I say cake pops, you say...

May 12, 2009 2:12 PM

Help me name my company! I'm starting a business selling cake pops (cake balls on sticks made to look like lollipops) and need some naming assistance.

My business partner and I have a great product, but the name has us stymied. We make cake pops, which are basically balls of cake on a lollipop stick, dipped in chocolate and decorated. We will be selling through a web site and through small cafes/businesses in our area, but of course the goal is to really expand and eventually sell through distributors.

The price will be somewhat high, and the target audience would be the Dean & Deluca type. The pops taste awesome and look professionally decorated, and the packaging is very sleek and clean, with some color and a touch of whimsy (after all, they are cake pops.) Naming avenues we've considered:

Something with "cake pop" in the title: Cake Pop Shop, The Cake Poppery, etc...haven't liked any of those yet

Something playing off of the shape or construction of the pop, like using "stick" in the title. It'd be great if the name immediately conjured up some nice associations, like "Sprinkles" does for cupcakes. However, all the stick names we've thought of ("Stuck Up," "Sticks and Scones") aren't really appropriate.

Something green-themed. We want to use eco-friendly packaging and play up that angle in the marketing materials, so something that reinforces the green angle isn't bad. We kind of like "Bloom" or "Bloom Bakeshop," or some other name that references flowers, trees, nature, green baking, etc.

I've seen several name-my-company threads in the past, and have always been impressed and delighted with what the community comes up with, so I can't wait to see what you folks will think of...

posted by Bella Sebastian to food & drink (50 comments total)

Poppies?
posted by Freedomboy at 2:21 PM on May 12

Lolly Cakes?
posted by torquemaniac at 2:24 PM on May 12 [11 favorites]

PopCake - reads and sounds a bit like cupcake.
posted by ersatzkat at 2:29 PM on May 12 [1 favorite]

The Cake Is A Lie
posted by restless_nomad at 2:29 PM on May 12 [1 favorite]

Popcakes? I like Freedomboy's suggestion.
posted by Evangeline at 2:30 PM on May 12

stuck-up cakes?
posted by 5_13_23_42_69_666 at 2:36 PM on May 12

Long-Stemmed Cakes, perhaps? A simultaneous reference to plants/flowers and to the unique shape of your product.

btw, speaking on behalf of everyone who prefers the frosting part of the cake to the actual-cake part, please put some frosting on/in some of your cake-pops! I would so pay $4 for that.
posted by Metroid Baby at 3:20 PM on May 12

Planet Cake?
posted by cobaltnine at 3:26 PM on May 12

nothing constructive here, but I don't like PopCakes - the immediate association I made was with PopTarts. Not really what you're going for. Just my $0.02
posted by pkphy39 at 3:29 PM on May 12

I don't like PopCakes either. I make a Pop Cake with a box of cake mix and can of diet soda, and I think others have the same association (I've only heard this recipe referred to as "Pop Cake").

Having said that, I don't have any suggestions for a name. Best of luck to you.
posted by Aleen at 3:33 PM on May 12

Cake My Day?

Cake it Up?

Quick on the Up Cake?
alternately, "Slow on the Up Cake"

Sorry, I have a dimwit's love for puns.
posted by pkphy39 at 3:35 PM on May 12 [1 favorite]

A quick brainstorm, with all included for your perusal, even the ones that failed as soon as I thought of them. Some of these have reasoning, some of them are pure impulse.

Batter Batter (cooked batter on wooden sticks? like baseball bats?)
Better Batter
Bake Bats
Baked Bats
Nicing (nice + icing)
Chocoballics
Chocoballs
Zootcake
Yummy Flummery
Subtle Bubbles
Cake Bubble
Cozy Cakes
Onion-Layered Cakes (okay, not yummy)
My Sweet Babu
Globe Bakery (after the Globe Theatre and the shape of the cakes)
Globe Patisserie
Cake Berries
Batter Berry
Batter Berries
Babyheads
Cornucakia (cornucopie + cake)
Garden of Cakes
Eden Cake
Cake Falls (play on a cake falling if it's shaken while rising)
Cake Lollies
Cakewalk
Caked on Stick ("caked on thick")
Cakers
Cake Bed
Cakeroom Suite (bedroom suite)
posted by Mo Nickels at 3:41 PM on May 12

BatterPop?
posted by siclik at 3:48 PM on May 12

I just really love the phrase "Cake Pops." It paints a perfect picture of what your product is, and is fun to say, write, and think about. I would love to go to a place called Cake Pops.

That said, if you go with Pops' Bakery, you have an automatic mascot that would be any cartoonist or illustrator's delight to conjure up for you.
posted by hermitosis at 3:48 PM on May 12

sticky cakes
posted by 5_13_23_42_69_666 at 3:51 PM on May 12

these are such great ideas!

we sell these at my place and you should know no matter what you call them and your shop, people will ask if you have any "cake balls" good luck. they are a fun product and people love 'em!
posted by ms.jones at 3:57 PM on May 12

Upcakes
Cake bites
Candy cakes

I think the name "Cake Pops" is perfect too - maybe even just "Cakepop" as a store name.
posted by pocams at 4:15 PM on May 12

I have a question for you: Can you foresee your business ever wanting to expand a bit and offer more than just cake pops? You may one day realize that your customers want cake pops and and petit fours and iced sugar cookies (or what have you). So having a name like "Just Cake Pops!" might be a little stifling in the event you want to branch out in the future. Just something to think about.
posted by kitty teeth at 4:19 PM on May 12

Let Them Eat Pops
posted by nitsuj at 4:20 PM on May 12

Sorry, didn't see that ersatzkat made the same suggestion.
posted by Evangeline at 4:21 PM on May 12

Thanks, all! There are some great suggestions here, keep 'em coming!

