All you need is love for cupcakes this good

Couple starts Love Bakery & Cafe in Branford

BRANFORD — The secret recipe to a happy relationship and a successful business is love — just ask Jamie Lovejoy and Ramon Rios, who are engaged.

“We do what we love, we call each other ‘love,’ so that’s how we got Love Bakery,” says Lovejoy.

Love Bakery & Café opened earlier this month and has become so popular that Lovejoy has had to increase her daily cupcake offering. On a recent Friday, at 1 p.m., the case was empty and the only cupcakes left were special orders, packed up and ready for pickup.

Every single day there are fresh cupcakes. At the end of the day, leftovers are distributed to local fire departments, police departments or farms that the couple stops at on their way home.

“I made a little over 200 for the store and that’s not including all the orders that we placed,” says Lovejoy, standing behind an empty display case. “We had four orders today. We had two cakes to do and this order still has to be picked up, with four dozen.”

Each order of cupcakes comes with special instructions.

“Travel with care,” Lovejoy said to Kevin Moran as she handed him an assortment of cupcakes, “They taste better when they’re pretty.”

This particular order included: S’mores, a honey graham cracker cupcake filled with marshmallows and vanilla buttercream, topped with buttercream, more marshmallows, two Hershey pips and graham crackers; Brownie Bottoms, a brownie baked under a chocolate cupcake topped with vanilla buttercream and a mini brownie; Cookies & Crème, a vanilla cupcake with Oreo pieces inside, topped with buttercream

Arnold Gold / Hearst Connecticut Media Chef Ramon Rios puts the finishing touches on an artisan bruschetta at the Love Bakery and Cafe in Branford.