"I completely forgot about it," says Arce, until she received an email from the NFL welcoming her to the Business Connect program. Thousands of businesses applied and only 200 businesses were picked. And Toasted Mallow was one of them.
"This is pretty awesome," Arce says. All of the organizers of the events at the Super Bowl receive a vendor list and Toasted Mallow was chosen to be one of the dessert vendors at a private tailgate party.
The small dessert business in Gilbert had an unlikely beginning. At her previous job, Arce participated in monthly employee baking contests modeled after the hit show Top Chef. It was a fun way for employees to bond together and one month the secret ingredient was marshmallows.
"I wanted to make marshmallows that I'd like to eat," she says.
Flavors at Toasted Mallow rotate with the seasons. During the holidays, these dark chocolate peppermint bark marshmallows were a hit.
Toasted Mallow
"I found that instead of focusing so much on losing my best friend — the science behind the marshmallow kept my brain going. It really helped me," Arce says.
She started making marshmallows and taking them to work. Soon enough, her coworkers started placing orders. Arce was initially surprised at how much people loved her marshmallows. So much so that she asked, "You guys really like these enough to buy them?" she recalls.
This led her to start selling marshmallows online via Etsy. Later, she launched a Kickstarter campaign which earned 236 pledges, where people contributed a certain monetary amount in return for a reward or merchandise from the company. This campaign helped surpass her fundraising goal.
Arce remembers turning to her wife, Hazel Arce, and saying, "This could be something."
Hazel helped create the website and the couple used their savings to start the marshmallow cafe in 2014. Over the years, the popularity of the unique shop grew. Arce says her secret was to use social media.
Toasted Mallow has a TikTok page where Arce posts videos of the shop and marshmallow creations. The business gained over 259,000 followers on TikTok and earned over six million likes. Her savvy use of the app helped attract a younger crowd and she says she often hears from customers, "My daughter saw you on TikTok."
While Arce thinks all the attention is pretty cool, so does TikTok. She received a call from a spokesperson with the app who asked if she was interested in promoting Toasted Mallow in the Valley. A crew from TikTok visited in January and did a photo shoot featuring Arce's store and products. TikTok has billboards across the Phoenix area and Toasted Mallow will be a part of the campaign.
The publicity from the tailgate party and from TikTok seems to be intersecting at the right moment for Arce and Toasted Mallow.
"Business has grown over 20 percent in the last two weeks," Arce says. She hopes that number continues to grow after the big game.
But right now the spotlight is on the private tailgate party. Arce and her team have creative license on choosing the dessert to feature.
"It is a surprise for people who come to the party," Arce says. She does reveal that it will be Southwest-themed and will be a version of a 'mallow pie. Arce is planning for 8,000 attendees and she has started preparing for the event by making cookies and ordering chocolate. She is up to the challenge.
"I am in the kitchen every day up to 10 to 12 hours," she says.
Both for regular business and the Super Bowl, she confesses it is hard to keep regular staff since the pandemic.
"This event might end up being all my family members coming in and helping out creating, chocolating, and packaging since I don't always have a staff in-house to deal with this demand," she says.
Arce says she hopes tailgate partygoers will have the same reaction as many of her regular customers: "I bought your marshmallows and now I can't go back to store-bought ever again."
Toasted Mallow
1034 North Gilbert Road, #3, Gilbert480-688-9071
thetoastedmallow.com
