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

Alright, Cecilia thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.

To be honest, I did not decide to become a cake designer on my own at first. I used to work for a popular chain grocery store bakery (Walmart) as a cake decorator, and it was there that I acquired a decent level of skill working with buttercream icing. But it was the compliments of customers that really made me consider things. I believe if something comes back to you over and over, chances are it’s meant for you, & God’s waiting for you to acknowledge it. In my case, people would literally say that I shouldn’t be working there, that I should start my own business, or they would request me by name to do their orders. There was also a local bakery that had been around for over 30 years at the time, and they recommended that I pursue a career there. Hearing this over and over, nearly every weekend, for years, eventually, I started to believe them. I started to consider myself as having a skill that I deserved to build on. Not just working for money, but working in a direction of growth, both personally and professionally. I never would have seen what could be today if I didn’t take that first step back then.

After some time, I applied to the local bakery I was recommended to work for, and I got in! I worked there for about 1 year before COVID hit, and I was laid off for 2 months. The significant decrease in business their company went through made me realize that there were still gaps in the market. Granted, a HUGE gap was the COVID-everybody-has-to-stay-inside-now issue, which drove hundreds of businesses to a place of struggle. But I had a really hard time wrapping my head around not being needed. To me, that was a gap. There was, temporarily, no room for me to work there. It was then that I made the decision to work for myself. I was able to recognize that I had a skill, I had some experience working in customer service, & the rest of the business stuff, I believed, I could learn, and I could find a way to reach the clients that were not attending the local bakery. I was able to return to the bakery in May, & as soon as I got back, I put my two weeks notice in. I made the decision that same month to create an LLC, a website, and schedule my kitchen for Department of Agriculture certification. That was approved on December 15th of 2020, and I consider that my first day in business. & I’ve never looked back.

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?

Established in December of 2020, Cece’s Cake Shop is a convenient way to grab some amazing baked goods, completely made from scratch. Anything from fresh baked pies, to decorated sugar cookies, to 3D fondant sculpted cakes. At Cece’s, we cater to any dietary restriction, including but not limited to, Gluten Free, Dairy Free, or completely Vegan. What makes Cece’s different? Besides our affordable delivery anywhere in Pennsylvania, Cece’s Cake Shop also ships baked goods! Ordering is also a breeze, with the capability to speak with a bakery staff member via call, text, email, Instagram, or Facebook. Our goal is to continue to expand on convenience, with an app to place orders, schedule pick-ups, and receive perks for sticking with us, like a free cupcake for your birthday!

I am now a certified pastry chef, with over 7 years of cake decorating experience, and over 4 years of baking experience. I host public and private decorating classes, attend local vending events, and give back annually through the Harrisburg Dessert Festival, an event hosted by Cece’s Cake Shop that benefits the Bethesda Mission Food Bank of Harrisburg, PA.

The things I’m most proud of are my awards and nominations. I won a first place prize in the Professional Division of the Harrisburg Greatest Baker in 2019 (pre-opening), landed in the top 5 best cakes in Harrisburg Magazine’s Simply the Best competition in 2022 and 2023, as well as won 3rd place in the Artisan Bakery Expo Cake Decorating Competition in New Jersey in 2022. It’s pretty cool to say I can compete, and sometimes win, against the big dogs. For example, in the Simply the Best competition, another bakery in the top 5 is the bakery I used to work for, the one that’s been open for 30+ years. To me, that’s huge.

How did you build your audience on social media?

This is something I’m still working on building, but a few things I’ve learned along the way are:

1. Focus on the quality of your photos. I’ve seen some amazing bakers create beautiful works of art, that probably taste just as good, but the photo looks like one of those blurred/dim lighted 80’s quick snapshots of your baby cousin in the pool. Lol don’t be that person. I still take photos on my phone, it’s worth it to invest in a phone with a good camera if you go that route. I actually take most of my photos outside to take advantage of heavy natural lighting, all on the same marble table I have set up. A soft, muted background that doesn’t take away from your photo is best.

2. Videos work better than photos! I’m terrible at remembering to put together Reels for Instagram or Facebook when I do orders, but when I get the chance to put it together, & really take my time on it, it shows in the number of hits it gets. My photos get an average of maybe 12-30 reactions, the videos I took my time on get an average of 150-400.

3. Attend local pop up shops to spread the word about your business, and encourage them to find your social media page right then & there. If they purchase your product AND follow your social media, you’ve just found a way to market yourself twice for the price of one. Word will travel faster that way.

4. Connect with other businesses, and try to take advantage of some of their clientele. It sounds shady to say it like this, but it’s a form of networking that can build other businesses right along with yours. For example, if I were to visit a local business and offer my services baking for their employees (like bringing in coffee cake or something one weekend for their entire office at no charge), I’ve just marketed myself to however many employees enjoyed my coffee cake. It also makes their business look great because they’ve just provided some yummy goodies for their employees as a thank you for their commitment to the company. My business cards have a QR code to find all my social media accounts, each free dessert would encourage at least one follow, if they don’t bring it home to friends & family & encourage them to do the same.

5. Host a giveaway every now & again if you have more than one social media page. If you host a giveaway on your Instagram, make one of the contingencies to enter that they have to follow your Facebook, or vice versa. You could also ask them to engage on the giveaway post, (like, comment, share, tag, etc.). This will increase your overall look in the social media algorithm, it’ll appear as though people are actively engaging regularly on your page, which will move you up in the “Searched Results” sections.

6. Give yourself time to build. Only few can land the rapid hundred-followers-a-day increase, I am not one of those few. Most businesses or social media platforms need to literally wait it out, continue to build. If you’re getting followers, you’re doing something right. But just remember to stay relatively engaging. Videos will help with this.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

There are so many lessons I’m actively unlearning. One of the biggest is the idea of control. When you are considering starting a business, you’ll hear a lot of people say things like “take control of your finances, control your own destiny, control the trajectory of your life by jumping into your own business!” While some of that applies in certain areas, you cannot, I repeat, cannot control most of that. The only thing you can have complete, total control over is the consistency to dust off your knees and getting back up when you fall, making the decision to build on certain skillsets and levels of understanding, and remaining at a level pace with humble aptitude when you reach successes. There’s always more to learn, more to build, greater to achieve. You can control how into all of that you are, but you can’t control where the opportunities come from. Confidence in networking goes a long way, but half of networking is literally communicating with other people. You can’t control their reaction, whether they’ll truly reply to your inquiry, or any of that. You can control your level of professionalism in the outreach, you can control how you’re to be respected in certain conversations. But for me, I know it was God that allowed me to be at the right places at the right time. I’ve messed up so frequently that it just doesn’t make any sense to be where I am, yet here I am.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.cecescakeshop.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/_cakesbycece_
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/cakesbycece
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cecilia-davis-9a533a9b/