The Queen’s Cups
“I think cupcakes make people very happy.”
“So I’m going to put maple syrup on top of this.”
“Cupcakes are very fun and creative, and that’s what I like.”
“I’m Renée King and this is the Queen’s Cups.”
Located in the historic Canal District in Worcester, The Queen’s Cups is an ultra creative bakery specializing in all things yummy according to owner, Renee King.
“The Queen’s Cups is my baby. It’s a handcrafted bakery where we specialize in cupcakes of all different kinds, cakes, and all different types of treats. Our cupcakes are made fresh every day, we bake all day long, hundreds of cupcakes, and I think what makes them so different is that we come up with all different kinds.We just try and take any type of dessert or any combination that we think would taste good together and make it into a little cupcake.”
And while Renee may be queen, there’s a whole kingdom behind this fearless frosting leader- including her parents Barbara and Paul.
“The queen is my daughter. She is the queen. She rules the roost. She knows what she wants and she runs her business, and she’s a special kid.”
“Everyone always calls me the queen, and I secretly hate it because I couldn’t run my business without first and foremost, my parents, but my staff because if I had to do this all by myself again, we wouldn’t be here today.”
“My dad gets here every day at 5 AM and he does all the baking. He’s here all day- 5 to 4 normally. On his feet all day, never takes a break, never eats but he’s amazing because he has so much to offer us. I never went to culinary school, and a lot of the girls who have gone to culinary school, we still learn from him every day, and I just think that’s one of the greatest gift.”
“When things get hard or stressful, they’re the ones who are there for me, ….you know, your family’s who you can count on 100%, and I’m very, very lucky and blessed. The process here starts very early in the morning and goes all day. We mix the batters, we sift all the flour, we scoop it into the cupcake pan. We bake them for about 18 to 22 minutes depending on what type of cake it is, and we put them all out on our trays. We hole them, put a filling inside, put a frosting inside and as soon as we’re done, we put in on another tray, and then we put it out for the display.”
Cupcake flavors change all the time, so depending upon when you visit, you may find the sinful Strawberry Milkshake or that campfire favorite, S’mores, stuffed with fluff and topped with chocolate frosting, mini marshmallows and graham cracker. And for some breakfast by way of dessert, treat yourself to a Blueberry Pancakes with Bacon Cupcake.
“The blueberry pancakes with bacon, is a blueberry cupcake with cream cheese frosting, maple syrup, homemade blueberry reduction, bacon on top and then we normally sprinkle it with some confectioner’s sugar. It tastes like a blueberry pancake that you’d get at your local diner with bacon on the side and I always dip my bacon in maple syrup, and that’s exactly what it tastes like.”
And for two great tastes that taste great together, order the Peanut Butter High Hat.
“The peanut butter high hat is a chocolate cupcake, it has peanut butter inside with peanut butter buttercream, and then we dip it in a chocolate shell, and put a peanut butter drizzle on it. If you love Reese’s Cups, that’s exactly what it tastes like.”
Beyond cupcakes, the Queen’s Cup offers many other sweet treats from housemade Whoopie Pies and Apple Crisp, to Lemon Bars Paul makes the old school way with real lemon juice. And if you’re looking for Renee’s mom, you’ll probably find her piping her famous push pops. This layered labor of love has Barbara filling cylinders with cake, frosting and other goodies for the ultimate hand held snack you can eat with ease.
“You just push it up from the bottom. There’s a little piece on the bottom and you push it up slowly so that it just comes above the edge, and you just take your bites out of it that way, and if you don’t want to eat it all at once, there’s a cover, you can put it on there and then you can just save it for later and it’ll stay fresh.”
“They just remind me of the Flintstones ice cream push pop and she’s the only one who can make them. I don’t even attempt ’cause they’re not the same, but you basically just put a cupcake in a little container to go, and it’s perfect.”
Other creative Queen’s Cup sweets include the Dunkeroos- featuring Homemade Graham Crackesr served with Funfetti Frosting in a cup and their signature Matilda Cakes made with love by baker, Felicia.
“One of the first things that we do in the morning here is we get the flour ready for the Matilda….We don’t use a mixer. You don’t want to over beat it, so then she bakes it, waits for it to cool, cuts it in half, then she takes our homemade ganache and she does this little swirl thing, fills that middle with it, puts the other half on top, and then pretty much drenches the entire thing with ganache. It’s like a volcano, I would say, just erupting…..but man, I don’t know, it’s just so good and I just love that cake.”
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And at the end of the day, it ain’t easy being Queen. But ruling this sweet empire is something Renee truly enjoys.
“I want our customers to know that whatever cupcake they’re eating took a lot of thought and a lot of pride, and a lot of love. I don’t think people always expect that, and they always get so excited when they come here. I wish I could stand behind the counter sometime and take a photo of their reactions but I think when they come here they know how much my staff loves what they do and how much pride that we take in to what we make all day. That’s the most important thing to me.”
