Jordan Gresham says she has always loved to bake. So when her dad challenged her to raise half of the money she needed to travel to Europe as a high school student, Jordan naturally put her baking skills to use.
More than a decade later, she’s still at it.
Jordan is the owner of Colossal Cupcakes and Cones at 101 N. Main St., which celebrated its 10th anniversary in late July. Jordan started the business during her sophomore year at Eureka Springs High School.
“I wanted to go to Europe, and my dad made the deal that if I could come up with half the money, then he would come up with the other half,” she said. “I decided: ‘Oh, I’m good at baking. So let’s try that.’ So I worked with Main Stage and through the FBLA.”
Jordan eventually started selling her baked goods in the Crescent and Basin Park hotels, where her dad, Jack Moyer, is the general manager. She also sold the items for school projects. And she got to make that trip to Europe.
“I went to Italy, France, Switzerland and Austria, so it was awesome,” she said.
Jordan’s cupcakes are the size of muffins, four times the size of an ordinary cupcake. And thus the name “Colossal Cupcakes” was born. The business also sells ice cream, floats, milkshakes, cakes, pastries, breads, sweets and more.
After graduating from ESHS, Jordan attended Missouri State University in Springfield and later went to work in a corporate position for Olive Garden. All the while, she kept her business running.
“I worked here, trying to make sure that standards were kept up,” she said.
Eventually, Jordan decided “corporate wasn’t for me,” and turned her full attention to Colossal. These days she and employee Jasmin Logan do all the baking. Two other employees work up front, taking customers’ orders.
“Sometimes when we get really busy waves, we’ll all just kind of do everything together,” Jordan said. “I think that’s a perk of working in such a small building, is everybody kind of knows every position and can help and be a supportive team. I think that a boss should always kind of jump in at every second that is needed, so your employees definitely know that your boss has your back.”
Colossal’s menu has expanded since its early days. Items also can be ordered online from colossalbakes.com or by calling “We’re starting to add quite a bit of different stuff,” Jordan said. “If you came in a couple of years ago, we definitely didn’t have what we have now. Just recently in this past year, we added all of our baked items like cookies, brownies, muffins, pastries, scones. And then just in the past two months, we started doing custom cakes. We are expanding slowly.”
Jordan credits her dad for providing advice and support over the years.
“I definitely wouldn’t be able to be here without him,” she said. “That’s for sure. He’s always a really easy person to bounce things off of.”
The secret to Colossal’s success, Jordan said, is consistency.
“I think the reason we are still here today is we started something and we were good at it, and we’re still good at it,” she said. “People know that when they come here, they know what the cupcakes are going to look like. They know it’s going to be good quality. And I think meeting everyone’s expectations is what’s kept us alive for 10 years.”
