Meet Margarita Golden of Confectionary Home

Today we’d like to introduce you to Margarita Golden.

So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
I graduated from the University of Texas at Austin a little early, packed my bags and shipped off to NYC to complete my certification from the Institute of Culinary Education. I worked at La Cucina Italiana Magazine for a few years before heading off on my own as a Personal Chef to several clients in Manhattan. I soon realized I was always an almond and chocolate kind of girl, so I enrolled in the Patisserie program at Le Cordon Bleu in London where I graduated with Distinction.

I put pastry on the shelf for about a decade, while I worked in medical sales in San Francisco and oil and gas sales back in Houston. I married in Houston and suddenly three kids made their debut. And that changed everything.

Just before my second was born, I left my job in oil and gas and decided to stay home with my babies. I started making cakes for family and close friends and officially launched Confectionary Home in 2015 on Facebook. One friend told another, then another, and here we are today!

Has it been a smooth road?
I love what I do – I truly enjoy the process from customer collaboration to creative execution to the moment I turn something into a client. Loving what you do helps make the road smooth…

My biggest obstacle is time! Like a lot of people, I juggle a 7-year old, 5-year old, and 2.5-year old with work. My trick is waking up at 4am so I can get my work done before they wake up, and pick up again when they go to sleep. This way I can focus on both kids and work without the two mixing.

Time also limits the number of orders I can take so I book up pretty steadily. At some point I need to sleep, so I have to be vigilant with my cake bookings! And I so hate to turn projects away.

The other challenge I have currently is trying to figure out what’s next – Do I continue with my home-based business operating legally under the Texas Food Cottage Law? Do I take the plunge and open up a free-standing bakery, a dream I’ve had since I was a kid? There are pros and cons to each, and that is the fence I am standing on today.

So, as you know, we’re impressed with Confectionary Home – tell our readers more, for example what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
Confectionary Home is all about cake – primarily custom cake orders and cake pops. I specialize in wedding and grooms’ cakes, birthdays, showers and celebrations, and most of my cakes are quite elaborate. I do structured, gravity-defying, 3D cakes as well as more traditional elegant cakes. I do specialized fondant work and use different edible materials to create something one of a kind while mostly edible.

I like to get to know a bit about my customers before I start on a custom cake order, and with each cake I try to capture a bit of who they are. A lot of love and attention to detail goes into these cakes, and I think that sets my work apart. I wait on pins and needles to see and hear my customer’s reactions to their cakes as much as they wait to see the finished product! And frankly, I can’t rest until I get that high five.

I guess in essence, I try to go above and beyond.

Let’s touch on your thoughts about our city – what do you like the most and least?
I was born and raised in Houston, and my parents are both from Guatemala. I have lived in Guatemala, Austin, Boston, New York, New Jersey, London, and San Francisco and decided to settle in Houston as my forever home simply because there is such a wonderful sense of community and so much diversity. We have everything at our fingertips in this great city!

I think what I love most though is the diversity. I am spending time with my kids studying a different country and culture each week this summer, and have managed to find cultural centers, places of worship, restaurants, sports, social organizations, festivals, language classes, art, and traditions and ceremonies indigenous to each of the countries we’ve studied – all in Houston. I want my kids to live in a city where they can taste authentic Salvadoran pupusas on one block, try on an extravagant sari on another, hear Italian, Farsi, and Thai spoken on another, walk through an interactive Van Gogh exhibit all while sporting an Astros jersey and cowboy boots. And it’s all here in Houston.

The traffic…well that I can do without.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.confectionaryhome.com
• Email: cakes@confectionaryhome.com
• Instagram: @confectionaryhome
• Facebook: @confectionaryhome

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