The Story of Our Beginning

Cupcake Island is Omaha’s first, and only cupcake shop. The
store front bakery follows a current trend on the coasts and across the
country, but its origins go back to the 1960’s when owner Shirley Thelen
Neary used to buy cupcakes at Jung’s Bakery in Carroll, Iowa, after school.

After years of searching for ready made cupcakes in local Omaha bakeries,
and finding none, Shirley began to dream of a way to bring individual high
quality cupcakes to Omaha.

It was a trip to New York City in 2004 that clarified the vision. Shirley
happened to walk by “The Buttercup Bakeshop” on 2 nd Ave., with its
irresistible row upon row of pastel frosted cupcakes, and its line of
customers down the sidewalk. She came back to Omaha and kept on
thinking about cupcakes.

It all came together about a year later, in November, 2005, after Sunday
Mass at St. Robert Bellarmine Church. Shirley approached fellow parishioner and accomplished cake baker Ed LeFebvre about starting up his own bakery with an emphasis on cupcakes, but still offering wedding and celebratory cakes. As Shirley tells it now, “When I told Ed about my idea, he simply said, ‘Call me.’ I knew then that he was interested.”

Ed was definitely interested and ready for a change in the direction of his career. With 25 years of professional baking experience (the last 20 with Baker’s grocery stores) and a multitude of repeat customers, he had the skills and the following to go on his own. In fact, he was finding himself turning down requests for cakes due to lack of time and space.

The name for the business comes from Liz Hussmann Hooi. Liz reminded Shirley that their children used to picnic on a boulevard near 52 nd and Jackson Sts. and they all called it “ Cupcake Island”.

Shirley said, “I had forgotten about that nickname until Liz reminded me. Then I knew it was the perfect name for our concept---an urban island of comfort and sweet memories.”

The synchronicity of Ed LeFebvre’s and Shirley Neary’s partnership is noteworthy. Both were born and raised in Iowa small towns. Both were members of St. Margaret Mary’s Parish in mid Omaha in the 1970’s and ‘80’s where Lois LeFebvre once requested, for Ed, the recipe for a cake that
Shirley served, (Italian cream cake).

Years later, the LeFebvres and the Nearys are members of St. Robert Bellarmine Parish on 120 th and Pacific, where Shirley’s daughter-in-law, Amy Farha Neary, grew up. Amy and her family are big fans of Ed’s cakes, often ordering them for celebrations. That is how Shirley was introduced to his delicious work. One year, a really memorable cake, a strawberry torte, appeared as a birthday surprise in her refrigerator from Bryan and Amy.

Current plans are to have Cupcake Island open from 8AM to 5 PM, 6 days a week. Its full time Operations Manager is Kara Zaiman. Kara was trained at the Scottsdale Culinary Institute in Scottsdale, AZ. She also has work experience at the Grand Geneva Resort and Spa in Wisconsin. Ed is the
Executive Bakery Manager.