We recently connected with Courtnea Whitlock and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Courtnea thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?
It all began in November 2017. All of a sudden, I became obsessed with the idea of baking. My birthday is in January and I just kept telling my friends and family, “I want to make my own birthday cake.” I’d usually do an ice cream cake from Randalls every year. Chocolate cake layers filled with Vanilla ice cream and whipped icing. It was simple and it was good… But it was so incredibly boring. Just basic. For weeks, my time was consumed with googling “How to bake a cake”, “What supplies are necessary to bake a cake”, etc. I frequented YouTube and Pinterest. In early January, I found myself at a local cake supply store and purchased a few items I needed to accomplish baking my own cake. I spent a few hours the day before my birthday watching YouTube while simultaneously constructing my birthday cake. After several hours, BOOM! There was my cake. I had managed to create a Salted Caramel and Vanilla Hennessy Cake. For some reason, Hennessy seemed to be trending around that time. Everything was infused with Hennessy… And I had now joined this trend with my very own cake. I posted on my Facebook account and received tons of positive feedback. Many had inquired as to whether I baked cakes professionally, to which I’d always reply, “Absolutely not!” followed with a “LOL”. After making my birthday cake, I just became so enamored with baking… And apparently so did my friends and family. A Facebook friend had asked me to make her birthday cake in March and although I was a bit intimidated by the idea, I agreed. I tried my hand at another infused cake and managed to whip up a Strawberry Cake infused with Redberry Ciroc. One friend turned into two, two into five and by early May 2018, I had become a full fledged cake baking machine. Nearing the end of May, I was a licensed business owner. I just took a leap of faith and have been running with it ever since. I’m still on a small scale as far as my business goes because I work a full time job but nothing ever gets in the way of my baking. I’m a home based business with all the hopes of growing into something grand. Over the last 4 years, I have created hundreds of cakes and I have absolutely no plans of stopping. These days, I put most of my baking energy into perfecting the art of hyperrealistic and 3D cakes. I’ve done several and have fallen in love with them but I love creating cakes of all kinds. I’ve even dabbled with custom treats as well. I like to think creating custom cakes was an underlying talent I’ve had all this time and it just took me being at the right point in my life to start. That right point for me was a pretty dark time in my life and cakes really brought me through the fire and they continue to bring me much joy every time I’m able to make one. It’s the sweetest stress reliever in the world and I enjoy being able to bring others happiness in the form of cakes. I mean, who doesn’t get happy at the sight of cake!
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?
Custom cakes are my thing. If you want it, I can make it. I’m most proud of my growth as a baker. I’ve tried my hand at several types of cakes and have amazed myself at times and I pride myself on my continued growth in my field. I’m always practicing. Always learning new techniques, trying the latest cake trends and challenging myself to create bigger, better and more jaw dropping cakes. I still get intimidated trying new things with cake but it never stops me. As far as customers, service is something I’m big on. No matter how amazing the cake looks and tastes, great, quality service is imperative. I’m a customer when I’m seeking services and I know what my expectations are and the service I’d like to receive so I make sure I provide that for my customers along with a tasty, quality product. After all, they chose me. They could’ve spent their hard earned money with anyone but they chose me and that means the world to me, especially as a small business owner… So I make sure to express my appreciation through extraordinary service.
Can you open up about how you funded your business?
When I first began this journey, I was a Detention Officer for Harris County Sheriff’s Office. I appreciated the job because it’s nothing short of a blessing to be able to provide for yourself and your family but I HATED IT! 16 hour shifts most days in a jail. Need I say more? I stayed longer than I needed to or even had the desire to but once I started baking and realized how EXPENSIVE cake supplies were and the type of money necessary for quality products, packaging, marketing, etc… I sucked it up and stayed awhile longer while I started investing into myself. I was giving my all to a company and nothing to myself so I decided to use it to my advantage. Lots of overtime and days without sleep was the sacrifice I chose to make so I could build my brand.
Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?
Word of mouth. Word of mouth. Word of mouth. That’s it, that’s all. People seeing my cakes on social media and deciding to step out on faith and give me a try and then loving my cakes is how I’ve expanded to where I am now. I have clients that refuse to order cakes from anywhere or anyone else and that’s an amazing feeling.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: @crowningglorycakestudio
- Other: [email protected]