We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Felicia Sumsion a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Felicia, thanks for joining us today. Can you talk to us about how you learned to do what you do?

I started teaching myself how to decorate cakes because I wanted to make fun birthday cakes for my two kids. I didn’t know what I was doing, but I always had fun making cakes for birthdays. I started with boxed cake mix and store bought frosting, but slowly started trying new recipes and fell in love with not only decorating the cakes, but baking them as well.

Only making a few cakes per year didn’t give me much time to practice and start perfecting my recipes and learning new decorating techniques. But, it did allow me to make my son’s day when I made him a Spiderman, Dinosaur, Minecraft birthday cake. So I started slowly making more cakes and cupcakes for friends and family. If I didn’t know how to do something I’d just watch a quick YouTube video, then try and hope for the best.

I’ve learned that the most important thing is to be willing to try. The more cakes I made, the better I got. Learning through reading and videos can only get you so far. You have to put in the work and be willing to fail forward. I have had so many cakes that didn’t turn out looking or tasting great. But all those failures lead me to where I am now. I never would have been able to consider starting a cake business if I was never willing to try making cakes in the first place.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your background and context?

My name is Felicia Sumsion. I am 31 years old, and just started my own baking business from my home. I have been married for almost 12 years. My husband and I have two incredible kids who are full of energy. I had our son as I was finishing my Master’s Degree at the University of Utah. We decided that I would stay home with our kids and I have been a stay at home mom for the last seven years. I am very creative, and love trying out new hobbies.

Baking began as a hobby for me. I wanted to make fun cakes for my kid’s birthdays every year, so starting with my son’s smash cake seven years ago, When I started decorating cakes. I was using boxed cake mix and the first frosting recipe I could find online. As time went on I started branching out and making my cakes from scratch as well as making a frosting recipe I really liked. I kept making bigger and fancier birthday cakes for each of my kids, and as time went on family members started asking me to make cakes and cupcakes for them. People started making comments about starting a business, and I considered it for a while before I finally decided to go for it and start Magic Measures Bakery.

I’ve made cakes and cupcakes for weddings, birthdays, gender reveals, baby showers, and holiday parties. I’ve made holiday themed cookies for parties, and they are always so much fun. I love trying out new recipes and trying new designs on cakes. While I have fun making all kinds of cakes, my favorite cakes to make are birthday cakes. I love all the fun colors and creative freedom that come with birthday cakes. I love that no two cakes will ever be exactly the same. That is probably my favorite thing about decorating cakes, there is always something new.

My bakery is located in Taylorsville, Utah, and I only make desserts for people in Utah, and generally only in Salt Lake County. Baking brings me so much joy, and I love making someone’s idea come to life for their special occasions.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

I have always loved expressing myself through art of all kinds. Creativity has always been an outlet for me. It allows me to express myself and work though whatever is going on in my life. I have always been drawn to multiple creative outlets. I do my own nails, I danced for 15 years, I love making crafts on my own and with my kids. I draw digitally, and I bake and decorate cakes just to name a few of my hobbies. I love that cake decorating has allowed me to express my creativity and benefit other people in the process. I love taking an idea and creating something new. I never want to make the same thing twice, and baking and cake decorating allow me to create something new every time. There is always something new and exciting that can be created through cake, and I have so much fun experimenting and trying new things.

We’d love to hear the story of how you turned a side-hustle into a something much bigger.

I’ve always loved baking, and I slowly taught myself how to decorate cakes so that I could make cakes for my kid’s birthdays. I started making desserts more often to bring to family events and everyone would talk about how great they looked and how amazing they tasted. Many people asked if I had a business selling my desserts and my response was always that I was considering starting a business, but I never thought I’d actually do it. I always convinced myself that I needed to have everything figured out before I could even consider starting a business, and it just felt too overwhelming. Eventually I decided that I was just going to jump in and figure thing out as I went, so that’s what I’m doing. My youngest will be starting kindergarten in August, and I’ll have a lot more time to focus on figuring things out for my business. I only started my business two months ago, and I’ve already figured out more in the last two months than I did in two years trying to figure things out before starting. Since my business is very new, I’m still figuring a lot out, and I haven’t scaled up a ton, but I’m excited to keep learning and growing as time goes on. Taking that first big leap and making this business official was a huge step out of my comfort zone. I’m excited to continue working and see where this all goes from here.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @magicmeasuresbakery
• Facebook: Magic Measures Bakery

Image Credits

Carly Page Photos
Felicia Sumsion- Magic Measures Bakery