We recently connected with Hannah Ory and have shared our conversation below.
Hannah, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Let’s start with a story that highlights an important way in which your brand diverges from the industry standard.
I feel that my business differs from the industry standard in a large way. I try to know and care for my customers. I have the ability to bake with love and attention to detail, with consistent quality given to each customer. The experience is fully customizable and the fun, crazy flavors and cool carved cakes are my favorite! Most bakeries I have worked in have been dysfunctional in some large way. I don’t think there is a perfected way to mass produce quality baked goods. Real cakes and pastries are made from scratch with an understanding of each high-quality ingredient and how it affects what you are creating. I view these real custom cakes and pastries as a luxury. It can’t be recreated in a big bakery. It’s a hectic, rushed environment, with hard hours on your feet all day. Corners get cut, and quality suffers. Mixes are used, fillings come out of a bucket, and products are shipped in. I have been told to decorate worse, and to take less time decorating to meet bakery standards. I don’t like that.
If the bakery is from scratch, workers are often underpaid or untrained. I honestly think this is due to a lack of knowledge surrounding the subject. We’re accustomed to a very different taste and quality; no hate to those options! I love a good snack cake just as much as the next guy, and I love that there are affordable options. Everyone deserves a birthday cake! I do feel that baking is like a lost art form in a way, though. Ultimately, it’s an art form I hold very close to my heart. A way to create something that puts a smile on everyone’s face!
Hannah, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
My grandmother made special cakes monthly when we would meet together to celebrate the holidays and birthdays. She would ask the youngest with a birthday in that month what they wanted, and she would make it happen. I always looked forward to it. Baking is like a love language for me. Her mother, my great grandmother, also made fun cakes for family! I’m very fortunate to have pictures of both of their work. As a child, I loved Cake Boss, Ace of Cakes, and Cupcake Wars. Food Network was on the TV if I had anything to say about it.
I have a sweet tooth, but I was also drawn to the way baked goods looked. They can be so beautiful, and never fail to bring smiles to people’s faces! The idea of making cool custom cakes was always incredibly enticing. To make the wildest imagined creations come to life in a delicious, edible form sounded like a dream.
As a gift, my parents began allowing me to take over the kitchen to make my own birthday cakes at around twelve years-old. I would sketch up a cake design and try to recreate my vision! As time went on, baking for family turned into taking little orders for close friends here and there.
My first real order came from a cake I did for a cousin. A guest at his birthday party was blown away by my cake. She said it was the best she ever had, and she wanted it as her wedding cake. I was sixteen years-old, and obviously very excited! Looking back I think her kind words were what gave me the confidence to really go for it. I ordered business cards because the bride asked if I had any to put on the table at the wedding, and I jumped on the opportunity to begin this journey!
I have always had a very deep connection to baking and decorating. I truly have such a passion for what I do, and that really is my brand. Everything is made with all of the love and care I have to give!
How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?
Sweet Bakes has traveled through three different cities in the matter of a few years! Each city has been unique, with a different market. In my hometown, a lot of my clients were family friends, or found me through mutual friends. Starting my business at such a young age, my talent and abilities have grown with me. A lot of my orders were originally underpriced, and I didn’t have the confidence to fix it for a while. My orders mostly consisted of small birthday cakes, and the occasional wedding.
As I graduated and went off to other things, my baking became more of a side hustle. I worked in some bakeries, and opened an etsy shop, which went really well!
Early 2022 I decided to move to Baton Rouge to live with my boyfriend, now fiancé, as he finished his senior year at LSU. There wasn’t really room for me to run my etsy shop, so I put it on pause, and got a job at a local bakery. I was hired right before some things went poorly for the business, causing our staff to drop from eleven to three. It was more than I signed up for and quickly became more than I could handle.
While speaking with my therapist one day, she told me I needed to stop stressing myself out for other people’s businesses, and stress myself out for my own. So, that’s what I did!
I packed up all of the baking stuff I would need and made it work in our townhouse kitchen.
Building up my business in a new place was hard. I’m a pretty anxious person, and I had to put myself out there in a way I hadn’t needed to before. I was doing a lot more baking than decorating. I offered affordable options for the college community at LSU, like bento box cakes. Fun cake flavors are a specialty of mine, so I instituted fun monthly cake flavors sure to blow anyone away. I also participated in markets and pop-ups for the first time, which were a fantastic way to get involved with the community. I learned so much in catering to a new audience.
My fiancé graduated in May, and we became homeowners in Hammond. We settled in between my hometown, Covington and Baton Rouge! Now, I have the opportunity to build up my business again while still keeping in contact with my past customers. I’m still very new to the area, and I am excited to see where it takes me and my business!
We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?
I have always had some chronic medical issues, and have had to deal with frustrating symptoms since I was a kid. Earlier in the year, I suffered a stroke just five months after picking up Sweet Bakes fulltime again in Baton Rouge. We still don’t have answers as to why it happened. It’s been an interesting journey that is still ongoing. Currently, I am going through testing with different specialists for a more chronic diagnosis that could explain my plethora of symptoms. I have just recently started taking orders again.
Ultimately, I am limited as to what I can do, and I chose a difficult career path for someone who can’t be on their feet all day. I learned that working in busy bakeries and baking on a larger scale isn’t an option for me. I have tried, but was never able to last more than six months before walking away in real rough shape. Consistently, I held myself to the same standards as anyone else. Often times, they were burnt out too! That constant comparing is definitely something I had to unlearn.
Having a stroke changed my perspective in a big way. I am in a place now where I have been forced to accept where my health is. I need to work with it instead of against it. I woke up one day when I was young and have not felt healthy since. That’s a hard thing for anyone to wrap their mind around, and I found myself diminishing what I was going through to justify keeping up. Finally accepting my quality of life for what it is has opened me up to a new side of life, baking and business.
I finally realize that I am the one in control of my business, and I choose quality over quantity. I can control my workload, what orders I take, necessary rest and care for myself, all while providing a rare, fully customizable experience. This has lead to better relationships with my customers and better product as I am able to give individuals more of my time and attention. Understanding the customer’s vision on a custom order is very important to me. With art, it’s all in the details!
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