Mother and daughter team Brenda Donovan and Wendy Crouch are hoping to put the icing on a niche in the dessert industry.

They are baking up their debut appearance with their specialized fondant icing and red velvet cakes. Calling themselves the Pink Ladies, a name inspired by the hit musical Grease, their brand of dessert is a return to the traditional.

They hope to frost a path of fondant across Southern Maine. Fondant, a standard icing in Europe, is little known in the United States.

After investigating the local bakery options, Crouch concluded that the greater Portland bakery market was fondant-less. Nobody carried the traditional European icing, which was a surprise to her.

“Portland’s a pretty big foody town,” said Crouch.

That’s when she realized there might be an untapped market. “Once I found that there was a niche,” said Crouch, “that got me a little more excited.” By hanging their coats on the fondant hook, the Pink Ladies are hoping to plant themselves in a nice comfortable spot in the dessert industry.

Fondant, a standard icing in Europe for decades is just now entering the U.S. market according to baking911.com, a cooking Web site, which receives over 11 million hits monthly. Fondant is also prominent in New Zealand, South Africa and Australia, according to baking911.com.

Only five weeks old, the Pink Ladies garnered their first fondant cake order at the Pond Cove Parent’s Association art fair two weeks ago. With their first order under their aprons, they are ready to introduce fondant to America.

Armed with oven mitts and spatulas, they’re approaching a target market that includes weddings, corporate functions and realty agencies. They hope to sell their sculpted sandcastle cake attached to the motto, “your home is your castle.”

Formerly a freelance graphic designer specializing in kitchenware catalogs, Crouch said making the leap from designer to baker has satiated her creative hunger. “It feels more like art,” she said, “You can never master the computer, but I feel like you can master this.”

The Pink Ladies invest approximately 16 hours in each three-tiered fondant cake. At $150 a pop, mom Brenda Donovan admits, “you don’t really get paid for your time.”

For Donovan though, it’s worth it. “You’re at home… you don’t have to drive out in the snow,” she said as a blizzard of white whirled beyond her kitchen window.

The Pink Ladies are currently taking orders. Their menu can be accessed online at www.pinkladiesclassicdesserts.com. By February, the Pink Ladies Web site will be fully constructed featuring Crouch’s photography of all their tasty tidbits.

The Pink Ladies specialty desserts include the three-tiered fondant icing cake, the sandcastle cake, and their red-velvet cupcakes. Mother and daugher team Cape Elizabeth resident Brenda Donovan (sitting) and Wendy Crouch hope they can carve out a niche in the baked goods market with their specialty desserts.Wendy Crouch one half of Pink Ladies Classic Desserts scrutinizes the two tiered fondant cake. The Pink Ladies hope to create a niche market by adopting the European fondant icing.pink.jpg Wendy Crouch (left) and mother Brenda Donovan built their business Pink Ladies Classic Desserts by accessing Martha Stewart recipes, and popular food websites such as epicurious.com, and baking911.com.