We were lucky to catch up with Bethia Palmer recently and have shared our conversation below.

Bethia , appreciate you joining us today. So, naming is such a challenge. How did you come up with the name of your brand?

Iris Griffith Cakes is named after my maternal grandmother. She was a hard-working Baker from Zeelandia, Wakenaam. A small island which is found on the Essequibo River in Guyana. She was known in her community as an outstanding Baker of breads and cakes.

The core values of my brand are: Faith, Commitment, Community and Integrity. My grandmother embodied all these and more, so this business name gives honor to her life’s work and legacy.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I am honored to have been raised in a household which was a melting pot of both the Jamaican and the Guyanese cultures, and I believe that this has helped to shape who I am today. I’m the first of 3 children, I have a younger sister and brother, who sometimes behave as if they’re older than me, and I’m the mother of a phenomenal 23-year-old son.

As you’ve heard, baking is literally etched into my ancestry. Baking in my opinion, is the perfect combination of science and art. I hated Math in school, but I would make up for my mathematical shortcomings by overcompensating with the measuring and remeasuring of the baking ingredients.

Then there’s the Alter Ego, Iris Griffith – my creative side – she gets free rein in my cake and pastry designs. I’m a stickler for good customer service therefore meeting and exceeding the expectations of my clients brings joy to me, to the extent where it feels like a daily adventure! Making customers happy brings delight, color and enjoyment to my world. I guess it’s safe to say that baking is my “love language”.

I wouldn’t say that I’m a born entrepreneur, even though in hindsight that is probably true. Iris Griffith Cakes was birthed in 2018 out of my need to pivot away from what had become a dead-end job. At the time I was constantly stressed and I knew that I deserved “more”. I was approaching the age of 40, so I did some introspection and decided that I had to make some changes in my life. That was when I decided to leave my 9-to-5 job to pursue my passion for baking and to create my own legacy within this industry.

My love for all things beautiful is akin to the quality of my work which is mostly noted for the remarkable color palettes and my unique interpretation of my clients’ visions. Finally, and quite significantly, I value positive relationships and I’ve found that quite often my clients and I have such a unique and pleasant experiences that our interactions often lead to lasting friendships.

What else should we know about how you took your side hustle and scaled it up into what it is today?

Baking was always my part time job. The hustle began back in high school where I used to sell cakes and other pastry items. My mother helped me with the baking, and I sold the items to my classmates. Baking was a means to an end money for me, as the money I earned would cover whatever shortfalls that I had with my lunch money and bus fare. This continued for years. I would always find myself going back to baking as a means of closing the gaps in my finances. In 2018 I took the big leap of faith and concentrated totally on making it into a full time job. It was very intimidating at first, but I pulled on that ‘grit’ that runs effortlessly in my family and I did what I had to do.

During this time I increased my clients mainly through referrals from satisfied customers and by maintaining a social media presence. I also moved to a bigger production space, bought more equipment, and recently entered a national cake decorating competition. All of this helped me gain new business leads and more exposure for the business.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

I believe that resilience cannot be honed in one or two experiences throughout one’s lifetime . It’s about conquering obstacle after obstacle. Trying and Failing Big and then trying again Even Bigger. Iris Griffith Cakes and where we are today is a testament of this.

Our tag line is “Because every cake has a story to tell” and that is surely our experience. The stories range from us jumping through ‘hoops’ to fulfil clients’ sometimes outrageous requests, to falling cakes, to trying to source the right equipment, to equipment malfunctioning right in the middle of a big job, to clients cancelling at the last minute . The dramatic list goes on and on. In each instance, we just had to pick up the pieces and move on. This I believe enabled us not only to know what to fix in some cases, but also allowed us to also figure out where we needed to go as a business and what tools and attributes we needed to get there. The resilience that we cultivated has also been the hallmark of our motivation, and has enabled us to cater to the high standards of the most discerning clients.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://irisgriffithcakes.wixsite.com/bethia?fbclid=PAAabkYDVZ4dOvNwaOcqQj6q8JENnQIc25mnEtBcUeTgjmCcfhD3yJappYL0g
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/irisgriffithcakes?igsh=N2hpaWJkdzJzdHNy
• Facebook: https://www.instagram.com/irisgriffithcakes?igsh=N2hpaWJkdzJzdHNy

Image Credits
Oraine Meikle of MeikleMeiks