Meet Erin Burton of Hello Sweetie Confectionary

Today we’d like to introduce you to Erin Burton.

Erin, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I’ve always been creative, and growing up I was often the designated dessert maker. I just seemed to have a knack for all things culinary. As a teen, I met someone for lunch one day at an amazing little cafe and patisserie. They had a case filled with these gorgeous desserts-tiny cakes and tarts, layers of mousse and ganache, topped with fruit and gold flakes. I was captivated. I had this moment of, “THIS is what I want to do!”

I was accepted into the culinary school, but before I got started I was offered a job working in the pastry kitchen of a Disney resort. After an injury forced me to quit my job there, I found myself hired as a cake decorator in a supermarket bakery. I didn’t know anything about decorating a cake, but I bought some supplies and watched some YouTube videos and quickly caught on.

Cake decorating came easily to me. Customers were always requesting things that we just couldn’t provide, but I would think, “I could do that!” So, in my free time, I practiced. I baked, I read, I watched videos. I was always learning more and growing my skill set and baking cakes for friends and family. After getting married and leaving my supermarket job, I stayed home but never stopped pursuing cake decorating. People would often tell me I should start a business, but in my mind, it was always a distant “maybe one-day” goal.

My husband’s job had brought us to Houston, but when he was laid off in 2016, we relocated to my hometown. I made some decorated cookies for an event we attended and got an amazing response. The holidays were coming up and people wanted to buy my cookies. I decided to make a Facebook page to make things a little easier, but what I thought would be a few small orders just exploded overnight! I found myself with a full-blown business, and Hello Sweetie Confectionary was born!

In July of 2017, we moved back to Houston and have continued business here!

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
I think every business will have some bumps in the road at some point. That’s just life. My business is no exception.

A few years ago I took a break from making cakes altogether. I was a hobby baker who had worked as a supermarket decorator and I severely undervalued myself and the work I put into my cakes. I thought no one would want them if they weren’t cheap, so I’d pour hours and hours into these cakes and get little to nothing in return. I got burned out and just had to stop for a while.

When my cookie business picked up, people began asking for cakes and it took me a while to really get past that hangup. Thankfully, an amazing business class and mentors in the industry really taught me my value and helped me move past that struggle!

The other big hurdle for me was Harvey. We had just moved back to Houston about 6 weeks prior to Hurricane Harvey, and I was just a couple of weeks from officially launching my business in Houston. The company my husband works for sent us up to Arkansas the day before landfall, just to be on the safe side. We left in a hurry and really thought we were safe since we were so far north. We watched the storm unfold from our hotel room, and felt helpless. We knew from talking to neighbors that there would be some damage, but nothing really prepares you for coming home and opening that door for the first time.

We ended up losing almost everything. We have an amazing family, friends, and church family who all came together to help us salvage what we could and piece our lives back together. Little by little we’ve started replacing what we lost. I took a step back from my business until I could get my ducks in a row and get the essentials I needed, but I’m finally in a good place and I’m back to taking orders and gaining momentum!

Please tell us about Hello Sweetie Confectionary.
I offer custom cakes, cupcakes, and decorated cookies for any and all occasions. I believe that every party needs a dessert that gives it the WOW factor, and that taste is just as important as design!

I really love cakes with lots of detail, full of color, intricate piping, sugar flowers, and fun textures. One thing I’m proud of is my skill with the Lambeth Method of piping, which is something that not many decorators are knowledgeable in. I’d have to say it’s one of my favorite ways to decorate a cake.

Although I love working with highly detailed designs, sometimes a simply decorated cake is just as stunning! I don’t focus on one particular style or technique, but instead really listen to each client and come up with a design that’s right for them!

One thing that is important to me is using high-quality ingredients. If you’re paying more for a custom cake or cookies, you want to know you’re getting something better than what you’d pick up off the grocery shelf. Real butter, real vanilla beans, pure cane sugar, real fruit- real, fresh ingredients equal a better tasting final product!

If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
If I had to start over, I think I would have taken a business course and found mentors sooner. It would have saved me a lot of frustration in the long run. I spent too long being the “cheap cake lady” because I didn’t know what I was worth. I find that it’s often true that you get what you pay for, and in my case, I wasn’t putting 100% into my work because I was burned out.

Now that I have the right knowledge and support, things are running smoother, I’m happier, and my clients are happy too!

Pricing:

• Decorated cookies start at $42/dozen
• Cupcakes start at $30/dozen
• Cakes start at $100

Contact Info:

• Website: www.hellosweetieconfectionary.com
• Phone: (256) 777-2737
• Email: hellosweetieconfectionary@gmail.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/hellosweetieconfectionary
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/hellosweetieconfectionary

     
Image Credit:
Beth McCubbin

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