This former teacher turned her passion for baking into success. Now she's serving up cupcakes for the Super Bowl.
Only one NFL head coach is bound to be on the receiving end of a Gatorade dunk, countless pats on the back and a champagne spray or two come Sunday night, but as far as consolation prizes go, there's nothing quite like an irresistibly sweet cupcake to soften the sting of a Super Bowl loss.
Those invited to the Super Bowl LVI after-party for NFL coaches will find that out for themselves thanks to the treats baker Karolyn Plummer has cooked up as her hometown of Inglewood, Calif., prepares to host the local Los Angeles Rams and Cincinnati Bengals. As the owner of Inglewood's Sweet Red Peach Custom Cakes and Pastries, Plummer has been tapped to prepare some 2,000 cupcakes for the event — a challenge she likens to "our baking Super Bowl."
While Plummer's spread will include cupcakes adorned with Bengals-themed toppers and sprinkles, it's little wonder which team she's cheering on. As the NFL Network vendor who's been whipping up treats in the lead-up to the big game points out, Sweet Red Peach is just a "stone's throw" from SoFi Stadium, home of both the Rams and the Chargers and site of this year's big game.
"I can walk out my front door of the bakery and go right into the stadium," she tells Yahoo Life.
"We are part of the Rams house," she adds. "So we are going to be a little biased when it comes to that, because, hey, we have to represent our home team. I'm quite sure their bakeries out there in Ohio are representing [their team], but we won't leave our Bengals customers out."
When it comes to repping Matthew Stafford and company, Plummer's going all out. She'll be serving a Rams-inspired twist on her popular "blue lemonade" cupcake, in which blue velvet cake and lemon cake are marbled together with lemon frosting and topped with sprinkles.
Her loyalty to the Rams goes beyond football; she credits the team's community outreach with helping to "make Inglewood shine." Indeed, supporting her community is a cause that's long been close to Plummer's heart. Prior to opening her bakery in 2011 — and through her first year in business — Plummer was a teacher in nearby Compton for 17 years.
"I always say, there's two things I can do well: bake cakes and teach children to read," she shares.
Working for the Compton Unified School District, Plummer notes that her former students represented "a lot of different demographics of children," including a considerable number of kids from the foster care system and those who grew up in underprivileged homes. Some students were further ahead than others; she recalls the "heartbreaking" realization that some sixth-graders remained at a first-grade reading level. But the reward that came with working with the kids and seeing them make breakthroughs is something she'll never forget.
"Once you see that light in their eyes and they feel like they got it, it'll bring you to tears," she tells Yahoo Life.
Plummer relished her time as an educator and having "the privilege to teach children that wanted to better their situation." She takes pride in her work supporting those that needed it, whether it was through her reading sessions or even pay for a student's lunch. But her passion for baking wasn't something she could ignore.
A self-taught baker, Plummer started selling her confections on the side, eventually opening a Los Angeles bakery she ran while still teaching. She did, however, briefly step away from the profession in the mid-2000s after an opportunity to move her business to Las Vegas arose. But when that bakery business went bust, she moved back to L.A. and resumed teaching. She also threw herself into working toward a masters degree, thinking that perhaps her future lie, not in baking, but in becoming a school principal or administrator.
During that time, she swore off baking — "but there was still something in me that could not get rid of the baking bug." About two years into her hiatus, she finally agreed to bake a cake for someone, which led to her picking up accounts with local eateries, which, in 2011, led to emptying out her retirement savings and opening up Sweet Red Peach. The name, she explains, is a nod to some of her most popular flavors: sweet potato, red velvet and peach.
"I decided to leave teaching to pursue my passion of baking," she says. "After 17 years, I said, 'You know what? Life is short. There are no do-overs. Do what you love.' Some people go throughout their whole life without finding their passion. I was blessed to find [mine]. ... I set out on a journey by saying, 'Hey, teaching has been good to me, but it's time to write the next chapter of my life. Took that retirement, took those insurance policies and bet it all on Sweet Red Peach."
She continued juggling baking and teaching until 2012, when she quit the latter to commit full-time to Sweet Red Peach as its business bloomed. Her role as a NFL vendor participating in this year's Super Bowl is a testament to her success as a baker — though Plummer hasn't forgotten her educator roots.
"I would love to open a baking school for underprivileged children," she reveals, adding that she hopes her own story will inspire others.
"If you want to do this, you can do it also," she says. "You don't have to be a product of your environment. You can make your situation better."
—Video produced by Olivia Schneider