The Cake Affair Story
It all began by accident really, a neighbor friend showed me how to roll out fondant and use her tools. I was a stay at home mom with a husband who worked out of town. Creating things, decorating, do it yourself projects were my gig. To tell you the truth it was my way to relax after the kids were in bed. This mama can’t sit still and it wouldn’t be out of the ordinary for me to paint an entire room on a whim at 9pm. So, I played around with fondant and some Betty Crocker cake mixes. It was fun and oddly it came so easily. Keep in mind this was the very, very early stages of any Cake Boss stuff, baking shows were not a thing yet and I am not even sure Pinterest existed? So, this became my new hobby I dabbled in here and there. Slowly I started bringing cakes to family dinners, made a few for birthdays and baby showers and people were really interested in ordering. Who knew? My kids became addicted to fondant (#kiddingnotkidding) and I became addicted to seeing what I could create.
On my 30th birthday with my family over for dinner my sister hands me a small box. Upon unwrapping it I found BUSINESS CARDS? (breathe) with the name Creative Cakes, my name, contact information and my own Facebook business page (eye twitch and panic) I was caught off guard. Unsure of myself and certainly didn’t believe in myself like she did. She kept boosting my confidence and I kept getting better and more small orders started coming. It snowballed extremely quickly. Creative Cakes became more my own style and renamed Cake Affair. A new logo. A decal on my mom van, and a website. Eventually a commercial kitchen over took my basement and now 10 years later we have opened up our own shop!
It has been a blast, a struggle, a challenge, a journey to run this business and have a family. Honestly balance is something I am not really sure exists but I am on the hunt for it and damn it I am committed to catching it! I suppose I thrive somewhat on the chaos. On the challenge. When someone asks me to create something that send me right out of my comfort zone and being able to mentor my staff and building their confidence when they think they can’t do something. “Oh ya? Just try”. Cake makes people happy. It is a conversation starter, it is a comforter, it is for celebrating and it is now more of an experience then just a “cake”. What I found I have really grown to adore is the event set up and the dessert tables. This is my passion. It lets me do all the things I love. I am usually given free reign (which satisfies the independent rebel in me), it lets me shop, it lets me see a vision to reality, it lets me decorate, use props, provide our delicious baked goods and ultimately it lets me see the customers faces beam. A side bonus is that usually my vision is a little bigger then my skill set so I get to recruit my amazing husband to build many of my props!
December marks the start of Cake Affair in its own home, our new shop. We are excited to get our family space back; my husband is excited to get his garage back. I am looking forward to setting some business/personal life boundaries and, I am super in love with designing our space for people to see and enjoy! Who knows, perhaps 5 years from now…. I see us with possibly a sit-down café inside! Gotta keep dreaming and growing!
