Baking is about telling a story. Yes, I’m sure your dog loves them as a treat. However, at the core of every pupcake recipe is a story. In this blog post, we’re exploring the connection between pupcake recipes and the power of using it to tell a story.
STORYTELLING THROUGH RECIPES
Baking is more than throwing some ingredients together and hoping they work. It’s about connection. I learned that from my mom as a little girl baking with her in the kitchen. Yes, I always looked forward to tasting what we baked, but spending time with my mom made the baking experience that much more memorable.
Whether you realize it or not, you are telling a story every time you bake something in the kitchen. That recipe you used is connected to someone’s heart in soul. Recipes are carriers of tradition, heritage, and legacy. They are family memories and personal journeys. Each time you bake a recipe, you weave a piece of yourself into it making that recipe a part of your love language.
HOW TO USE PUPCAKES TO TELL A STORY
Storytelling with food is more than an intrinsic experience. It’s a bond. However, businesses are starting to recognize that power of storytelling through food as customers are starting to seek more authenticity. Baking pupcakes is another opportunity to tell stories about your brand or business, even if you’re not a pet business. Here are five ways to tell those stories.
Ingredients – Every pupcake has ingredients. The key is using those ingredients to share about your brand values. For instance, are your ingredients organic or farm to table? Are they simple and made fresh? Are they made from leftover ingredients you have in your fridge? There’s no right or wrong answer. However, it’s a way to share your brand values.
Feature Your Product or Service – Link your product or service to the pupcake that you bake. It’s a great way to showcase the features and benefits of a product or service. For instance, you can show off the features of your mixer while baking a pupcake. You could showcase your dog-friendly hotel package by showing a dog relaxing with her dog mom while she eats a pupcake. This is even a good move for influencers who are looking for new ways to tell the story about their favorite brands.
Giving Back – Highlighting pupcakes is a great way to tell a story about how you or your organization gives back to others. For instance, some schools invite dogs to come in and have the students read to them. Highlighting the pupcake that the dog had a chance to sample is another cute way to tell a story.
Highlight the Chef – Use a pupcake to highlight the person who baked it. You can share someone’s story about why they picked their ingredients or how they used it to spend time with their dog. It as a fun twist to sharing stories about your employees or the person who baked the pupcake.
Showcase Your Love Language – Baking pupcakes is a love language. It’s not about the pupcake, it’s about how you use it to interact with people and your dog. So, use your pupcakes to communicate love languages to others. For instance, if someone’s love language is Gifts, you may gift that person a pupcake for their dog.
THREE QUICK PUPCAKE STORY IDEAS
Baking pupcakes can spark conversations. Here are three pupcake story ideas to help you get those conversations started with your audience.
Behind the Menu – Share a quick story on what inspired you to bake a particular pupcake recipe. You can even link the recipe to deeper conversations around special topics. People love hearing how you came up with a recipe or what inspired you to create it.
Bake Therapy – Baking and spending time with your dog are great mindfulness activities. Highlight how you’re using baking pupcakes and encouraging time with your dog to practice mindfulness. It’s an interesting angle and gives you another way to highlight the values and beliefs of your brand.
Create A Community – Give others the chance to bake pupcakes and then share their experiences with each other. It gives people a chance to connect with one another and bond through baking. It also creates an outlet to build trust between your brand and customers.
Baking pupcakes is more than just an activity. It’s a love language. It’s a way to connect with our dogs and each other. These connections give us the chance to create more stories.
Baking is storytelling. And, there so many more to tell. Plus, we’d love to hear yours. Share your pupcake stories and connect with us @pupcakesugar.
Sign up for the Pupcake Sugar mailing list to get Sugar’s favorite birthday pupcake recipe to try at home with your dog. Also, check out the Shop page for more of Sugar’s pupcake recipes and the stories that inspired them.
You’ll also get a chance to step into Sugar’s world. I love my dog, Sugar, and her daily shenanigans make me laugh. So, I created an illustrated character inspired by her and her love of pupcakes. Sugar’s character is a “pupcakepreneur” that owns and operates her own pupcakery called Pupcake Sugar. It’s a tongue twister, but it’s amazing what you can create when you let your imagination lead the way.
