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Essex, Vermont - January 7, 2011

Inside an Essex storefront, two women with one idea are christening their new company.

"I just really wanted to be my own boss," Stephanie Lecayo said. "Start my own business."

Lecayo is a lifelong baker who loved stores she's seen in big cities that focus just on cupcakes.

"Every time I would visit a cupcake shop, I'd think I can do this," Lecayo said.

So she contacted Michelle Trudell.

"They just make people happy," Trudell said.

Trudell had an existing home business selling miniature cupcakes at farmers markets and in specialty food stores. Lecayo and Trudell barely knew each other-- until that business proposal.

"We decided to team up rather than open competing cupcake bakeries," Lecayo said.

Now, My Little Cupcake-- with its pink walls and tempting treats-- is drawing customers in just its first month.

"It's awesome; it's great! I don't have to do any cooking, and I can pretend I did it. But it doesn't work-- they all know they came from here!" laughed one shopper.

Cupcakes are just about the hottest trend in the dessert world, with more attention paid now to decorating and designer flavors.

"I think you can put bacon on anything and people will eat it," Trudell chuckled.

Bacon and Vermont maple syrup combine to make one of the duo's most popular recipes.

"This is the fun part," Lecayo said.

It's more gourmet than anything Michelle Trudell did in her previous job as a cook in an Army mess hall.

"The hours are about the same," Trudell said. "I still get here way before the sun comes up, but in the army, I mostly made gravies and soups for 500 people; I never got to bake. They always had someone who did all the baking. So this isn't anything like what I did in the army; this is actually fun!"

She has more than 60 varieties-- everything from vegan to good old chocolate, red velvet and vanilla caramel cashew-- in traditional full-size, but mostly the minis.

"Perfect size for me!" one Essex woman said, eating a cupcake.

Reporter Jack Thurston: This is going to be my first ever bacon cupcake.

Stephanie Lecayo: Are you scared?

Thurston: No, not at all-- not at all!

The bacon maple tastes a lot like a big Vermont pancake breakfast.

Thurston: The salt from the bacon and the sugar from the butter cream work really well together.

And the size means you don't feel too bad about over-doing it. My Little Cupcake proves good things really do come in these small packages that are Made in Vermont.

Lecayo said, "It's like a little work of art in each cupcake."

The company still sells wholesale to area markets. A mini cupcake is $1.50 at the bakery in the Essex Town Shopping Center. But you get price breaks at 6, 12, and 24 cupcakes.

Click here to visit the company's website.

Jack Thurston - WCAX News