Sweet Jonez Rocking Cupcakes, Phoenix

When asked how to make a great cupcake, Sweet Jonez Rocking Cupcakes founder Jasmine Crowe doesn't list the ingredients—though she uses fresh strawberries and Hershey's chocolate—or brag how every one of her sweet treats is made from scratch. "Every single time we go in [the kitchen], we have music," she says. "We listen to oldies. We feel good while we're making the cupcakes."

Music and cupcakes are a natural pairing for Jasmine. She hails from a musical family ("My sister's name is Marley, after Bob Marley," she says) and she's always loved to bake. Good vibrations permeate every aspect of her business. When she and her friendly staff bring their cupcake truck to events such as birthdays and bar mitzvahs, they play crowd-pleasing hits such as Prince’s “Purple Rain,” a perfect soundtrack for eating one of the bakery’s grape-soda-infused Prince cupcakes. All of their creations have musical names, such as the Elvis, topped with Reese's Pieces, and the Chuck Berry, for which Jasmine uses two dozen strawberries for every one dozen cupcakes.

More than 100 varieties pack the bakery’s flavor roster, including cocktail cupcakes infused with spirits, and Extreme cupcakes such as the buffalo-chicken cupcake, topped with blue-cheese frosting. And even when being served from a rolling kitchen, cupcake catering orders look as good as they taste. "Service and presentation is everything for us," she says.