Laura Brent

July 31, 2025

When life didn’t go according to plan, Laura “Muff” Brent found her path to entrepreneurship in an unexpected place – her kitchen. After stepping away from her 22-year counseling career to homeschool her twins in 2018, she struggled to re-enter the workforce despite her newly completed bachelor’s degree in Human Services. That’s when a conversation with her husband inspired a business idea that reshaped her future. 

While discussing baking with her husband, Laura poked at the existence of cupcakes in a cup. Suddenly, a conversation with her partner became a transformative business idea. Laura envisioned elegant cup creations made of layered cake and filled with various custards and compotes. Her husband’s enthusiasm was immediate. The next morning, she woke to find $1,500 on her nightstand with a note: “Go buy what you need and start doing some tastings.”

Laura started with three signature flavors that would set her business apart. She would combine lemon pound cake with fresh strawberry compote or blueberry cream cheese, while her unique take on banana pudding rejected ultra-processed ingredients in favor of premium components like Pepperidge Farm Chessmen cookies. 

Laura’s parents were some of the first to offer support. Seeking honest feedback, she gave her parents blind samples. “Where did you get this from? McDonald’s?”, her father asked. Shocked to learn that they were homemade, her parents encouraged her to start selling her creations. 

The business grew rapidly after her daughter suggested she post a video to her Facebook page showcasing the cake cups. Her first order was so large that she needed a 6 AM emergency Walmart run for ingredients. Soon, she was selling 300-400 desserts every weekend at Route 211 Eats in Amissville, Virginia. When the owner of a nearby taco truck offered to sell her trailer, Laura seized the opportunity, creating a fully licensed commercial kitchen on wheels.

Before she knew it, Muff’s Sweet Treats and More was growing faster than Laura ever imagined. She teamed up with her son to start selling unique subs and salads, and started baking bundt cakes to meet customer demand. As her success grew, Laura knew she was going to need help learning how to properly scale her business. Then, she got a Virginia Tech newsletter, which she says was “sent from God.”

“Back in April, I attended a two-day workshop with Virginia Tech on food sanitation and labeling. That got me on their newsletter. Then I received an email with information about CIC— it was exactly what I needed,” Laura told us. 

Going through the 16-week Culpeper-Orange Entrepreneur Workshop, particularly the program’s break-even analysis, helped her see her pricing in a whole new way. “Before CIC, I wasn’t sure if I was charging enough,” she admits. “I considered ingredient costs but forgot about things like time, electricity, and overhead.” This insight helped her raise prices at a crucial time of rising costs for entrepreneurs — flour jumped from $9.99 to $15 per bag.

Since completing the Entrepreneur Workshop last Spring, Muff’s Sweet Treats and More has been nominated as Culpeper’s Best of the Best Foodtruck and has continued to expand their offerings. Their menu features items named after local landmarks, like the Midway Magic, inspired by an old country store on Route 15. From late-night baking sessions to running a food trailer, Laura’s journey exemplifies how the right combination of passion, family support, and business education can turn a midnight inspiration into a thriving business.