Let them eat cake, and make them cupcakes

When studying in China a few years ago, Lexie Morris searched in vain for the quality cakes and buns so readily available at home in Britain. Morris realized that the gap presented a business opportunity - a bakery that made tasty, English-style cupcakes would appeal to expatriates and newly affluent Chinese alike. That seed of an idea ultimately became the Lollipop Bakery, a Beijing-based operation making cupcakes that are being snapped up by individuals, stores and restaurants. Morris, a graduate of the University of Cambridge, is possibly the most impressively educated baker in the city. She says: "I am really engaged with what I am doing, I find it really satisfying when compared to the corporate world and I really feel I am creating something." It is her second spell living in China's capital. On her first trip, as a student studying Chinese, Morris was not at all impressed, arriving in the middle of the harsh winter, where the temperature can stay below minus 10 Celsius degree. "I was on a plane back to London, but my parents were not happy to find me on the doorstep. They persuaded me to go back and by then it was all right. It was spring." After graduation, Morris joined a management consulting firm in London, a well-paid but dreary job that involved cold-calling potential clients. It took three months for her to decide the job was not for her. "I decided I absolutely hated it," recalls Morris, 25. "That wasn't why I worked so hard at university. I decided to look for other opportunities. The idea for the cupcake business came from going for high tea in London, to the Ritz, or Fortnum and Masons. "I have a very sweet tooth and missed cake a lot. The real catalyst was the general trend for cupcakes. It had taken off in London and other places. "I thought, 'Right, China doesn't have it yet, Beijing in particular'. Beijing was the best place to start the business and I knew the city relatively well." She spent time perfecting recipes before she headed back to Beijing. To limit outgoings, Morris opted for an older, walk-up style apartment, located in the Central Business District. The biggest expense was rewiring the apartment so it could cope with an electric oven in constant use and placing a minimum order of 10,000 for packaging boxes. She also hired three full-time staff. "At first it was just an order a day and then it really began to snowball," says Morris. An order of 24 mixed cupcakes costs about 200 yuan ($30), with choices of chocolate, vanilla, Earl Grey, spiced carrot, red bean, cookies and cream, black sesame or red velvet.