We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Taylor Langley. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Taylor below.

Taylor, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Coming up with the idea is so exciting, but then comes the hard part – executing. Too often the media ignores the execution part and goes from idea to success, skipping over the nitty, gritty details of executing in the early days. We think that’s a disservice both to the entrepreneurs who built something amazing as well as the public who isn’t getting a realistic picture of what it takes to succeed. So, we’d really appreciate if you could open up about your execution story – how did you go from idea to execution?

I have always loved to bake since I was young. In that, when I was asked what I wanted to be when I grew up I always said I wanted to be a baker. So, 5 years ago while my husband was in Graduate school, I was working at his university in marketing and I was talking to him about other ways we could bring in income since I was the only one working at the time. Of course at this time I was baking all the time, per usual, and he was like you need to sell your cakes. I laughed and he said no seriously, so that night he was the one who pushed me to make my first post on my “business account” and from there it blew up.

We were in mobile at the time, and I was making cakes non-stop as well as serving the Birmingham, AL area as much as I could because I knew we would eventually end back up there. It was a wild time and I traveled with a lot of cakes up and down I-65. By this time I had gotten into the wedding world, which I swore I would never do wedding cakes, that makes me laugh now because I could not imagine not doing wedding cakes! I LOVE my brides!

When we moved back to Birmingham I thought I would have some sort of lull, but I really didn’t. Navigating the business side has been a great learning curve. I have a great support system between my mom who is a very successful business owner and my group of wonderful entrepreneurial friends.

I still have a full-time job and that surprises many people, I have a love for both cakes and marketing and thoroughly enjoy both. The cakes for me, while a business, really is an outlet for me. I try to give myself some weeks off and on those weeks I am craving to make something, so I usually experiment with recipes and designs.

Taylor, 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?

My love for baking started young, with the one-and-only Easy Bake Oven. I always had multiple ovens out on my Mom’s kitchen table, baking away. The love for baking has continued with me throughout my being.

Baking has always been my way of showing love to the people I care for most, and over the years I’ve learned it’s the way I express who I am to all beings around me.

My biggest role models are Paula Deen & Ina Garten, who are a self-taught chefs and bakers. Seeing how far they have come, and gaining knowledge on how hard they worked to get where they are, is a constant guide of hope for me. I myself am a self-taught baker, baking is within my soul. It is something I have always loved, and it will forever be a part of who I am. In saying this, every buttercream cake and baked good are 100% made from scratch with the highest quality ingredients!

For me and my brand, I want to express you and whatever occasion you are having. Whether that be a wedding, first birthday or a Mother’s Day cake, I really enjoy the creative process. My favorite is working with a bride or a mom to make their cake special for just them. I am always happy to replicate a cake seen online, but my bread and butter is really working with my clients to make something that expresses them and their day.

I would say my cakes are a mix of modern and traditional. The best advice I have gotten is to stick to what you want to do with your brand, there are some items I don’t do or styles and I will let my clients know this. I think when you see a baker or artist’s works, you are hiring them or are attracted to them by their style and letting them run with that creativity will allow you, as a client, to get the results you are hoping for!

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

Ingredients: Time and time again, I always say I want my baked goods to look great, but even more I want them to taste great! I am very selective in my ingredients and I think that shows. I use real butter in all my cakes and buttercreams, real eggs, sugar, real lemons if it’s a lemon cake, I make my own vanilla from vanilla beans in Costa Rica, and so on. I think this helps my reputation especially with moms and first birthdays. I have a lot of moms whose babies have not had sugar yet and my cakes are their first and it’s always nice to be able to be reassuring by letting them know that I put just as much care and thought into my ingredients as I do in my designs.

Has your business ever had a near-death moment? Would you mind sharing the story?

The wild story with wedding cake bakers is have you ever dropped a cake, and that is a no for me haha, but I have had a close call. When I lived in Mobile I would fully stack cakes and drive them to the venue. In Mobile, most of the areas were below sea level so I never worried about hills or anything like that.

Well when I moved to Birmingham I really didn’t think about this aspect and my first wedding was on a bluff. So as I was driving to the venue my GPS said turn right and I think my car was fully vertical, that hill was so steep. Thank the lord my mom was with me. She caught the cake and we had to work our way off the hill. I had to reassess, take the top layer off in my car and place it in the take away box so that my mom could hold the center dowel as we went up the hill. After that we made it up smoothly and I had to place the top tier on as well as re-ice the spots that had been damaged. Luckily my mom caught it in the perfect spot I was able to fix and the cake was beautiful. However, that was a lesson learned and I had to restructure my deliveries here in Birmingham.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://theppoolsbakehouse.weebly.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theppoolsbakehouse/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theppoolsbakehouse/

Image Credits
https://www.instagram.com/aimeereynoldsphotography/ https://www.instagram.com/hoperogersphoto/ https://www.instagram.com/audreynicolephoto/ https://www.instagram.com/emilyburgio/