There was no way Mackenzie Corbin was going to buy Mad Hatter Cupcake Shop — that’s what she had thought, at least, she recalled this month while sitting in the newly-reopened dining room at the bakery she now owns with her husband, Stephen.
Corbin is a Jacksonville State University marketing graduate who worked at Mad Hatter for about seven years as one of her three jobs, along with a student worker role at the university ROTC and merchandiser and marketer at Kohl’s while attending school. She’d always been baking, she said, a hobby she picked up from her grandmother, who owned a bakery of her own. But when she heard former Mad Hatter owner Carol Watts was planning to sell the business, Corbin just laughed.
“I thought I would rather die than own a bakery,” Corbin quipped, still very much alive. “People asked me if I’d ever thought about owning a bakery, which was hilarious to me — but I kept thinking about it.”
The decision to keep the shop alive is paying off, with the stock selling out before closing time more days than not, even with Corbin baking as many as 650 cupcakes per day.
The menu changes every 10 days or so; sometimes the cupcakes are traditional, made with red velvet or strawberry and cream cheese, while others are topped with mini-Moon Pies, peanut butter cups and sometimes cooked with a touch of alcohol, for holidays like St. Patrick’s Day.
New additions to the business include the reopened dining room and booths, and an online ordering system at madhatcupcakes.com, where customers can make orders about a day in advance, and get a look at the current and upcoming cupcake selections.
“We’re grateful to everyone who has been so receptive to us as new owners,” Corbin said. “The response has been incredible.”
Visit Mad Hatter Cupcake Shop on the west side of Public Square, follow them on Facebook at Mad Hatter Cupcake Shop and order online at madhatcupcakes.com.
