Today we’d like to introduce you to Lisa (Vasilisa).
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
My name is Lisa and I’ve been a self taught baker for several years already! My journey started back in 2022, when I decided to try baking for fun. Firstly I was making cakes for my friends, parties and birthdays I was invited to until one of my friends asked to buy a cake from me. That’s how I started to sell cakes from my home kitchen.
At the beginning my customers were mostly my friends, and I charged them as small as I possibly could. After 6 months I decided to create an instagram account, chose a name for my bakery (it was “Cakery” at the beginning), created authentic flavors (some of them are still on my menu list!) and established price list.
I can describe my journey as a slow process. I’ve never rushed to be successful, I just wanted to bring something new to the community. For a whole year I was teaching myself how to decorate and sell cakes, had bunch of failures, even more tears and sleepless nights, I though to myself at least 100 times to quit, but never stopped baking and finally established myself as “Lavender Cake Studio” (dedicated to my most popular flavor – lavender blueberry, which I created myself) and started to look at this not as an journey but as a profession.
Now I create custom and wedding cakes, and have amazing customers all over Galveston County and even Houston. My goal is to make cakes not only look pretty, but have an amazing unique taste. I never use store bought products and make everything from scratch like my homemade salted caramel or pistachio ganache. I always try to make people celebrations special and sweet. And get an amazing feedback in return!
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Being a home baker is not an easy job. Besides actual baking and decorating, you have to manage social media and talk to customers. Go grocery shopping and carry heavy bags and also be in charge of inventory. And other little stuff you need to take care in order to make everything perfect. And it’s never been perfect for me. Once I made a different flavor for a wedding cake and had to bake the whole new cake from scratch in couple hours. Other time I remembered about an order too late and had to stay up all night to finish it on time. Having a business means that you have to work all the time, and sometimes I’d come home from a party or vacation and go straight to the kitchen with no rest. And I can’t tell how many times I said no to a friend’s gathering just because there’s orders I have to work on.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
As I said, my goal is to make cakes look as pretty and taste as delicious. That’s why I put lots of work into baking process. I bake from scratch and never use cake box mixes. I don’t use American buttercream as I believe it’s too sweet and unhealthy and choose to go with alternative cream cheese for my cakes. People saying that they love how it tastes because it’s not as sweet as they used to have. I try to make my fillings complex (lavender-blueberry, pistachio-raspberry) or add little something special (espresso martini flavor or strawberry champagne, both of them are customers favorite).
As it comes to design, I follow lots of bakers around the world and keep an eye on trends. I was the first one who started to sell viral vintage cakes with piping work, and now I specialize in them. I want every one to have a pretty little cake for their special occasion so they can take bunch of pictures.
Where do you see things going in the next 5-10 years?
I don’t like planning anything ahead so I live one day at a time. I like that my business is expanding and now I not only make custom, but also wedding cakes and I have more people getting to know my work, but I do keep things simple. If I ever get an opportunity to open my bakery, I won’t say no to that. I imagine having a little cake studio somewhere in downtown, where people can order a whole cake or get a slice with a cup of coffee, and it will be full of flowers and dummy pretty cakes. But I enjoy working from my kitchen right now. I dream of becoming a fully wedding cakes maker, as making wedding cakes brings me the most joy.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: lavender_cakestudio
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/161V5UDgRZ/?mibextid=wwXIfr
Image Credits
1dream.media
