Manna Cupcake Cafe
Where: 200 S. Broadway, Lebanon
Hours: 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday-Saturday, 1 to 5 p.m. Sunday
Info: (513) 282-6444
LEBANON — When crafting a plan for the perfect business, the LaBarbera’s top goal was to bring something sweet to downtown Lebanon.
Manna Cupcake Café is the brainchild of Marguerite LaBarbera and her daughters Megan LaBarbera-Vanaski and Amanda LaBarbera. The store, which opened last week, is located at 200 S. Broadway in downtown Lebanon and serves a wide variety of cupcakes as well as coffees and teas.
“We wanted to do something to make people happy and put a smile on their faces,” said co-owner Megan LaBarbera-Vanaski. “What better than a cupcake?”
Megan said the idea for the cupcake bakery (or cupcakery) came from their experiences living in Chicago.
“There were all these mom and pop bakeries in town where you could just run in and sample all these great tastes,” Megan said. “We wanted Lebanon to have something like that.”
To that end, the family has three sizes of cupcakes: the babycakes — which offer one-bite treats of each flavor; the classic size and the MegaManna, which Megan said can satisfy two sweet tooths at once.
Cupcakes were chosen, Megan said, because it allows for the most creativity.
“Cupcakes let you shake up the recipes,” Megan said. “You can really play with what you put into one.”
Manna offers a variety of classic cupcakes each day as well as a daily specialty cupcake from Amanda’s private recipe selection.
“I probably have 200 different recipes up here,” said Amanda, pointing to her head. “And I’m thinking up more all the time.”
Amanda is a graduate of the Midwest Culinary Institute and head chef at Manna.
Her favorite creations have been monkey bread, a cinnamon-swirl concoction and the bon-bon cupcake, a death-by-chocolate-style cupcake loaded with chocolate frosting, ganache, and chocolate chips.
“If I could think of any other kind of chocolate to put on the bon bon cupcake, I would,” Amanda said.
The LaBarbera’s estimate they make between 400 and 700 cupcakes and other baked goods daily, rising at 4 a.m. to get the kitchen running in time for the 7 a.m. breakfast rush.
Megan said it is not difficult to get up that early because she loves working with her family.
“I’ve had other jobs where I had to get up at 4 a.m. and it was really hard some days,” Megan said. “But I don’t have that issue here because I get to come and see my mom and my sister. We have a lot of fun.”
Manna also caters parties and weddings and can make full-sized cakes upon request.
Of course, the risk of working in a cupcake factory is the horrifying thought that one could grow tired of cupcakes.
“I don’t think it could ever happen,” Megan said. “We’ve been baking all our lives, and I’ve never gotten tired of them yet.”
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