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

Alright, Evelyn thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Folks often look at a successful business and imagine it was an overnight success, but from what we’ve seen this is often far from the truth. We’d love to hear your scaling up story – walk us through how you grew over time – what were some of the big things you had to do to grow and what was that scaling up journey like?

How did Evelynn’s Cakes scale up? I honestly feel that I am constantly scaling up, especially in this industry. There’s always a new theme, a new trend, a new interest that people love to incorporate into their cakes somehow; and as a cake artist I must be ready and up to the challenge. But of course initially when I first started I would mostly create cakes for smaller intimate gatherings like family birthdays and holidays. Not long after I felt like I wanted to try new techniques and create bigger and more luxurious custom cakes; While others played and enjoyed life I was in my kitchen day in and day out; lots of late nights pushing through and never limiting myself of my abilities. I continued practicing newer designs and perfecting my decorating skills; with hard work and dedication I became more experienced and started creating Bespoke cakes, custom themed cakes, quinceanera, sweet 16’s and wedding cakes. I can truly say it was one of my proudest accomplishments.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

My name is Evelyn Suarez, I am a Cake artist and proud owner, CEO of Evelynn’s Cakes. I was born in the Dominican Republic and came to the United States when I was a little girl. I have always had a passion for Baking and cooking; I would watch cooking and baking shows for hours instead of playing outside with my friends or watching cartoons. I am married and a mom of two amazing kids Annalyah who is 7 years old and Hank who just turned 3. My favorite color is green, I love home decor, fashion, and makeup.

Before Evelynn’s Cakes was born I would only bake for family and close friends on weekends or after work since I was a preschool teacher at this time. Word quickly spread in town and people learned about me and my cakes. Orders started increasing to the point that I would be booked for months in advance.

Evelynn’s Cakes is known for creating glamorous, Bespoke, delicious but most importantly fresh cakes. along with a wide dessert and treats menu.

I think what sets me apart from other talented Bakers and Cake artists is that I honestly love and enjoy creating beautiful cakes. Baking is hard work and dedication, I can honestly say that I enjoy it so much that for me it’s a playday, I have fun and most importantly I put my heart and soul into every cake I create.

What I am most proud of is my dedication and commitment to this art despite all of my setbacks, I’ve been able to push through and create masterpieces that have been enjoyed by so many; I have never limited myself when it comes to my abilities.
The main thing I want my clients and followers to know about Evelynn’s Cakes is that when choosing Evelynn’s Cakes you will be enjoying distinctive high quality, freshly baked, bespoke Cakes and treats for your special event.

Can you open up about how you funded your business?

Initially I didn’t have any capital to start my cake business; As a preschool teacher my income wasn’t significantly great. My husband and I worked hard to support our family living pay check to pay check just like many people do. I always wanted to have a stand mixer but couldn’t afford it. One Christmas I received a kitchen Aid stand mixer from my mother in law along with other cake supplies. I was ecstatic!!! I couldn’t believe that finally I had my own mixer to facilitate my baking processes. As I started gaining customers and more orders would come in I would only cover my expenses and reinvest the rest of my cake income in new cake supplies. For example, let’s say over the weekend I had around 5 cake orders for a total of $950.00. I would calculate my total expenses to create all these cakes at around $150.00 depending on its design and repay myself; leaving me with $800.00 to reinvest in cake supplies. I kept reinvesting my income until I had a good range of inventory to create different artistic cake designs. There were times where I felt discouraged, all these cake orders and hard work, sacrificing my time, late nights, missing out on family gathering and fun with friends seeing my bank account was at a standstill for quite some time. I found that I had to continuously remind myself to stay focused and that every soon a time will come that I will be able to actually see my business growth and enjoy my revenue.

How did you build your audience on social media?

Opening my business social media account was one of the first things I did when I started my business. Social media is such an important platform, Its great advertisement and an easier way to showcase your product due to the fact that 9 out of 10 people rely on social media to connect with friends, family and entertainment. People are driven to visuals and easy access to products by a click away along with delivery. Knowing this I started building my audience by interacting with my customers and actively upload pictures of my creations on my grind along with a tutorial of the process and what it takes to create such a masterpiece. In addition I would at least upload two reels a week along with content tutorials using trending audios that my audience will enjoy watching; and really just having fun along the way.

I have also made many friends on social media from the cake community, I feel that they have also helped with the growth in my audience by interacting and supporting each other along the way. Moreover I also gave back to my audience, customers by hosting giveaways every time I was celebrating an accomplishment like my birthday, or a major increase in new followers and especially during Christmas. I love rewarding my audience/customers and giving back to those that might need it more than me. One advice that I can give to businesses that are new to social media is to be patient. It takes time to build an audience. It’s almost like a return of how much time and energy you put in your account.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @evelynns_cakes
• Facebook: @evelynnscakes

Image Credits
Evelyn Suarez Evelynn’s Cakes