We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Jessica Freitag a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Jessica 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?
I had been working as a pastry chef for quite a few years in the Twin Cities and Mankato MN. I loved what I was doing but I had been with the same company for over 10 years and was urge to do something else. I wanted to make more wedding and custom cakes. I had read about the cottage law in other states and found out that it was finally passed in Minnesota! I instantly knew that was my path. I did my research, got licensed and started!
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I attended Le Cordon Bleu right out of high school. I had no idea what I was doing! I graduated culinary school and moved on to work in hotels, restaurants and catering. At the time I didn’t realize that all of the different jobs I was working were preparing me for owning a business. I did a little bit of everything, cooking, baking, waitressing, bartending, catering large events etc…but it was the cakes and fancy desserts that were my favorite. Making beautiful desserts. We want our desserts to be the best, most beautiful and delicious you’ve had.
Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?
We posted pictures. A lot of pictures. I spent a lot of time on the floor at 1 am trying to get a good shot of cakes when I would finally get orders done after working all day and putting the kids to bed. I tried to post frequently, even now we post our menu daily. If I post lunch pictures on our story, we sell more of those lunch items that day. If I post a cake is available, it sells a lot faster then just having it for sale on the counter.
Have you ever had to pivot?
6 months after opening, Covid hit. We were shut down for a month. Luckily, we had a drive thru. I went back to work by myself for quite a while. I did all of the baking, cooking, coffee making and serving customers. We focused more on lunch service and less on desserts. All of our weddings were drastically smaller. Slowly staff started coming back but it was a rough few months of handling all operations by myself.
Contact Info:
- Website: Lushcakesmn.com
- Instagram: Lushcakesmn
- Facebook: Lush Cakes
Image Credits
Makayla Rae Photography