Two friends create a business
Baking, decorating go hand-in-hand, but with a new twist Hardyston Francine Feder sits on the couch with her long, thin legs tucked underneath her. She wears a pair of ripped skinny jeans with leopard print that peeks out beneath the tear. Her friend and business partner Angelina Nicholas is buzzing around a large table set up to display gift baskets of colorful "cake balls" skewered on sticks. Her warm eyes sparkle as she shows off the intricately iced confections. Feder lets out a throaty, Kathleen Turner style laugh, gestures to Nicholas and says, "The two of us lived across the street from each other for years thinking we had nothing in common except that our husbands loved to go fishing." It turns out that Francine Feder and Angelina Nicholas have much in common. They both love to create. Nicholas is an avid Italian cook, and baker. Feder is the decorator. The two have now paired their creative resources into a new business venture they named Frangelina a combination of their first names. Frangelina offers home baked cake pops, cake kabobs, gifts for pets and custom orders. Not to be outshined by the now very au courant cupcake, a cake pop is a no muss, no fuss treat on a stick. It can not only be eaten with one hand while dancing at a wedding, for example, but it also can be decorated according to the event's style. And style is something that Francine Feder knows a thing or two about. She has a home based art studio and is does paintings by commission but her stock and trade was working as an event planner and decorator. She often worked on planning opulent bar and bat mitzvahs, thinking outside the box to design lavish, one-of-a-kind events. "I am that person you call when you want something to look good," she says. "Angelina gets to bake and I get to present her baking in the prettiest form and show off these cakes in their best light." Feder adds, "I think we are more than two ladies who opened up a business on their kitchen counter." Launching a business Not that Nicholas minds spending time at her kitchen counter. Baking is a passion. "I like to bake for my own pleasure, and after buying this cake pop maker I was left with all these pops, so I shipped them over to Fran because she has such a fast metabolism...she turned them into cake kabobs which is our twist on the cake pop," says Nicholas. They invite customers to visit Feder's Crystal Spring residence to see a display of their cake pops and get a sense of the variety in theme and design. "I want people to know that our cake pops can be anything, not just the green and red for Christmas and the pink and red for Valentine's Day. We go beyond that," says Nicholas. "I have a customer who is doing favors for their book club and I've made tennis themed centerpieces too." Prices range from "a sweet treat beginning at $5," to baskets, starting at $25 and on up, depending on size and the level of customization. Promoting the business Feder, who is also a comic strip designer, came up with the concept of using caricatures of herself and Nicholas as their advertising campaign and she hopes to document the pair's adventures in business in a comic strip. "Life can be too serious. We wanted to lighten things up and want people to smile when they see our advertisement and when they taste our pops," says Feder. "We like to add a bit of whimsy into what we do." Feder and Nicholas both feel that with perseverance, a light-hearted attitude and a mean recipe for cake pops, they are destined for success. "We just need exposure. We think we will rapidly grow; we may find stardom, but one thing is for sure; it's friendship first, business second with us," says Feder. For information contact Francine Feder at 845-598-0977 or Angelina Nicholas at 973-823-9766.