KANSAS CITY, MO — When Kansas City Chiefs head coach Andy Reid’s mustache froze during the NFL team’s playoff game against the Miami Dolphins on Jan. 13, the team at McLain’s Bakery sprung into action.
The frozen ‘stache became a hot topic of conversation online and given the bakery’s regional proximity to the team and history of creating Chiefs-inspired products, the viral moment became an opportunity for the Kansas City, MO, bakery to get creative.
The result? The Andy Reidcicle cake, which the bakery team managed to turn from concept to consumable in two days.
Cassidy Garr, director of guest experience at McLain’s, shared that the idea to create the cake came to the bakery team while the staff watched the Chiefs-Dolphins game at home.
“We were talking back and forth in our Slack, and we saw Andy Reid’s frozen mustache and collectively were like, ‘Oh my goodness, we need to get this frozen mustache on a cake,’” Cassidy shared.
The bakery already had a cake designed after the Chiefs’ head coach in its product portfolio for about two years. The original cake’s details include the coach’s baseball cap, glasses, headset and mustache, all made from buttercream. In turn, making the mustache match the frozen one from the game was a straightforward way for McLain’s to get in on the conversation.
“[The decorators] went with a classic tan base that mimics his mustache, and then they piped on little individual white and blue icicles to each one,” Cassidy said. “They also sprayed this edible glitter onto the mustache to give it a shiny, ice-type effect. And then they put these cute little snowflake sprinkles on some of the icicles of the buttercream mustache.”
With some cross-collaboration between the cakery team members, marketing team and graphic designers, McLain’s was able to create, promote and add the cake to the bakery’s website for preorder by Monday.
“At this point, we’re seeing close to over 40 orders, but preorders don’t cut off until Friday for the Sunday game, so I think we’re going to see a lot more orders come in, which is really exciting because we’re in our slow season,” Cassidy shared.
With January and early February historically being slower months for the bakery, creating products inspired by current events such as the Chiefs’ recent playoff appearances has helped bakeries like McLain’s economically. Other pop culture or local events such as the release of the Barbie movie and Taylor Swift’s The Eras Tour provide bakeries with opportunities to get creative with their baked goods.
“When Taylor Swift came to town, we knew we had a great opportunity to make some cookies and get excited with the community about it,” Cassidy said. “Another one that comes to mind is when the Barbie movie came out and all of the marketing was being done for it which was crazy. We threw together a Barbie cake and some Barbie cookies last-minute because we were like, ‘We need to be a part of this, this move is so big.’”
In addition to getting a boost in sales, McLain’s quick action gained them thousands of likes on Instagram as well as some national news coverage.
“It’s been received extremely well, the attention to it and the hype around it had blown us out of the water,” she said.
The Andy Reidcicle cake — customizable in size, cake flavor and filling options — is available for pre-order at McLain’s Waldo location until Friday, Jan. 19 for pickup.
