We recently connected with Mandy Krause and have shared our conversation below.

Mandy , appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

I like to call it project Vogue! Its an on going project.

Every month I create a cake inspired by a Vogue editorial. The cake gets photographed, once photos are back I select my favorites. I find images to have photoshopped so the cake becomes real clothes again. From fashion to cake and back to fashion again!

Some chefs strive for Michelin Stars, I strive to make it into vogue magazine. I am about 18 cakes in now.

I’ve spent hours internet stalking to get some contact info. I managed to score a few emails from staff at vogue. I send them around 3 cakes at a time. I have only sent them 12 of the cakes so far. I did manage a reply once. He said it looked amazing but wasn’t his department and he would forward it along to some other staff. No one else has replied yet, but my pursuit will carry on.

It means a lot to me for many reasons. It is my long term goal, I find a creative and therapeutic release with each cake. And this project pushes me on a regular basis. As a business and as a creative.

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

My name is Mandy, I have green hair, I love extreme metal music, and I own a small business called Love and Macs!

I have been into baking since the beginning of time. I decided to attend pastry school, and have been baking professionally for 13 years now. I started Love and Macs in 2018.

I make all sorts of sweets for various people/events, but Birthday cakes might be my favorite! Birthdays are about celebrating YOU! not anyone else. I have so much fun making these treats special for the person. I am grateful to be a small part of so many big life events for people.

Owning a small business is the hardest thing I have ever done. While it can be relentless, I love how much creative freedom I have. I made a list of things I wanted or liked to do with my career. I decided in that moment I could never find a job to pay me to do these things. I would need to create one, hence forth the imperial birth of Love and Macs. My business baby. It is truly an extension of me, and I have immense gratitude to have made it this far.

Can you open up about how you funded your business?

Well. I would say slowly and with a lot of favors. I decided around mid January 2018 I wanted to start Love and Macs. I was employed full time at the time. I made a few small investments while working, a logo and an LLC. After that I took my last paycheck ($600) and went for it! I had a large wedding scheduled and bought just what I needed to get the wedding done. I bought cupcake pans from a walmart because they were only .89 cents. I still use those cupcake pans. Slowly but surely adding to the bank account. Until eventually I could buy my own things like a pastry case or a freezer.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

Freedom, expression, time to be present with in myself, I find the creative process to be rather therapeutic. So many times I have gone to make cake all up in my feels, by the end I feel like a new person.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.loveandmacarons.com/
• Instagram: @loveandmacs @mandykrause
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/loveandmacs/

Image Credits
The images of me are by Moguel Photo the photos of just pastries I took on my phone.