Tassie Tagarelli has always loved baking.
Her mother, Dottie, knew there was something special about Tassie's pound cakes and encouraged her for years to sell them but the timing never felt right.
Back then, Tassie had a budding career as a floral designer and business owner and was using the pound cakes to bribe suppliers to give her the best blooms.
When Dottie passed away, Tassie turned her grief into growth. And in 2011, she launched Miss Dottie's Pound Cake — a tribute to her adventurous mother who shaped her life and values.
Building a Brand Worth Remembering
The name behind the brand was no ordinary woman.
Dottie trekked with polar bears, flew planes, and hosted one of America's first women's radio shows in the 1950s. She lived boldly and inspired Tassie to never compromise on quality... in life, in business, and everything in between.
That same spirit shows up in every detail of the brand, starting with the logo: a sketch of Dottie's face and her fabulous eyeglasses. It captures everything Tassie's mother represented: style and substance.
To this day, when I look at the logo it makes me smile. My graphic artist captured my mom so well, and UPrinting prints them perfectly!
Dottie's logo appears on everything—from shopping bags to shipping cartons—and has become instantly recognizable.
Tassie shares how people at pop-up markets would walk by and say, "I've seen this logo, what are you selling?"
But a recognizable brand means nothing without the product to back it up.
At Miss Dottie's, quality is non-negotiable. Every cake is made with butter, pure vanilla extract, and organic eggs. It's a commitment that loyal customers can taste.
No matter what price increases we incur, we focus on quality. It is paramount the cakes taste the way they remember them.
That consistency has built a devoted following. Many customers return year after year to send Miss Dottie's cakes to loved ones for holidays and birthdays.
The Art of Making It Special
When a delivery from Miss Dottie's arrives, the experience is deliberate.
"Packaging is very important to me," says Tassie, who worked in the gift-wrapping departments at Marshall Field's and Neiman Marcus as a teenager.
"As a child, I always loved gift wrapping. I have made it a signature of ours to wrap the cakes pretty. We add a logo label, QR code label, and other messages to all of our shipping bags. With so many packages landing on people’s porches, I want ours to stand out and look special.
And it works! Miss Dottie’s is not only famous for their cakes, but their packaging as well.
One of Tassie’s favorite packaging traditions started five years ago, when a customer ordered cakes for two nonverbal siblings on the autism spectrum who love stickers!
So she started covering the cake wrapping in stickers. Every year since, she finds a new collection for their birthday cakes. The siblings love the chocolate chip pound cake so much; they remind their parents when it's time for their birthday order.
It's a small gesture that shows how far Tassie will go to make loyal customers happy. But not every cake arrives for a birthday or holiday. Some of her carefully packaged pound cakes travel much farther than expected.
A Mission Born from Healing
Operation Pound Cake sends cakes to soldiers stationed overseas, an advocacy program created by connecting her own grief with the experiences of her two friends who were Marines.
Spencer, who survived a horrific helicopter crash, told her, “Your friends can't help you. They don't know what you saw. Seeing someone like you saw your mom is a million times different than seeing them pass away in a hospital or at a funeral”.
Spencer also encouraged her to leave the house once a day, even if it was just to go to the mailbox.
So one day, Tassie forced herself to go to a farmer's market. She didn't sell anything, but a woman came to her table and asked how her cakes ship. She explained that she sends care packages to deployed soldiers. At that moment, Tassie was inspired to give her everything on the table.
Weeks later, the woman texted Tassie to check her Facebook page. The soldiers had received the cakes, loved them, and posted the business card on their wall as a mascot. They even called from overseas to thank her.
You have no idea what those cakes mean to them. As a soldier, you're far away and may not have relatives to send you mail. You're all alone, scared, and feeling unloved. Then you get a cake from some random chick, and it inspires you to go another day as a soldier.
Consistent Print Quality, Confident Branding
When your brand is built on never compromising quality, you need a print partner who gets it!
After Tassie's local printer retired, she was nervous about switching to an online provider.
She started small, ordering a test batch from UPrinting in 2020 to see how the labels would turn out. They looked great, so she ordered them again. And once she confirmed the quality was consistent, she ordered in bulk!
We want people to know we stand for quality, consistency, and a premium product.
The partnership has remained strong ever since. With spot-on colors and flawless logo reproduction, Tassie is confident that their custom labels will continue reinforcing the premium image Miss Dottie's Pound Cakes is known (and loved!) for — on every label, every time.
Check out Miss Dottie’s Pound Cake at www.missdottiespoundcake.com. You can also follow them on Instagram at @Missdottiespoundcake.
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