and Sanderson saw well-established shops like Cupcrazed in Fort Mill and Amelie’s in Rock Hill on her side. Opposite them, in the Donut Region, were hot Rock Hill upstarts like Rise and Shine Doughnut Cafe and MoMo Donuts along with known entities like Rainbow Donuts and Windy Hill Orchard.
Each time Sanderson figured her shop probably wouldn’t advance, customers stepped up with their clicks.
“We just appreciate everything and everybody,” Sanderson said.
Small business, big taste
Galen doesn’t see other area bakers as competitors. He sees many of them as businesses just like Fast Frog, who can use a strong following and loyal base to get through lean times. Some shops sell each others’ specialties. Some promote each other.
“We want all these small businesses to stay open,” Galen said.
There are seasonal swings. Fall is huge at Windy Hill, the York farm that nearly advanced to the final round off the apple donuts it only makes each autumn. Business booms around the holidays at Fast Frog. It’s slower in summer. Sanderson figured a fix there, when she brought on a Pelicans SnoBalls in the same building as the bakery.
That building passed down from her family. One more sign the time was right to open three years ago. Sanderson had her baking degree from Piedmont Community College. She had the experience in bakeries. Galen came from Harris Teeter too, where he’d been in the deli and bakery sections.
Victoria Boykin and Devin Eanes came on as bakers. Jena Burnopp is a full-time cake decorator. There’s a part-time business manager. Galen shakes his head at the idea people would associate him with the bakery’s success, just because he takes orders and hands out treats at the counter. He’s visible, but the bakers in the back make everything happen.
“They are the ones that deserve all the credit,” Galen said.
There wasn’t much time to revel in the Sweet Treats win on Friday. Fridays don’t allow time for much of anything. There are cake orders. Customers who call in with crossed fingers to ask if they can pick up an order an hour before the store opens, or on an off day. A big event order comes in, and there are decisions to be made between cookies and the smaller cut lemon bars that were so popular last year.
It’s not a bad problem to have, so many people wanting a piece of what Fast Frog offers. It’s what kept them open thus far. It’s what made them champions. It’s what will keep the dream alive in a small slice of Lake Wylie, where life couldn’t get much sweeter.
This story was originally published November 19, 2021 at 4:11 PM.
