Dollop Gourmet: Gluten-Free, Non-GMO Cupcake Frosting Creator Appears On ‘Shark Tank’ [Spoilers]
A woman named Heather Saffer appeared on a recent episode of Shark Tank, and one could say Heather takes the cake – or cupcake frosting, that is. Saffer told the sharks about her never-say-die ambition to make a success of herself after having 30 jobs, as Heather joked.
According to Democrat & Chronicle, Heather graduated from Irondequoit High School in 2001. Since that time, Saffer experienced some positive business ventures that turned sour when she ended up in a venture gone bad that forced Heather to have to pay off $20,000 – her life savings. However, Heather didn’t stop trying, and with a $4,000 loan from her parents, she went on to teach herself how to bake and began a successful baking venture.
It's the perfect recipe for an entrepreneur! #SharkTank #DollopGourmet @DollopGourmet pic.twitter.com/nPBiI43Nkw
— Shark Tank (@ABCSharkTank) May 7, 2016
Heather said that she used YouTube and Google to learn how to bake. All that curiosity – with the chutzpah to keep trying to succeed only three weeks after her big business failed – landed Heather on Shark Tank. Heather showed off her Dollop Gourmet, a cupcake frosting that Heather said was healthier than others sitting on shelves that contain lots of chemicals and bad ingredients.
Indeed, in the ingredients list of her all-natural and preservative-free frostings seen on Amazon, the contents of the peanut butter cookie dough are pretty easy to understand. Those ingredients include organic palm shortening, which Heather said was – along with the cost of the jar – the most expensive in the whole product. The rest of the ingredients included powdered organic cane sugar, peanut butter, brown sugar, vanilla extract, salt, rice bran extract, and natural flavor.
The all-natural non-GMO Dollop Gourmet hot chocolate frosting flavor features similar ingredients, including cocoa.
Although the frostings can contain approximately nine grams of sugar per two tablespoons of serving size, Heather noted that her frostings generally contain less sugar than other, more popular brands. And although her frostings can run $6.99 and up compared to competitors that are priced around $1.99 per jar, Heather said that she hasn’t received complaints about the price.
First up is @DollopGourmet! #SharkTank #DollopGourmet pic.twitter.com/rP58iVTc2R
— Shark Tank (@ABCSharkTank) May 7, 2016
The Dollop Gourmet frostings that appeared on Shark Tank were different formulations from the ones that Heather made when Saffer won the Cupcake Wars show in 2012. Heather said that the previous recipe included butter, and Heather wanted to make the new formula gluten-free and GMO-free so that more people could enjoy her frostings.
Heather’s previous TV appearance made her familiar to Lori Greiner, but since Lori said she didn’t like frosting, she was going to join Barbara Corcoran and make a deal for the Dollop Gourmet. As such, Kevin O’Leary went up against Corcoran as the two sharks out of five that were competing for Heather’s business.
Advised to go with her gut, Heather made a counter-offer to Barbara, asking Corcoran to accept 25 percent of Dollop Gourmet for $75,000 — and Corcoran agreed to the deal.
As reported by 13 ABC WHAM, plenty of people got together to watch Heather’s appearance on Shark Tank on Friday evening. The sharks were pretty impressed with Heather, who already has her Dollop Gourmet product selling in Wegmans stores, on Amazon – and is set to be sold in certain Whole Foods stores.
Saffer noted that going on Shark Tank was like winning a huge commercial for her brand. Meanwhile, Heather’s mom Debbie noted how hard her daughter worked and said she would try not to cry.
Saffer’s cookbook is titled The Dollop Book of Frosting: Sweet and Savory Icings, Spreads, Meringues, and Ganaches for Dessert and Beyond.
The cookbook boasts 45 different recipes for frostings that run the gamut as spreads for cakes and other desserts. Heather’s appearance on Food Network’s Cupcake Wars certainly brought Heather loads of attention, and now her appearance on Shark Tank is bringing her even more.
[Image via Shutterstock]
