Mar 25, 2017 7 min read

MT. LEBANON – Chatty Cupcakes are fast-becoming the talk of the town.

And it’s not just because they’re dispensed from the only automated cupcake vending machine in the United States.

These little, scratch-made orbs of baked deliciousness feature authentic European buttercream on top – on the bottom, too – and are downright melt-in-your-mouth addicting.

Aren’t we lucky that the ACM – automated cupcake machine – is a mere hop, skip and a jump away at The Galleria of Mt. Lebanon?

On a recent Thursday morning, a steady stream of customers stood in line for their turn at the refrigerated machine, located just inside The Galleria’s front entrance near Starbucks on the ground level.

A young girl whose mom declined to identify – she was supposed to be in school, her mom confessed a tad sheepishly – studied the inventory of gourmet offerings that included lemon chiffon, salted caramel almond, red velvet and double chocolate before settling on vanilla. Her eyes grew wide as she fed the dollar bills into the machine and watched the motorized tray spring to life. It moved up, up, up past row after row of little pink boxes, stopping at the vanilla selection and oh-so-gently retrieving one, then carefully lowering its payload to the dispenser below.

The little girl grinned as she claimed her prize, thoroughly inspecting its contents. The delicate buttercream was still picture perfect after its carefully orchestrated trip through the machine.

“Mmmm,” she whispered, still eying her treasure as she and her mom walked away.

The gourmet cake and cupcake business is the brainchild of Ellan Toothman-Gannis and daughter, Ella Gannis, of Waynesburg. Assisting behind the scenes is husband Ed Gannis, who, among myriad other duties, accompanies daughter Ella on her nightly midnight runs – 40 miles one way – from the family’s licensed residential bakery in Waynesburg to restock the machine that typically is depleted of inventory every day.

“We fill the machine every day with fresh cupcakes,” Ellan said. On the rare occasion that any of the 160 cupcakes have gone unsold, they are donated to the City Mission in Washington.

In business just two years, the two women were looking for an efficient and convenient way to distribute baked goods to their customers without the traditional storefront and associated overhead. That way, they reasoned, they could continue to invest in premium ingredients to maintain the high-quality on which the business is founded.

Their gourmet cakes and cupcakes are made from scratch a single batch at a time. They use only real butter, sugar, cake flour, several kinds of high-end chocolate, pure extracts and eggs – so many, in fact, that Ellan jokes that they have hens on the payroll. They use no preservatives and no emulsifiers. The end result is a denser, richer tasting cake that isn’t as salty tasting as one made from a mix. Their buttercream is made with premium butter and an intense whipping process. “Our niche is we add a smidge of pure virgin coconut oil because it uplifts the vanilla and gives it a nice, smooth consistency,” Ellan adds.

Ellan and Ella were looking to create a standalone self-serve bakery. While other bakeries have employed the use of automation to sell cupcakes, their machines are not refrigerated, nor can the consumer see the actual products before purchase.

After meeting with various engineers, they found vending machine manufacturer Magex in Vicenza, Italy, which could design the ACM to their specifications, complete with Wi-Fi, enabling Ellan and Ella to communicate with the machine from anywhere. “It took us a year,” Ellan said. “They had to build it. They had exactly what we needed because our buttercream is delicate.”

The ACM arrived in late December and in just three months has generated a “tidal wave of business” for the entrepreneurs.

Business has been so good, in fact, that they are weighing their next move, which could include adding more machines in other locations. But for now, the company of three employees – Ellan, Ella and Ed – is at capacity.

“We don’t know what our next move is,” said Ella, who by 10 a.m. on this particular morning already had delivered an order of cupcakes to a customer in the area. “But we can’t stay this way. Sundays and Mondays, many bakeries are closed. Not us. We are here every day, every night, baking 160 cupcakes. Then we have weddings, birthdays and special orders.”

Added Ellan, “We’re looking for ways to be smart about taking it to the next level.”

Before starting Chatty Cupcakes, Ellan worked 25 years as a management consultant, traveling extensively to provide executive training to corporations. Heavily influenced by European baking, she and Ella took cooking classes in Italy and England, studying with such well-known chefs as Gerhard Jenne of Konitor and Cook Bakeries, and Peggy Porschen of Peggy Porschen Academy and Peggy Porschen Parlour in London.

“We study, and we constantly tweak the recipes,” Ellan said. “I’ve become a scientist in baking. To think this thing makes that do this. This is more of the creative side, and yet it has a technical side that I need. It’s fascinating.”

A junior communications major at the University of Pittsburgh, Ella is in charge of customer service, marketing and deliveries as well as custom design of specialty cakes. She opted to take a gap semester to concentrate on the business.

“We’re very practical in our approach to making the very best cakes and cupcakes from scratch,” Ellan said. “That is the one thing that distinguishes us. And we always work toward bettering that. We only use premium ingredients. We’re also very creative; that’s what creates interest. We like to make beautiful cakes and cupcakes. It’s the detail work that makes the difference.

“We do things the hard way. We don’t bake in the liners. We give spoons. We just like the way that looks, more elegant. We bake without liners, and we place the cupcakes in the cups. That also enables us to put buttercream in the bottom.”

The attention to detail extends to product packaging, from the custom-designed cake boxes to the quotes that are featured on the cup that holds every cupcake.

And that’s where the “chatty” part of the business comes in.

“We love words,” Ellan explained. “We love quotes. And we’ve been influenced by that.”

Some of the quotes are funny; some are inspiring. A few, Ellan admits, are sometimes snarky.

“We just like to go up to the edge and not tip over,” she said with a laugh. “We don’t want to offend anyone.”

So what are the ACM’s top sellers?

“Pittsburgh is definitely a chocolate, peanut butter kind of town,” said Ellan, quickly adding, “actually, chocolate town.”

Repeat customer Hannah Sosinski of Beechview likes them all.

Patiently awaiting her turn at the ACM, she confides she has been coming to The Galleria to buy Chatty Cupcakes since the machine was delivered.

“I was there every day at first,” she said. “I’d get here at 9 before they sold out,” she chuckled.

Now she comes weekly, but admitted that the four-pack she was buying would probably last “maybe an hour.

“I have nothing bad to say about them. They are addicting.”

For more information, visit Chatty Cupcakes online at www.chattycupcakes.com/.