Crave Cupcakes, the iconic Calgary-based bakery known for its from-scratch cupcakes, cookies, and cakes, is celebrating its 20th anniversary with exciting new ventures.
Co-founders Carolyne McIntyre Jackson and Jodi Willoughby, sisters who launched Crave in 2004, are expanding beyond their original Kensington location. The company now boasts locations in Edmonton, Saskatoon, and will soon open a new bakery in Kelowna by June 2025.
Crave’s steady growth marks its evolution from a local favourite to a beloved brand with a loyal following across Western Canada.
In addition to their physical expansions, Crave has introduced a new Bake at Home line, available in over 150 grocery stores across Alberta and British Columbia. The line includes cake mixes, frozen buttercream, and pre-portioned cookie dough—all made with the same high-quality ingredients that Crave is known for.
The move taps into the growing demand for convenience without compromising on quality, offering fans of the brand the chance to recreate their favorite Crave treats at home.
Amid these exciting changes, Crave is also launching its first-ever cookbook, “Crave: Cupcakes, Cakes, Cookies, and More from an Iconic Bakery,” set to release in May 2025. With recipes perfected over the past two decades, this cookbook offers fans a chance to bring the Crave experience into their kitchens. As Crave continues to innovate, the brand remains committed to its founding principles of quality, community, and homemade goodness.
“We opened Crave to bake from scratch—cupcakes and cookies from scratch—and share them with as many people as possible,” said Willoughby.
In Calgary there are four stores.
Why has the brand become so popular?
“My personal opinion is that we make really great baking. We love what we do. We’re very passionate, and we hire really great people who have the same passion as we do,” she said.
“We started out wanting to bake from scratch, using butter, all real ingredients, baking fresh every morning, and never selling day-olds. And it’s still the same principle we follow today. When we first started, we had a supplier say, “You’ll be using cake mix in six months.” And we were like, “No, that wouldn’t be Crave if we were baking from a cake mix.” And, you know, the price of butter has like six times what it was when we started, but it’s just one of those things we’ll never go back on. So, I truly think it’s just a really great product,” added Jackson.
Jackson said Kelowna is the brand’s first new location in 12 years.
“We took a purposeful pause, we like to call it. We renovated some of our stores, we both have kids—we’ve raised kids in the last little while—and we also created a Bake at Home line that’s available in over 150 grocery stores in Alberta and BC,” she explained.
“At the grocery stores, we have packaged up our cake mix. We have cake mix, frozen buttercream, and frozen pre-portioned cookie dough. It’s the exact same recipe that we use every day. We’re super proud of it. We actually always have cake mixes in our own pantries at home, even though we know the recipes. It’s just so easy to rip off the package, dump it into a bowl, and boom, you’ve got cake in under 25 minutes.”
“We started with Calgary Co-ops in 2022. They took us into all their stores, and we kind of launched into some of the smaller stores, like Safeway and Sobeys. So, we’re working on that expansion as well . . . We go as far as Grand Prairie and down to Lethbridge and Invermere.”
Their new cookbook Crave: Cupcakes, Cakes, Cookies, and More from an Iconic Bakery is launching in early May.
“We just wanted to let everybody know that our cookbooks are in pre-sale, and they can go to our website at cravecupcakes.ca to see a list of vendors that are pre-selling. It’s just very exciting. These are our family recipes, now perfected by Crave over the past 20 years. Now everybody can have access to them—not only through our bakeries but through our recipes,” said Willoughby.
Willoughby said all the existing bakeries are takeout models.
“But for Kelowna, we took some time to really check out the spaces there and were able to lease a larger space. So, we are going to be serving coffee! We really wanted to build that sense of community. And what goes great with our Crave baking? Coffee!,” she noted.
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