We were lucky to catch up with Venus Kohler recently and have shared our conversation below.

Venus , appreciate you joining us today. To kick things off, we’d love to hear about things you or your brand do that diverge from the industry standard.

Our food industry is filled with so many preservatives, artificial ingredients, and it is very processed. I believe food should be natural, free of artificial flavors, and minimally processed. I started doing this because I was tired of reading labels on packaging that didn’t make sense to me, our foods should be flavorful, simple, and made from everyday ingredients even if it is “just a treat.”

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.

I’m Venus, I am actually an elementary school teacher, but I’ve always enjoyed baking and creating. I am a home-based business in Concord OH, where I live with my husband and 3 kids along with some chickens and a guinea fowl. I started baking for my children as it was difficult to find baked goods that I felt comfortable feeding them. And so, began my baking from scratch journey! We often misinterpret or misuse this term, “baking from scratch.” All my cakes and buttercream are made from scratch, even if it is a tiny treat for a special occasion! I use as many non-GMO ingredients as possible as well as try to use products free of artificial flavors and dyes. The eggs I use are from my chickens which are not only free range but also are fed organic feed. I think I am most proud of using high quality ingredients that are clean and for me personally, I feel less guilty when I splurge on treats because I know what’s in it.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

It all began in 2017. It took two different occasions for me to figure out what I really wanted to do and then jumped in. The summer of 2017 my sister-in-law asked me to help decorate cupcakes for my nephew’s wedding and I really enjoyed myself, it was calming and soothing and I had a lot of fun. When we got back, and school started, a colleague asked me if I wanted to bake birthday cakes for staff with her and the next thing I knew, I had people asking if they could order from me. I had no clue what to charge, how to factor in time, ingredients etc. I think that was the hardest for me, figuring out my schedule, cost and finding ingredients that I felt happy and comfortable using. But as I moved forward and what I did spread mostly by word of mouth I then had to consider a business model that would work for my customers and me. After all these years I’ve finally got it down. It wasn’t easy, especially because what I created was different from your conventional cakes. Starting a business was a lot of hard work and time management because of my already full-time job, but I kept moving forward, learning each time to be more efficient.

What else should we know about how you took your side hustle and scaled it up into what it is today?

Haha “side hustle!” I said that a lot until one day one of my students asked me if I had a second job, what did I think it would be? It dawned on me that I already had a second full time job,and that was running my business Cakes, Inc. My friend Golnar Parry from Golar Parry Designs created my logo for me and then it suddenly became a reality; I was a small business owner. I baked, created, designed, and sold my product. I managed my Facebook and Instagram pages, took photos, created reels, started my blog and from there it kept getting better. It started from making cakes for friends to birthday parties and then to weddings and I realized I was getting busier, and my weeks were filling up. Doing weddings was big! I think that’s what took me to the next level.

I am excited about moving forward and seeing where I go with my business and making life a little sweeter one cake at a time.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://moonlightingbaker.wordpress.com
• Instagram: Cakesincbyvenus
• Facebook: Cakes, Inc. by Venus

Image Credits
Eldon Kohler (just my photo) Black wedding cake Marisa Lyon Photography Other cakes – Venus Kohler