We were lucky to catch up with Mariah Chang recently and have shared our conversation below.

Mariah, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. One of the things we most admire about small businesses is their ability to diverge from the corporate/industry standard. Is there something that you or your brand do that differs from the industry standard? We’d love to hear about it as well as any stories you might have that illustrate how or why this difference matters.

Yes, I love to differentiate Rayne Desserts outside of the industry standard. Baking is a science and there are so many different ways to elevate the cakes and desserts in the baking process to make them stand out. A lot of the time when you attend a wedding or a special event, you can tell that the cake is dry and wonder how long ago it was actually baked. At Rayne Desserts, I always make sure to bake all of my cakes and desserts as fresh as possible, and never freeze them.

When baking cakes, it is very important not to overfill your cake pans with batter. If you fill your cake pans too high to try to get more than one layer of cake out of it, your cake becomes over baked and dry due to having to spend longer in the oven. When it becomes over baked, you then have to use simple syrup to bring back the moisture content. At Rayne Desserts, all of my cakes are baked one layer at a time. Doing this minimizes the time the cake layers spend in the oven, making sure they come out as moist as possible. I don’t want to just create an illusion that the cake is moist by using simple syrup. I want to use the best ingredients and proper baking times and temperature to create a delicious naturally moist cake.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

My name is Mariah, and I am the owner & operator of Rayne Desserts! I began my sweet journey when I was young and would love to watch all sorts of baking TV shows and practice at home.

In 2013, I graduated from Auguste Escoffier School of Culinary Arts: Pastry Arts Program. After I graduated, I attended my internship at the Horseshoe Bay Resort & Yacht Club. While working there, I learned more about plated desserts and how to move around in a fast paced environment.

After my internship was completed, I decided I wanted to move on to learning more about cake decorating. I worked at Sweet Treets Bakery where I was taught more about cupcake decorating, frostings and fillings and wedding cake deliveries. I loved getting to watch the cake decorators and learn all sorts of tips and tricks.

My next endeavor was to go back to more custom desserts, as well as cakes and breakfast pastries. I worked at Walton’s Fancy and Staple for five years and absolutely loved it! While working there I got to work with an amazing pastry team, create my own custom desserts and pastries for the front case, as well as work on breakfast pastries, custom cakes & more. While working at Walton’s was great, I still enjoyed taking orders on the side for Rayne Desserts.

Working a full time job that started at 4am most days and then getting home to work on more orders for Rayne Desserts started to become very taxing. My boyfriend at the time, (Now husband!) really encouraged me to take the leap of faith and quit my full time job to go full force into my own business, Rayne Desserts. I am so thankful for him and our families for all of their love and support!

My husband is now my business partner and we love to work together on bringing in clients and coming up with new ideas. Rayne Desserts started off with mainly birthday and other small occasion orders with minimal wedding orders. From our first year of only having 12 weddings, to now having 60 weddings this year absolutely makes my heart so happy! I am so proud of how much Rayne Desserts has grown over the years and very thankful for our amazing clientele.

Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?

The most effective strategy for growing our clientele has been to be ourselves, open and honest. Honesty in using the best ingredients always. No cutting corners. Also, being honest about whether we can produce what the customer wants.

As well as encouraging our clients be open and honest with us. I truly believe treating others as you’d like to be treated goes a very long way. This also makes our clients feel very comfortable with us and confident to refer us to their families and friends.

What’s been the best source of new clients for you?

Word of Mouth! I am so thankful for all of our amazing clients for sharing the love by passing along our information to their friends and family. As well as fellow vendors sharing our information with their clients! Y’all are the best!

Another great source of new clients has come from Rayne Desserts having the privilege of working with the Austin Trail of Lights for the past three years making custom sugar cookies for their company parties and other events!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.raynedesserts.com
• Instagram: @raynedesserts
• Other: https://www.weddingwire.com/biz/rayne-desserts/e0568849f5677f01.html

Image Credits
Sarah Blaze Photography Alyssa Jarae Photography SMS Photography Elisa Lopez Photography Rising Oak Images