Friends Catherine Corrente and Isabella Veader are the enterprising teenagers behind City Girl Cupcake.

The Providence Journal / Connie Grosch

It takes a village to make a City Girl Cupcake.

All on their own, friends Catherine Corrente, 15, and Isabella Veader, 14, came up with the idea last spring to sell organic cupcakes to raise money for a good cause. The Providence girls were sitting at a table at Tony’s Colonial Market when they noticed a cupcake display rack. Before long, an idea was born. Now they are part of Farm Fresh Rhode Island and young food artisans.

The pair recently reached the amazing milestone of raising their first $1,000 for Feeding America’s Hungry Children, a national charity, all during their freshman year in high school. Locally, they donate the treats to the Ronald McDonald House in Providence.

The teens hardly work alone, although it might seem that way on the days they find themselves frosting hundreds of cupcakes. There were the 400 they sold for the recent Italian festival on Federal Hill and 10 1/2 dozen for a St. Jude’s Hospital fundraiser. Birthday party orders can be demanding, too, as they add initials to personalize each one. Still to come, the pair has cupcake orders for two weddings booked for next year.

Catherine and Isabella, who are as cute and sweet as cupcakes, have been friends forever. They can recall the first treat they made together. It was cinnamon buns that they started making at 7 a.m. They had to eat them for lunch they took so long to make. But they weren’t discouraged from baking. They’ve also learned to accept help. Catherine’s brother Nicholas, 12, maintains their Web site, Citygirlcupcake.com. Isabella’s sister Adriana, 11, helps on the business side and at sales. Catherine’s mother Chrissy designed their logo and does a lot of scheduling and transporting. Isabella’s mother, Adrienne DiCicco, works at Tony’s Colonial, which is owned by her family and where the cupcakes are sold on Thursday, Friday and Saturday and baked twice a week. The girls insist on fresh cupcakes, as any sweet lover would.

They’ve hired a baker, Linda Pora, to make the cupcakes while the girls are in school, Catherine at Moses Brown and Isabella at The Lincoln School. They frost after school work is done.

Their parents hired a lawyer to create a corporation for their non-profit and he took payment in cupcakes. Mike Sweeney sent them a bill, described by Chrissy Corrente, “It said two dozen cupcakes, assorted flavors.”

That captures the spirit of City Girl Cupcakes.

Isabella recalls the day last spring when Catherine said, “Let’s make cupcakes.” Then the two headed to the kitchen to test recipes and debate organic versus non-organic treats; measure one frosting against another, and learn to roll out fondant to cut out their cupcake signature, a pink heart.

They learned quickly that all cupcakes are not created equal or tasty for that matter. Some were downright yucky.

“Before I would eat any cupcake and I thought it was good,” said Isabella. “Now that we make our own, I taste the difference,” said Isabella.

The girls wanted to make a healthy product free of hormones, so they use organic eggs, milk, butter and cream cheese as well as unbleached flour. Organic ingredients are much more costly than standard ones. But the girls feel strongly that they can produce a better cupcake with “greener” ingredients. They’ve come a long way from their Easy Bake Ovens.

Each has her favorite cupcake. Catherine favors the vanilla with chocolate frosting, while Isabella enjoys the red velvet with cream cheese frosting. Their list of cupcake varieties includes what they call an “inside out cupcake” that they think tastes like a corn muffin. They offer gluten-free and sugar-free varieties and they are nut free. They sell the cupcakes for $2.75-$3 each, $30 for a dozen.

City Girl Cupcakes has sold at fundraisers at their schools and will be part of a local benefit called Wonderland, a Night of Food and Fantasy, Friday, Nov. 6, from 7-11 p.m. at Hope Artiste Village in Pawtucket. The proceeds go to local and global food pantries.

They told their City Girl Cupcake story with a power point presentation to an entrepreneurial class at Roger Williams University this fall. Both girls said they were intimidated by the experience, thinking it scary to talk to college students when they are in high school.

But when you have a village to help, you can do great things at a young age.

gciampa@projo.com