We were lucky to catch up with Debora Andrade recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Debora, thanks for joining us today. Can you talk to us about a risk you’ve taken – walk us through the story?

Me and my best friend and Business Partner (Yanett Ortiz) met while working at in the bakery department at the Disneyland Resort, after working together for 2 and a half years she decided to find a different job where she could do more of what she like, decorating cakes, this is when she found this small bakery located in La Habra called Simply Irresistible. Since our schedules were very different and I missed my best friend I decided to join the Simply Irresistible team part time while still working at Disneyland. Safe to say that did not last long, working at the kitchen of the resort means LOTS of overtime and extra long shifts, what makes impossible to have more than one job, so I quit the second job to focus my Disneyland work.
3 years passes and one afternoon in the beginning of 2022 Yanett calls me and tell me the the owner of Simply Irresistible decided to close the shop after the vacation they always had on the first 2 weeks of the year.. just like that, out of nowhere… “hey this is the last day for the shop here is your paycheck”… So she asked if she was interested in selling the business to her instead since she believed so much in the future of the bakery.. not a lot of bakeries around makes recipes from scratch like we do.

When she called me she tells me all of that and asks if I’d like to be an important part of the business.. never mentioning a title. So I call her the next day and we decide to do this together 50/50.. in less than one month we went through all the paperwork and bureaucracy in opening a small business.. coming up with name (SUGAR MAMAS)… LLC paperwork, makeover to the store front… all of that while I still worked at Disney.

In april 2022 we opened our doors and I left my comfort job at Disneyland… I was all in with no safety net to help me if things went south. Being an immigrant, any risk feels like a HUGE risk since we don’t have family around to help us or give us the support that sometimes is necessary.

Its been a whirlwind of emotions since than but so worth it… all the stress, tears and sometimes even blood haha 3 years later and we are still here, still standing, even that sometimes it feels like we have no floor under our feets. I am glad that i decided to take this risk with my best friend and that now we are able to have fun together and be part of so many peoples lifes.

Debora, 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?

My name is Debora Andrade, I am a Brazilian born immigrant and moved to the US about 9 years ago.
Back home my mom used to have a small bakery since I can remember so I have been inside a kitchen my whole life. After high school, I decided to lean on my passion and went to culinary school. Right after graduating, the opportunity to immigrate to the USA happened since my mom married a citizen she meet online, I actually had to graduate 6 months before my class because of it so I was going to school in the morning, working during the afternoon and than back at school at night for 6 months.
Once I moved here, 2 months after, still with my broken english, I was able to get a job at the Disneyland Resort working at the bakery department inside the Grand Californian Hotel where i worked for almost 7 years. Working at the resort taught me so many things.. english (haha) since i had to speak with guests constantly.. multitasking, coming out with creative solutions, patience and indurance.
I am so proud of our small business.. everything we overcame. Being a bakery that specializes on recipes made from scratch in a world where everyone tries to cut costs in everything buying things pre made or cake mixes is not easy.. but so worth it.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

Most (almost 90%) of the bakeries around do not use recipes made from scratch.. its a lot easier (and cheeper) to buy things pre-made or a bag of cake mix instead of measuring and making a full recipe… We are proud to say that here at SUGAR MAMAS, most of our recipes are made in house with fresh and natural ingredients and all the cupcakes are baked fresh each morning.
cakes and cupcakes made with cake mix can last a lot longer since they have preservatives and chemicals that allows the cake to taste and feel fluffy 3/4 days after baked.. but they do not taste as good as a made from scratch cupcakes/cakes.

Do you have any insights you can share related to maintaining high team morale?

Working with people is HARD… maintaining morale on slow weeks or super busy weeks is HARD. One thing i learned from my previous job is how important appreciation is.. We always try to have fun, the classic pizza party after a long week.. but we also try have weekly roll calls where we highlight all the accomplishments of our team.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://sugarmamasthebakery.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sugarmamas.bakery/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/people/Sugar-Mamas-LLC-Cakes-and-Bakery
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/sugar-mamas-cakes-and-bakery-la-habra

Image Credits

Yanett Ortiz, Marissa C., Gisselle S., Glenda M.