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

Lara, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. So, naming is such a challenge. How did you come up with the name of your brand?

LILA Cake Shop is named after our daughter and first born. My husband Alain and I have always dreamt of opening a bakery together. After our daughter was born, no other name felt as beautiful or meaningful.

Lara, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

LILA Cake Shop is a bespoke wedding cake bakery best known for our buttercream floral designs. I run the cake shop with my husband Alain and together we’re a pastry chef/cake artist team that spends a crazy amount of time thinking about cake!

We got our start in 2004 in New York City where we met, married, studied pastry, and worked in kitchens in NYC, DC and LA. Fast forward twenty years and all of our pastry and life experience is the heart and soul of our cake shop. Our flavors are a representation of our family heritage and our designs are inspired by nature and a belief that marriage is an art form.

Since the cake shop opened in 2020, we’ve been honored to be a part of hundreds of weddings and celebrations and to have met so many amazing people – from the couples and their families, to talented wedding vendors, to fellow cake artists and students at our workshops. To be able to create delicious and beautiful wedding cakes and to feel that sense of alignment and connection with others has been incredibly gratifying, both personally and professionally.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

We’ve been lucky to have organically developed an audience on social media over the last four years. I began posting my work in early 2020 (at the start of the pandemic) and my simple strategy was to consistently produce cakes and post them. At the time, most of the cakes I made were not for paying clients. I focused instead on developing my skills and building a portfolio. I also took every photoshoot opportunity that came my way via wedding planners and photographers. Those were invaluable opportunities to get professional photos of my cakes and to have them included in published features.

Then and now, my focus has been to put my work out there and not put too much thought into how it’s received. My advice to those just starting to build their social media presence is to make it easy for yourself to photograph your work, post consistently and stay true to yourself. There’s no need to follow social media trends that don’t feel authentic to you.

Can you tell us the story behind how you met your business partner?

My husband/cake partner and I met in the basement of a public library in East Harlem in New York City. He had recently moved to the U.S from Rio de Janeiro to study pastry and I had recently moved back to the city after graduating from college in Seattle. I was working at an English and adult literacy program, but was spending all of my free time baking. We fell in love, obsessed over pastry together, got married a year later, worked in kitchens around the city and the rest is history!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.lilacakeshop.com
• Instagram: @lila.cakeshop