I’ve been a huge fan of  Maryanne, mom and lady boss of Sugar Supply ever since I first saw her beautifully decorated cupcakes at a local event. Maryanne customizes her cupcakes to suit the event, brand or person she is catering for. Maryanne is not just a baker, she is an artist with the ability to combine different flavor combinations that will blow your mind. At the most recent Project Eats she gave me a cupcake with sprinkled bacon bits I took a bite, died and went to heaven for a few seconds. It was that good.

What I love about Maryanne and Sugar Supply is that she is part of a community of people who were born and raised in Jersey City and have their own businesses; The Chilltown Collective, Prosper and Just BeClaws. They are the true representation of what Jersey City is and should be, a tight-knit community of people who support each other, who work their asses off to provide for their loved ones and also know how to  enjoy life. If you’ve ever passed by the Sugar Supply booth at one of the markets you know what I am talking about!  Good food, good music and good people. #turnup

I met with Maryanne at the pedestrian plaza on Newark Ave, and it was the first time in a while that I felt a true connection with someone I just met. We are both moms, and we left the corporate world to pursue our passions. We are kindred spirits and I am so glad we met.

What’s your name? Maryanne Tolentino Marcos.

What do you do? I’m the founder of Sugar Supply which is edible art that I make.

How long have you been doing it? Going on three years, but more recently I resigned from my nine to five so I’m doing this fulltime.

Congratulations! Thank you.

When did you leave nine to five? Two weeks ago, so very recently.

So what were you doing for your nine to five? I had all different types of jobs: I was a property manager at Shuster, after that I worked for an insurance company at Harborside, so that was my last—

So you went from corporate to baking— Yes, so while I was doing the nine to five I was doing this part-time but it was a lot.

How did it start? My family, we are all desert fanatics and we all have a sweet tooth. My grandfather, when we were growing up he would always have frosted flakes with strawberry ice cream for breakfast. So that’s kind of what we grew up on and from there we’ve always been fascinated with weird kind of combinations. So one day my cousin was like, “Oh hey, a friend of mine wants this, can you make it?” I’ve never done anything like that before, so I was like, “Sure.” I just tried it and it kind of worked out. My first cake was actually for my husband Rian’s birthday, he loves cars, he’s really into cars, so I actually made him a car cake.

You never went to culinary school or anything? No I was self-taught.

So all these decorations, you taught yourself? Yeah, pretty much self-taught.

You decided to just start baking and then—I feel like recently, I’ve been really busy with orders, I’m booked through August. So doing that and the fulltime kinda was not cutting it, I wanted to focus more on Sugar Supply and give that my all instead of half-assing it.

How are you different from other bakeries? So what I specialize in is edible art. I feel like I’m an artist before I’m a baker; I really focus on design; I really try to see what my client wants and from there—if they have a vision I want to bring that vision to life—so that’s really my priority, making something that they will be “wow’d” at.

Tell me about the cupcakes you made for me today. So this is the first time we’re meeting formally, I know we never really got a chance to talk so I wanted to do something that incorporated something what we both do. So of course Chicpea, that’s a blog right, I’m not sure if you write notes or anything, but that’s a notebook, it says JC and of course your logo is very important. And then just something that I do, cupcakes and a cakepop with my logo and then it’s kind of like when worlds collide. I know that you recently did your citizenship so I wanted to incorporate that as well—

I love the Israeli flag too, oh my gosh, it’s so great! I know your roots so I know you’re from Canada and now you’re in Jersey City so of course I had to have one that says Jersey City on it.

So I remember my first experience with Sugar Supply was at Project: Market and I had the bacon cake pop. It was quite the experience!—Yes, I remember that.

So for every event that we do, we try to do something different for each one, something new that’ll bring people to come see us because we want people to try something new. What inspired me for that, Project: Market was in the fall, so I wanted to incorporate apples. I feel like one of my signatures is putting bacon on everything ‘cause I love bacon, so I tried to incorporate that and it all ties back to the weird combinations that we grew up loving so that’s what inspires me to make these crazy flavors.

So what’s your process? Let’s say somebody is interested in ordering cupcakes like what do they need to do? So I actually have a form that they can fill out, I just need to know when the event is, what they need, what type of design they have, if any, a flavor and if they have a budget. So once that form is filled out, I take a look at it, I’ll write up an estimate and we’ll go from there.

