Entrepreneur Profile 

New Yorker Lets Them Eat Cupcakes in Paris

When Cat Beurnier launched her cupcake business in Paris in 2008, it never occurred to her that she might need to explain to Parisians the concept of a cupcake. But over and over she found herself answering the most basic questions about her treats: Are they candles? Are they table decorations? “Many people had no idea what they were looking at,” says Cat. “I worried then that my idea of having a cupcake business wouldn’t take off here.” She needn’t have worried. Today, her online cupcake business, Sugar Daze, is known throughout the city as the premier source for custom-ordered authentic American cupcakes. Fifty percent of her customers are French, while the rest hail from Paris’s enormous expat community. Her clients have included major corporations such as Microsoft and Disney, as well as prominent French businesses.