To respond to kitty teeth's question, I would like a name that leaves us some flexibility in the future. My business partner and I already have a wholesale cake business, so I don't think we'll be expanding in the direction of all desserts, but we would like to leave the door open for other "pop" products, like brownie pops, cookie pops, cheesecake pops, etc. So a name that doesn't shoehorn us into ONLY doing cake pops is probably a good thing.
posted by Bella Sebastian at 4:25 PM on May 12

There is a place here in Austin that makes these calls them cake balls.

Acme Cake Pops
In Full Bloom
posted by mattbucher at 4:26 PM on May 12

I think of these as generic names, to which you could add flavours:

angel pops
angel drops
sweet pops
pop o' cake (or pop o' brownie, etc.)
lolly bakes
cake drops
baked goods
popcakes
poppin' cakes
merry morsels
dum dum yum
yum tums
cake bites
posted by girlpublisher at 4:43 PM on May 12

TartPops
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 5:03 PM on May 12

Sweet And Sticky
posted by padraigin at 5:03 PM on May 12

I like Poppies out of all the suggestions so far, and it does give you flexibility to have "Cake Poppies" and "Brownie Poppies", etc. Good luck! They sound yummy.
posted by cider at 5:05 PM on May 12

"Cake on a Stick"
"I can't believe it's cake on a stick"
"Sticky Cakes"
"Twig Pops"
"Mom & Pop's Twig Pop Shop"
posted by chairface at 5:50 PM on May 12

Top-Heavy Muffins?
posted by Sully at 5:52 PM on May 12

"Stakin' Cakes"
posted by chairface at 5:53 PM on May 12

Chupa Cakes
posted by jeb at 6:28 PM on May 12

Sugar Bombs? Buzz Bombs?
posted by ersatzkat at 6:39 PM on May 12

Poppycake!

It sounds like patty-cake, so people will walk around thinking "Poppycake, poppycake, baker's man..." They'll never get it our of their head.
posted by diogenes at 6:50 PM on May 12

Cake on a Stake?
Choking Hazard? (I keed, I keed ...)
posted by scruss at 7:09 PM on May 12

wake and cake-- breakfast desserts?
posted by faintly macabre at 7:26 PM on May 12

Onna Stick (MUST BE not just "on a" but "onna"). People will go, "what on a stick?" And the answer will be cake.
posted by kindall at 8:18 PM on May 12

Bella's Chocolate Salty Balls.

(Lollycake is just the best word ever and should win this thread, even if it's not dot-commable. So I really got nothing here.)
posted by rokusan at 8:28 PM on May 12

My favorite of the suggestions here is Cakewalk: cute, and also descriptive.

I also like Bloom Bakeshop, though it strikes me as a little less catchy.
posted by not me at 8:29 PM on May 12

When I see "Poppy", I read "Poopy." Curiously, I don't read "poops" for "pops."
posted by Beardman at 8:43 PM on May 12

I like poppies the best so far - I think it conjures up the idea of a field of flowers and would make for fun packaging ideas.
posted by mulkey at 8:44 PM on May 12

I like Poppies!
posted by radioamy at 10:08 PM on May 12

BatterUps!
posted by FrotzOzmoo at 10:40 PM on May 12

Oops. I was going for the product name there.

So for the bakery, the singular form: "Batter Up!" (though the sports connotation might be a little limiting).

Caketastrophy
Dessert Island Confections (ok, too subtle and prone to misspelling)
Bella's Better Batter Bakery
StickSweets (again, more product oriented, less bakery)
Zen Cakery
The Rising Bun (or, The Bun Also Rises)
Bunshine Bakery (uh... it's late, what can I say)

Bakesters
Ecocakes (reaching too hard for that Hybrid eco-conscious brass ring)
posted by FrotzOzmoo at 11:17 PM on May 12

I'd go with simple but descriptive name for the bakery:

Pop Up Bakery

leaving you lots of flexibility for all sort of "pop" products. The logo/wordmark could be "Pop Up Bakery" stylized to look like a cake pop on a stick. I can picture some nice variations on that.

Other thoughts:

Sticky Bakery
Kabob Bakery (Cake Kabobs, Brownie Kabobs, etc.)
posted by mikepop at 5:49 AM on May 13

Cup o' Pizza.

Otherwise, Cakepop +1
posted by Gee Your Hair Smells Terrific at 6:10 AM on May 13

Batter Bites
Pop N' Go
Spoonful of Sugar
Great Balls of Flour
posted by FreezBoy at 6:13 AM on May 13

Cake Lollies/LollyCake is good
Nom Noms or Nom Nom Balls
Cakealicious
Great Balls-o-Cake (Goodness Gracious)
posted by theora55 at 9:30 AM on May 13

Lollybake?

Lollyballs?

I have a hard time with "balls" in the title and not giggling. Hmm.
posted by pyjammy at 10:09 AM on May 13

Lollygiggles!
posted by 5_13_23_42_69_666 at 11:15 AM on May 13

Yo-Yo Pops

(no reason, I just think it sounds cute)

or

Popper Toppers
posted by bengarland at 7:31 PM on May 13

Popplers.
posted by kindall at 2:03 PM on May 18