So you were born and raised in Jersey City? Yes, born and raised.

Tell me a little more about that. I was raised Downtown in this area, my whole family lives Downtown. My grandfather actually emigrated here in the 70s and at that time he brought property in the area, so I feel like at that time his train of thought was, “Okay, this is what I’m going to do for my children,” so we kind of have something to go off. So that’s the hierarchy, where it came from.

How do you feel about the change? I have mixed feelings honestly, it’s good and bad. It’s great for small businesses because we have a lot of the people who are willing to spend money on the businesses, but I do feel like its negatively impacting people who were born and raised here, just because we’re kind of getting priced out.

The buildings and condos they’re building, it’s not affordable, everything I’ve grown up to know has been torn down. So it’s emotional. Like the first school I went to was where Hamilton Park is, it was a hospital, St. Francis Hospital. So my mother worked there when we were kids and my father would wake up at 6 o’clock in the morning to take her to work and we went to daycare in the hospital, so once that got torn down, I believe it’s called Hamilton Square now. You know we grew up playing in Hamilton Park and I’m glad that’s still there. So after that, I went to St. Peter’s grammar school which is on York Street, right next to Prep, that got closed, that got torn down right after I graduated 8^th grade. So that’s no longer there and our church recently got closed, our church is on Montgomery, St. Bridget’s so that recently got closed.

There [are] of course positives to it, but there [are] a lot of negatives that I kind of want everyone that’s coming in just to realize you know, this is what it was and this is where we were and see the hardships of what it was.

Do you have a favorite Jersey City hangout spot? I love Hamilton Park, my son loves playing over there, I let him run around and when the sprinklers are on he and his cousin just run around and they have a blast.

When I see you guys at all these events, I see you have a crew with you can you tell me a little bit more about that? So, we were all born and raised in Jersey City, so it’s all about supporting each other. We support a lot of our friends who have businesses, Chilltown, Prosper, Modest Mind, Just BeClaws. I feel like now, a lot of people who have grown up here are actually opening their own businesses which is great and I really think it’s just about the support. A lot of those people who come out are my sisters, neighbors, our friends.

You guys have the biggest party, like there’s a DJ, it’s like the coolest thing ever, I love it. Carmelo (1L) he’s the resident DJ at the events, he just spins and he loves it.

And you also were selling T-Shirts. Yes, so we had three T-Shirts. We had one- “Born in JC” for the kids and we also had adult sizes- “Respect the Locals” and we had “Jersey City Raised Me.”

So what are your future plans? Eventually we want to open up a storefront. My sisters and my husband helped me a lot with orders. When the time is right, I mean we’re looking but we’re not really aggressive, but if we find something we like then we’ll move forward.

And you’ll just sell sweets? My husband is the cook, I don’t cook. So I bake, he cooks. He kind of wants to do his own thing like cook, and sandwiches and soups and all that, like a lunch spot.

Does he have a fulltime job? Yeah, he’s a sales rep.

Can you tell me a little more about your Filipino background and living in Jersey City? Both of my parents are Filipino, they came from the Philippines in the 70s and they got married in ’84.

Did they meet here? They met here. It’s a small world; their sisters knew each other and their sisters both have the same name. My grandpa came—my father’s siblings all came—and he really wanted to bring the community here, so my grandfather actually sold the houses on, it used to be Grove Street all the way down, so he sold houses on that block. He sold the houses on Laurel Court and Saddlewood and on Boyd Avenue by 440. So eventually when they saw that all these Filipino people were moving in, they did rename the street to Manila Avenue which is the capital of the Philippines. So that is something we really pride ourselves on so this was probably in the 80s.

Do you have a favorite Philippine restaurant? Fiesta Grill which is on West Side.

So how do you juggle owning your own business and being a mom? I think the biggest challenge for me was doing this while having a toddler at home just because at this age, my son he just turned four, he wants everything, “Now, now, now.” So we put him in summer camp, he’s there from nine to four so I can get stuff done and I will pick him up at four and hopefully I will be done by then.

Anything else you’d like people to know about you or Sugar Supply? I want people to know that we in this together and we should support each other. I want people to realize that if you’re doing something good for the city, don’t hate on it.

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E-Mail: sugarsupplyjc@gmail.com