We recently connected with Samantha Caruso and have shared our conversation below.
Samantha, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Do you wish you had waited to pursue your creative career or do you wish you had started sooner?
If I could go back in time, I don’t think I would change anything with the timing of getting started with my baking business. If you asked me in college where I would see myself in 5-10 years, I never thought I would ever be known for baking cakes and setting up dessert displays or food styling. I originally went to school to be a doctor. Changed to cancer research and ended up graduating with a degree in biotechnology and a minor in biochemistry. While trying to find a job out of school, I ended up working in a customer service call center for a health insurance company just so I could have health insurance. I got pregnant with my son only a few months after starting work there and began my climb up the corporate ladder. I was really successful there and moved up abnormally quickly and I’m currently a manager of open system infrastructure. I have been working there for almost 17 years.
During this time, I’ve been the person to bring in snacks to the office. I would make little treats for all the holidays, for people’s birthdays or other celebrations. I didn’t think it was anything over special, but everyone always loved what I would craft up or bring in. Same in my personal life, I am always someone to celebrate birthdays or events. I would always have a themed party for my son or my now husband. So to me, cake and food have always been a way that I show love – I love to feed people.
I never had any intention of starting a business out of this – it was always just for fun. But somehow, someway, I went from making box cake mixes to full on scratch everything and developing my own recipes and creating totally unique, custom edible art. I can tell you the moment where it went from just doing this for fun, to doing it for other people. My neighbor and friend wanted a very specific kind of cake for her daughter’s first birthday. She went all over the area trying to find a baker who would do it and no one would make what she wanted. She was super upset and discouraged and feeling hopeless so I said I would figure it out and would make it. So I spent two weekends before researching what she wanted and make a couple of practice cakes. When the day came, she was floored by the cakes and everyone thought she hired a high end bakery to make these cakes and everyone was amazed that it was just me who did it. From that point on, it kind of just started to explode. I started to do more and more different kinds of cakes. I started researching more and more on how to make more elaborate cakes and following people on social media and learning how to do more. I just did it for friends and family and then more and more people started asking me to make cakes and I had NO idea what I was doing. I didn’t even think that I had a business! But then I realized I was starting get more than a few people I didn’t know asking for treats per month and then it just turned into a “thing”.
I think if I started sooner, I wouldn’t have been as successful as I am right now. I had and still kind of have no clue what I am doing. I am learning more and more each day or where I want to go with this business and how to actually run a legit business. I started a little backwards, but that is ok. I think it’s put the right people in my path to help me. It’s worked out that I am able to keep my current job and still do cakes on the side. I am able to take the orders I want and have the flexibility to say no when I am overbooked and not feel pressured to have to take orders just to survive and keep this business going. As with any food business, it can be very volatile and scary, but this affords me the ability to make these elaborate cake and cake displays and not be solely dependent on that to survive. I think if I had to do that, I may lose my love and passion for the craft and could get into that burn out mode. I’m currently building what I like to call “early retirement” from my corporate job. I intend to keep doing my day to day work for a while longer to invest more into my home micro bakery so that I can retire early and enjoy my retirement while still doing something I love. I feel like too often people retire without a plan of what to do next and get bored or get lost. I think I am setting myself up to have an enjoyable second half of life.
So again, I truly think everything lined up perfectly and how it was supposed to be for me. We moved into our new home in 2021 and I’m currently working on building my own kitchen and office in the basement that is going to be The Sprinkle Snob headquarters! I couldn’t have tried to time all of this out in a better timeline if I tried.
Samantha, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
Like I said in the previous section, I have always loved to cook/bake/celebrate. My love language is food and I think it has always been. I grew up watching the discovery channel when it was literally just showing cooks in a kitchen – no real commentary or showmanship, just cooking. My dad was always the one to make the weird food experiments. My mom made the usual comfort food and did the baking. Birthdays were always a big deal. So when I had my son, birthdays were a big deal and after a bad experience at a bakery I had loved, I said I would just do it myself. And then my friend needed a cake and I said I would figure it out. From there, it just kind of happened and everyone started coming to me to do unique treats they couldn’t find anywhere else.
I think for me, I pride myself in making everything from scratch. I source really, really, really good ingredients and am very snobby about brands I will use. I am very research minded and will make sure that I use the best quality and best tasting ingredients. I love to use anything local and go to all the farms around me for seasonal fruits. I even pick my own strawberries and freeze them for the year to use in my fillings! I try to get as much as I can from the farms around me or ship in from the very best farms or small companies. I love to support other local small businesses as much as I can too. I love the community I am in and all the people here. I’ve met and collaborated with so many other business owners and I just love the relationships I’ve built over the years.
One of the things I think that sets me apart from others is my style and my ability to create not just a treat, but a unique piece of art. I never make the same thing twice. Every dessert I make is different and I love that. I love creating. I love bringing someone’s vision to life. One of the best things I do, is creating large dessert tables. I enjoy helping people pick a variety of treats and putting together a theme. It’s so fun to work in this industry because you’re always creating something for a special event or a special milestone. My favorite part is being a part of people’s most special times of their life – weddings, babies, retirements, job promotions, birthdays, anniversaries etc. It’s really cool that I’ve had lots of clients where I did their wedding shower, wedding, baby shower, and then birthday cakes for those babies. It’s crazy to be trusted by people to continue to make treats through all of those events. It’s like you grow up with them and I just absolutely LOVE that aspect.
The other service that I am also known for is the smash cake photoshoots I do with my photographer partner, Amy Nastick Photography. We are an amazing team and work together to produce the most beautiful photos of a babies first birthday with their very first cake. I feel like each one of those babies is my own. Every baby is different – some LOVE the cake, some HATE it, some are curious, some just want the topper to play with. It’s been such a joy to do those. Funny enough, I never did that with my own son. We didn’t really have many pictures because he was a surprise and we were super young so it’s kind of like I’m living through these other babies with that. I think it’s such a special memory and I think Amy and I do such an amazing job capturing those moments.
Looking back, are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?
I wish I knew all the things you needed to actually start a business. I had NO idea that you needed a license to sell cakes? I mean, that sounds stupid but I never really thought I was a legit business until I realized that I was actually like a business. I didn’t know about all the weird little things you need to have in place. I wish there was something out there that told you to do XYZ if you want to start a home baking business. Everything is so vague and says “see your local state regulations” and I have no idea how to find them etc. It took a lot of just asking other people or finding by completely messing up or getting told you can’t do this or that. So my next goal is to provide mentorship opportunities to other people who are wanting to pursue a home bakery. There is SO much that you have to do that is just not out there for you to know and I would love to create something to help others be successful and not have to flounder about like I did.
How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?
I think the best thing that society can do is to respect that artists or “home” bakers are not cheap. I think there is a misconception that if you don’t have a brick and mortar store, you are inherently cheap. There is a lot that goes on behind the scenes for creatives. There is a lot of time researching, designing, preparing, procuring, etc that people don’t necessarily understand and think is “free”. I think people need to appreciate all the hidden work and the mental load it takes to constantly always come up with something new and exciting. When you want something custom, you are getting something totally unique and never done before and that is made specially for you. That comes at a premium. And in order for creatives to thrive, they need to be paid for their time and make a profit. I know it seems expensive, but a custom cake can take up to several days up to several weeks to fully come to life.
Contact Info:
- Website: coming soon!!
- Instagram: @the_sprinkle_snob
- Facebook: The Sprinkle Snob and Samantha Caruso
- Yelp: The Sprinkle Snob
Image Credits
Amy Nastick Photography
Garnet Dahlia
Liz Arndt Photography