We were lucky to catch up with Cynthia Guerra recently and have shared our conversation below.
Cynthia, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Did you always know you wanted to pursue a creative or artistic career? When did you first know?
5 years ago when I lived Las Vegas and I had so many different ideas of what I wanted to do but I would lose interest very quickly. So I gave up and worked a lot retail jobs that’s when I felt so unhappy had very low confidence because when things would get hard I would easily quit. So I would get sad and bake haha! when I turned 30 i tales to my mom told her how I felt about myself and how unhappy I was. She was like “why don’t you go to culinary school and learn how to bake ? You love baking” that night I was stayed up and searched for the cheapest baking courses I could afford. I was born in Long Beach and have family in California mentioned that I found a cheap baking course there and hoping that I can stay there until I finished my class and come to Vegas. January 1st I packed up a small bag and quit my job and left to Long Beach. I never risked anything before I promised myself that If I’m going to do this I’m going give it my all. I left everything for baking and that’s when I knew that I really wanted this and truly love baking. I never went back to Vegas ♥️
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
My name is Cynthia and I started baking 5 years ago. My dream when I left Vegas is to be a baker and have my own cafe truck. I worked at 3 bakeries in Long Beach that taught so much about to be a better baker. I learned how to take criticism when the bakes weren’t done correctly. I messed up a lot and I was very slow baker. It was not easy for me I felt like I was getting worse every time haha! But somehow everything just clicked. Anytime it was my friends birthday I would make cakes for them and they would get so excited! Somehow everyone wanted me to make them a birthday cake I really didn’t take it seriously because I wanted to do pastry at that time. When the pandemic happened that’s when Kitchen Princess was born. I would be at home and practice my piping and my bakes everyday. I LOVE cute dessert cafes and things like Sanrio ,critters and trinkets that bring me so much joy. I noticed that no one really offered that. So I was like okay if I’m going to make cakes I’m going to make the cutest cakes ever! I would make one and post it on my instagram for fun and people would really enjoy them. Kitchen princess grew so fast! I was making and selling cakes from home and I would deliver everywhere. When it was safe to go back to work I was working a full time job as a pastry baker from 3:00am-11:00am and come home bake/ decorate cakes until 10pm go to sleep and the same thing everyday day for 2 years. I loved it! It was very hard but I really loved my job and loved doing cakes after work. I had the best of both worlds. Kitchen princess is growing so fast that I had to finally make a decision to leave my job and made kitchen princess my full time now. It’s now 4 months working independently. I now do holiday pre orders, Pop ups tons of birthdays and weddings. My goal is now is get a website and sharing kitchen and start my dream cafe truck.
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
I just started working at a bakery and I didn’t have no experience working at a commercial bakery before. I was told so many things thru out my baking journey. Not only at work but at home too. I was told I was too slow and needed to be faster. Couldn’t frost cakes fast enough and didn’t know how pipe correctly. I would show my work to a certain family member and they will laugh and shake their head and say why would you sell cakes if I can get it from the grocery store for a cheaper price.. It hurt but I use that as a drive to prove them wrong. I had no support from work or from home. I practiced everyday until I realized that I was getting faster and work was getting smoother and cleaner. I will get lots of criticism and still do it’s something that I learn to adapt and listen if there’s something that do fix and make it better.
For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?
The most rewarding part is when I get to see my customer’s expressions when i reveal their cake order. It’s seriously the best feeling ever. There’s a lot that goes into making a cake. From beginning to end everything has to be on point. Baking the cake, building the cake, frosting and decorating. I really do put so much thought onto each cake. You can see it too. Each cake is so unique, different and so memorable. Once it’s finished and it’s time to deliver the cake. The feeling is priceless.
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