We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Courtney Teehan. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Courtney below.

Courtney, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today It’s easy to look at a business or industry as an outsider and assume it’s super profitable – but we’ve seen over and over again in our conversation with folks that most industries have factors that make profitability a challenge. What’s biggest challenge to profitability in your industry?

As most people know and have also experienced themselves these past couples years, one of the biggest challenges to profitability was the huge rise in food costs. I don’t think anyone was truly prepared for what was to come.

In the wedding industry, vendors are booked out months to even a year in advance to secure our couples wedding date. So much planning and design time is required for weddings and every detail is important, so when providing quotes to couples you have to ensure you are covering all the boxes, but it becomes difficult to achieve when your ingredients and supplies constantly fluctuate.

When I had my first year of being a full time wedding cake designer I truly did not know what was about to hit me. In 2021 I had provided many of my 2022 couples with pricing not knowing over the course of the next few months the cost of flour, sugar, butter, chocolate and eggs- the back bone of all divine cake would begin to rise over 50%. The butter I had been using for over 10 years for my cakes went up from $10 to $15- and that is just one ingredient used. So when everything started rising in price, it was terrifying. I can’t just reach out to my couples and ask for more money for their wedding cake- that would be a terrible business practice!
So with that, my wage had to eat the rising cost of almost every single ingredient I used. As a one woman small business owner, doing everything from inquiries, inventory, ordering, baking, cleaning, stacking, decorating, delivery, and everything else in between it really did hurt. When starting my business I knew it would be a constant learning experience but was not prepared for that.

Another rising cost I was also unprepared for was the cost of wood! I know what you’re thinking- wood? For cake?
Yes! Cakes are HEAVY and they require a stable, firm board to be placed onto , as well as support dowels to support the tiers of cake on top of one another. The cherry on top of all of this was the pricing of gas began to skyrocket. Again, quotes I had given are locked in 6months to a year in advance and this includes a delivery fee. It came to a point where it felt laughable but as all small business owners do, we take problems head on, continue learning and keep pushing through.

All this to say, I am truly forever grateful for my couples for choosing me to design their wedding cakes and having me be a part of their day. I would do it all again 100 times over.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

My name is Courtney Teehan and I am the owner and pastry chef behind Teehan Cake Design! My home-licensed cake studio is located in the town of Santa Clarita, just outside of Los Angeles, but I go wherever my couples take me! From my personal favorite, Malibu (where I got married!) to Ventura, Thousand Oaks, Beverly Hills, Los Angeles and beyond – I have the greatest honor of designing wedding cakes for couples celebrating their special day all over Southern California!

I specialize in creating unique, modern designed wedding cakes that embrace organic textures and push the boundaries of what wedding cakes can be. I strive for my cakes to represent each couple and their unique vision of their day, as no two weddings are the same, and neither should the cake. Above all else, I work to create cakes that taste as incredible as they look!

I fell in love with cake design from a very young age as I saw it combined two of my biggest passions of art and dessert! I knew that this was something that I was meant to do- But like many others with a large dream, life, nerves, and self doubt held me back for many years. I didn’t take the leap to start my business until 2020 with the pandemic.
I began my business selling sugar cookies, since at the time large gathering were not happening so no one would be ordering a massive cake and individually wrapped cookies were a huge hit! From the very beginning I knew I didn’t want to do sugar cookies forever but had to get my name out there somehow, so when I started my business I had it planted that once things began to open up and weddings were happening again I would take a full pivot and no longer create sugar cookies and fully invest my time in wedding cakes. Sadly, I also truly physically couldn’t create sugar cookies anymore, piping hundreds of cookies, by hand for hours a day was not working well for me. I had already had some existing carpal tunnel before my business, but it became so severe I started losing feeling in my hand so the switch truly came at the perfect time for me. I am happy to share my hand is better now and I do offer sugar cookies every now and then for special occasions or holiday treat boxes. Since I took that pivot and I am so happy to have never looked back.
I am grateful to say that I have had the pleasure and honor of designing and creating over 100 weddings cakes over the past couple years.

One of the best experiences my couples have shared with me in the wedding cake process is enjoying my Signature Tasting Box which has eight of my signature cake flavors, one of the most popular being my White Chocolate Raspberry Cake. A fudgy white chocolate mud cake baked with fresh raspberries and a white chocolate swiss meringue buttercream! It is truly a perfect wedding cake flavor for anytime of the year!
One of my favorite aspects about my tasting boxes is I provide my couples the comfortability of enjoying their tasting boxes where ever they please! Whether that’s at home in comfy jammies on the couch or having a tasting party, popping bubbly with family and close friends. Being able to provide them with that flexibility and making their tasting experience their own is so wonderful to hear about! I also find this takes a lot of pressure off of my couples so they don’t feel that they have to decide in that very moment on a favorite flavor versus if they were sitting and having their tasting with me present.
I truly take so much pride in each and every one of my cake flavors as everything in my cakes is made from scratch with the highest quality of ingredients. Each flavor is created to have a balance from sweet, salty, sour and textures, not one flavor is alike. I have my tasting boxes available every 2-4 months and they are open for anyone and everyone to taste!

Besides having the utmost trust instilled in me from my couples for their special day, some of my proudest moments in my business have been Winning California Wedding Day’s Best of Cake and Desserts of 2022 and Editors Choice of 2023.

We’d love to hear about how you met your business partner.

My business partner is my incredible and supportive husband, Scott Teehan- the Teehan to Teehan Cake Design! We met and fell in love while working at an Outback Steakhouse and from there we got married, started our life together and now have celebrated 7 years of marriage this year!

My husband has been my number one supporter since day one.
I mean – when your wife comes to you in the middle of quarantine during a pandemic and mentions ” hey, I want to start selling cookies to get my dream cake business started, what do you think?” and his answer is with zero hesitation or doubt “lets do it, I believe in you, get what ever you need.” It is all anyone could ask for from their partner.

From going on last minute ingredient runs when I forget something, setting up and running pop up events, to helping me wash mountains of dishes and starting my website. He got my business insurance, taught me how to create COIs, does the taxes, keeps me level headed in moments of self doubt, does his best to answer all of my 10,000 questions and joining me on long delivery rides-he is my rock in all of this.
He also holds the highest position in tasting every single thing I make- which isn’t a bad gig if you ask me.

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

The most rewarding aspect of being an artist and wedding cake designer is bringing my couples vision to life in the form of edible art. Hearing from my couples after their wedding day and telling me how much they loved their cake is something so special to me and I hold it near and dear to my heart. Cake art is incredible because not only do you see it with your eyes, you taste the artistry in the cake flavors which will forever be tied to those memories.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.teehancakedesign.com
• Instagram: @teehancakedesign

Image Credits
Photos by Ashley Burns Photography, Jillian Rose Photography, Wisteria Photography, and Amy Golding Photo