Social Worker Bakes Cupcakes for The Walking Dead

Carrie Buchanan has a demanding and selfless day job. As a social worker in Canton, Ohio, she supports people with disabilities. But a few years ago, she found herself needing some support of her own.

She was going through a stressful divorce and had moved into a small condo with her two teenage daughters. A few close friends helped her pack on moving day. To thank them, Carrie couldn't buy expensive gifts, so she turned to her creative side.

At a local craft store, she found a large muffin tray and had an idea: extra-large cupcakes. She baked a batch and her friends loved them. Over the next year, she got requests for more. She gradually added creamy flavored icing and an extra treat on top, like a peanut butter cup or s'more. The cupcakes became her signature dish, a fun hobby that made people smile.

They couldn't solve every stress, though. The next year, Carrie fantasized about packing everything into a trailer and selling homemade french fries out the back while traveling the country. She even asked workers at a local carnival about life on the road. But she couldn't drop everything. She had commitments at home and two teenagers to care for.

The idea didn't go away. Carrie started dating someone new and told him about her dream. He suggested a version closer to home: bake and sell her giant cupcakes at a local market called First Friday. At first she dismissed it. "What do I really know about baking? I still use canned icing to decorate the cakes!" He assured her it was worth trying and suggested a name, Bombshell Cupcakes. Carrie loved pinup culture, so it fit. (Since the original episode aired, the business has been renamed Bombshell Baking Company.)

For a couple more years, Carrie kept baking out of her home kitchen while working full-time. Then she introduced iced cookies, which turned out to be even more popular. People requested custom orders for parties, with favorite characters or corporate colors. The business became Bombshell Cupcakes & Cookies.

Carrie kept her day job and baked at night, then hired her first and only employee, part-time, to increase volume. Over the last year, she took home close to $20,000 in profit. That's impressive because each order is only $35 to $50.

She knows you can only bake and decorate so many cookies by hand, and it doesn't scale well. So she began offering live-streamed baking courses. Next up is a YouTube channel, with the goal of creating a paid video tutorial course for more passive income.

What she's most proud of is that the side hustle let her buy her own home. Those bombshell cupcakes have had extra-large benefits.