We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Liliana Villasenor a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Liliana, thanks for joining us today. Let’s talk legacy – what sort of legacy do you hope to build?
I hope to one day own a brick-and-mortar business. To have a physical location to provide my desserts to everyone. I love the idea of customers sipping coffee and enjoying a fruit tart or a slice of cake. A place where friends and families can gather and enjoy delicious treats.
Liliana, 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?
I started my home bakery business after moving to San Diego back in November 2020. It has always been a dream to one day have my own business where I can pour my heart and soul into. And not to mention, really let my creativity go. I found my passion in baking at a young age when I first received my Easy Bake oven. My mother remembers having to have an extra supply of those specialty light bulbs because I would go through them so frequently. Once out of high school, I started working at a local bakery in my hometown. Although I wasn’t the one baking, let alone decorating cakes, I would love to see the true artists at work. The way they would take a simple photo and turn it into a 3D masterpiece had me inspired. I would go home and spend hours on Pinterest just searching different ideas and pinning them on my board with hopes of one day creating art. Since then, I took to baking desserts for family and friends, and just seeing the joy in their eyes really made me happy. And now I can see that same joy in my clients. It is such a rewarding experience.
I love being able to create my client’s vision with a delicious dessert. I start from getting the basic idea of what they envision, to providing a custom sketch of what their cake would look like, and then creating the final product to display at their event. All ingredients are also locally sourced and made from scratch, and taste tested to make sure that it is the best it can be. I am my harshest critic and sometimes I will spend hours and many tears trying to improve a product. But it is so rewarding once it is right. This is my guarantee to my clients.
Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?
You won’t always get it on the first try. I don’t know how many times I sat on the floor with my back to the oven in utter defeat. I never took any culinary or cake decorating classes, so I had no experience at all. I needed to remind myself that I was starting from the bottom and that it wouldn’t just come to me overnight. I needed to work hard. It was all experimental in the beginning, a lot of practice and watching the true bakers at work. The recipes and skills I have now, took years to build. And that it something I am really proud of.
Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?
You really need to put yourself out there. I do everything from social media to pop up markets. I’ve met a lot of my clients at a market where I was selling my products. I’ve also reached out to local wedding vendors to see if there were any collaborations I could participate in. I started in the beginning doing styled shoots where I got to meet amazing people in the wedding industry. Not to mention, having professional photos of my products was a plus. It does take a while to get your name out there especially when you are new to town.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.mycustombakes.com/lilyswhisk
- Instagram: @lilyswhisk
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LilysWhisk
Image Credits
Sandra Yvette Photography Studio Luniste Camila Margotta