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

Arehely, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Are you able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen?

I started baking cakes as a junior in High School. I attended Klein Forest High School in Klein, TX. At the time I was working at Allstate, was in drill team and making cakes when I had the chance. I always made cakes as a hobby but never thought I would actually make a living making cakes. When my daughter was born, we discovered she had cerebral palsy and I started making cakes as my full time job. I needed to be able to take care of her while making money. It literally couldn’t have been a better “fit”. I love being able to work and take care of my daughter who is now 7 years old. Having a special needs child is a full time job on its own. But being able to be home, take her to therapy and take her so doctor appointments. All while making a living from a craft I love is absolutely amazing to me.

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 back background and context?

My name is Arehely Garcia, I am 27 years old. I was born in Monterey, Nuevo León, Mexico. My first exposure to cakes was my Aunt Silvia, she makes the most beautiful and delicious cakes. As a child watching her make cakes and make my birthday cakes was so inspiring. Sometimes people overlook how much work cakes actually are. You have to make cake batter, bake, making icing, decorate. Buy supplies, order/make cake toppers. And reply to customers, send quotes, taylor a size and design for each and every customer. Also, you have to sometimes be a florist lol you have to know what flowers are non toxic, what goes with the cake best. See what flowers are in season, and what’s accessible to your area. It’s literally a million things in one. Lol

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

The most rewarding thing about my job is meeting new people. Customers have become like family to me. Watching a child from their first birthday to their 5th, 6th, etc. birthday. Seeing what they like now, seeing them go from cocomelon, to Lego, to Spiderman. Just seeing how much these kids have grown is so beautiful to me. I’ve been invited to customers kids birthday parties, it’s just so fun watching them grow and being involved. Also, the customers who do know about my daughters condition and check up on her. Send encouraging words and even sometimes gifts for my daughter Leah. I love customers who love me like family. It’s so rewarding being able to create friendships via my craft.

Are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

When I started making cakes YouTube was a huge part of it. Some colleagues and my self say we attending “YouTube university”. Most of us did not go to school. We learned everything off of the internet and YouTube. Now a days you have tik tok. You can literally find anything on tik tok I love it. I wish tik tok was around when I started in 2011. Lol

Contact Info:

• Website: ArehelyCakes.com
• Instagram: @arehelycakes
• Facebook: Facebook.Com/arehelycakes

Image Credits
All pictures are taken by me!