Miss the Ringling brothers? No worries Cirque du Sucre is in town, and this circus is here to entertain your tastebuds.
With its creative, extravagant treats like ice cream macaroon sandwiches, it is no surprise that Cirque du Sucre has quickly become Kansas City’s favorite ice cream truck. The truck’s account has more than a thousand followers. Devotees persistently stalk the account, anxiously awaiting for the next ice cream truck outing.
Natasha Goellner is the pastry chef behind these colorful, delectable creations. Lucky for us she agreed to chat and share some of her tricks and secrets.
When and how did you get started in the pastry business?
I went to culinary school in New York and graduated in 2004. There wasn’t anyone to work with in Kansas City back then so I just started making wedding cakes in 2004.
Why did you choose pastries?
Because they’re pretty. I don’t actually like to eat them. I just like to look at them.
What challenges did you face when you were starting up?
To be honest, I really didn’t have any idea about what I was doing. That was probably my biggest challenge because I had to figure things out on my own.
Where did you get your inspiration from when you first started making pastries and other goods?
We got a lot of our inspiration from like Disney cartoons. I loved their whole over the top sundaes that have just way too much whipped cream and sprinkles.
Where did the ice cream macaroon idea come from?
Well we were making so many macaroons, and we had this huge ice cream maker at work that was making like 3 gallons at a time. Since people weren’t buying the scoops of ice cream but they really liked the macaroons so we just decided to make a giant ice cream sandwich and sell those.
Where do you get the inspiration for making these different macaroons?
First we make the colors and then go from there. We usually have a pink, green, and purple, because we don’t want every dessert to be brown. We also always try to have a fruity one and something with nuts.
What is the most popular ice cream macaroon?
Birthday cake. We usually have to make double of that! S’mores is also really popular.
What’s your favorite one?
The carrot cake one.
How did you get the idea of the ice cream truck?
We lost our lease on the plaza because there was construction going on and then we waited until that was sorted out. But in that time we found out our space had been sold to someone else. After that we bought a truck because we thought that would be easy, and of course we thought we knew what we were doing and we’d be really good at driving. It was nothing, just a metal box, so we basically had to MAKE a food truck.
Did you face any other difficulties with the truck?
Well people sometimes ask us for gyros because they think we sell them? And they get really mad when we tell them we don’t have gyros. It is just so weird!
Did you choose the design on it?
Yes I wanted it to look like an ice cream carton so we had a sign company make some stickers.
Why did you choose to put a giraffe on the truck?
A long time ago we were planning to do a mail order company and I was like lets call it a circus of sugar (Cirque du Sucre) so I felt like we needed some sort of circus animal. I think another company already took the elephant, and also I really just like giraffes so I just went with it.
Now it is just weird though because people ask us for meat. They’re like I want a meat sandwich. And I’m like we don’t have meat and they point at the giraffe. And I’m like first of all who eats giraffe, and second of all who are you??
How did you get the idea of doing macaroon classes?
People would ask us a lot! And people really wanted to do the macaroon class and this class filled up so fast so we thought we would keep doing it.
What do you do when you’re not making desserts?
Just bought a house so I’ve been doing a lot of online shopping.
What’s your favorite dessert?
Honestly either a fruit tart or a brownie, and I love ice cream.
Favorite dessert in Kansas City?
I really like the desserts at Lidia’s
Future plans for Cirque du Sucre?
We’re thinking of making a small ice cream cart stand instead of the food truck to bring to events. We also might start to do a mail order ice cream thing.