Fabipops…it’s a piece of cake! It’s the slogan of a unique company called Fabipops, which sells cake on a stick. The popular pastry even has its own shop in Park Slope, Brooklyn. The Fabipop is also known as a “cake pop” or “cakesicle” and is the brainchild of Fabiola Scarbrough. Jay-Z, Justin Timberlake, Beyonce, and President Obama are among the celebrity fans of Fabipops.
Scarbrough started the company after her one-month old son died of pneumonia in 2011. After losing him, she was devastated and started baking as therapy, which turned into a full-service baking business today.
She launched Fabipops in the spring of 2012 and is now looking to expand. She is launching a crowdfunding project on March 25th (her mother’s birthday) on the site, MoolaHoop.
To date, Fabipops has made over 20,000 cake pops. “The response has been amazing,” says Scarbrough, who was born in Port Au Prince, Haiti, and moved to New York when she was two-years old. She majored in finance and accounting at Post University and went on to hold a variety of finance positions at such corporations as JP Morgan, Chase and Bank of New York. Because of the demand for Fabipops, Scarbrough quit her full-time positin to focus on her startup.
Fabipops come in fun flavors–s?mores, strawberry shortcake, cheesecake, cotton candy–and designs. Scarbrough also makes customized cakes for weddings and other special occasions. The golf ball-sized cake lollipops come in 17 flavors and creates custom treats. The Brooklyn shop also offers bakery lessons to show people how to make their own Fabipops.
Among her long-time goals is to franchise Fabipops. And though her company has taken off fairly quickly, Scarbrough says one of the biggest business lessons is patience. “We have had to allow ourselves to grow slowly, and not sponsor any and everything that comes our way,” says Scarbrough. “Have patience with whatever business you get into and learn patience; the money won’t come right away. The people will not always be nice, and things will always go wrong at the last minute. But have patience, take a step back, regroup and then knock it out of the ballpark!”
