We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Rocío Diaz-Benjumea a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Rocío, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Do you take vacations? Why or why not?

I do! I am a mother of 3. Our life is as busy as it gets and I usually work late at night or early in the mornings to fit my work around my family’s schedule.

Vacations not only work to change the routine a bit, but also to reconnect with each other and spend quality time that we lack during the busy school year.

Rocío, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I am not one of those bakers and decorators that have had a passion for the kitchen from a young age. I have a PhD in Cell Biology and worked in that field until my mid 30s. I started my interest in baking and decorating after becoming a mom. I wanted to do better than a grocery store cake for my kiddo’s birthdays.

A couple of years after moving to Texas in 2012, I was asked to make a few cakes for friends’ baby showers and from then on, everything cascaded very fast. I realized a lot of people wanted cakes and cookies for their events, so I decided to start a small home-based bakery business.

It has been eight years now where I have established my little business under the Texas Cottage Law and where I enjoy making people’s important days prettier and sweeter with my creations.

I provide custom decorated cakes or cookies for every occasion, and during the Holidays I also offer seasonal desserts. My menu includes tasty macarons, mouth-watering alfajores and scrumptious Spanish and Venezuelan cookies.
I am constantly striving to keep the quality of my goods, but at the same time innovating with new techniques that introduce better and tastier results.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

At the time when I started Cakes, Cookies and Creations, home-based bakeries were a new thing in the town I just had recently moved in. I relied (still do) very heavily in word-of-mouth to get new customers and create my clientele. I was also not very well-informed on social media and its reach, but I soon discovered Instagram and later Google Business. These two platforms have been key to get my business name out and finding new clients.

What’s worked well for you in terms of a source for new clients?

I would say it’s a tie between word-of-mouth and social medial platforms.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://cakescookiesandcreations.weebly.com/
• Instagram: @cakescookiescreations
• Facebook: www.Facebook.com/cakescookiescreations
• Yelp: https://m.yelp.com/biz/cakes-cookies-and-creations-cedar-park-3

Image Credits
Rocío Díaz-Benjumea Cassandra González