Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Gretchen Baker. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Gretchen, appreciate you joining us today. Almost all entrepreneurs have had to decide whether to start now or later? There are always pros and cons for waiting and so we’d love to hear what you think about your decision in retrospect. If you could go back in time, would you have started your business sooner, later or at the exact time you started?

As a young girl, I always liked seeing pretty cakes. Growing up, I lived across the street from a wedding cake designer and I remember thinking that one day I wanted to do what she did.

Fast forward many years, I started to just decorate some of the cakes my mom used to bake, jut to make them pretty. I did that for friends and family, and one day I got to make a wedding cake for my husband’s cousin. At the wedding, I heard so many people saying that I should do that for a living because that cake was amazing.

I never thought I could do it since I looked at it as a hobby, and it wasn’t until many years later that I started considering opening my own cake business. I guess I was just scared, and thought that maybe I could’t make it happen.
another 17 years went by and I continue to have the thought in the back of my head, until I left my job in the corporate world and decided to give it try, in the meantime until I found another job.

I just didn’t know how busy I was going to get within the first 6 months, so I decided to make it official and created Gretchen The Baker, LLC. I wish I had started this sooner, because the response was amazing, and my business grew really quickly.

Gretchen, 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 started making cakes for friends and family, and bringing them to parties and gathering. Every time, someone from there would ask me if I could make another cake for their next event. People kept telling me I should open my own business and I always had that thought in the back of my head, so it wasn’t until I left the corporate world that decided to pursuit my career as a cake designer.

I didn’t really have formal training but I watched a lot of YouTube tutorials and followed many amazing cake artist and that’s how I learned and has kept up with new trends and techniques in this ever changing industry.

I’m a creative person and I love to always try new techniques, so I have applied myself to learn most of what comes out new and incorporate that into my work. I do a lot of fondant and modeling chocolate work, and specialize in sculpted cakes, and replicating things (like food, objects, etc) in cake.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

There are many amazing cake artist in the Atlanta area, many of which have become my friends. I think a few of the things that have help me build my reputation is the consistency of my work. I do a lot of fondant cakes which so many other bakers don’t, and I always use the best quality ingredients to give the best flavors. I always get the compliment of “not only was the cake beautiful but it tasted amazing”

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

When the pandemic hit in 2020, I was into the second year of my business, and I thought that my business was going to take a hit, like most small businesses did. I stated getting cancellations and thought, well, this is the end of this. However, I started promoting “mini cakes” for the small celebrations, and that seemed to do the trick. I made so many small celebration cakes and even coordinated many “zoom parties” with an unforgettable celebration cake. Other small party planning business reached out and we were able to capture this “zoom party” wave and that help my business stay afloat, so much so that I was booked pretty much every week, with so many orders that I had to find help in order to keep up.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @gretchen_the_baker
• Facebook: Gretchen The Baker

Image Credits
All photos are mine