Cake Shoe Diaries Welcomes Kelly Zubal

The Sugar Cove is absolutely delighted to welcome Kelly Zubal from the San Francisco Bay Area. Recently featured on TLC's new cake show "Fabulous Cakes", Kelly Zubal didn't start walking the sugar path until a chance encounter with Colette Peters' book, "Cakes to Dream On" eight years ago. Inspired by how versatile cake can be, Kelly's cake journey began. So sugar peeps...strap on your cake shoes and get ready to do some walkin', as Kelly shares with us what ignited her passion for all things sugar.

Since I was a child, I always considered baking one of my favourite hobbies. I also took a lot of art classes as a kid too - painting, sculpting, drawing, etc. About eight years ago, I came across a cake decorating book by Colette Peters called, "Cakes to Dream On". I was so enthralled with the many possibilities of cake and what you can do with it, I immediately started making cakes for friends and family. Combining my love of baking and art just came naturally to me and it was a passion from the start.

In the beginning, I had the good fortune of being able to learn from Colette Peters herself. I took a one and half week class with her. It's the only formal cake decorating training I've ever had, but it's what introduced me to my passion and gave me the motivation to start my own business, Inticing Creations later on. It's been eight years since I came across Colette's book and I'd like to think I'm continually growing and refining my skills with each cake that I do. It's important to keep challenging yourself, keep an open mind, and keep learning to progress to the next level.

Four years ago, I started my own cake business called Inticing Creations, and let me tell you, running a business and creating cakes for clients is a completely different monster than making cakes for friends and family from your home kitchen. So when I decided that I wanted to have my own cake business, I researched and talked to other business owners (not only cake business owners) about how to start. I wanted to do it right, so I took a business plan class from a non-profit organization called Women's Initiative.

It was there that I learned to properly write up a business plan and research what I needed to do to open a business. After that, I was accepted into La Cocina, which is a commercial kitchen incubator program for emerging food businesses in the San Francisco Bay Area. I had never worked in a commercial kitchen before, so they set me up with an internship at a bakery to learn about mass baking production and gave me essential training on how to use commercial baking equipment and how to upscale my recipes and production schedule. I think these steps were crucial to successfully opening my business.

A lot of people think running your own business will allow for more freedom with your schedule and life. But it's really not! You live and breathe your business. And for a cake business -- where most of your orders are on the weekends, I rarely have a full day off where I'm not out tending to orders, deliveries, emails, or clients. If I want to take a vacation or weekend off, I plan it at least 6 months ahead of time. But I love, love, love, what I do so it makes all the long hours worth it. I'm also really lucky to have an extremely helpful and supportive Homeboy for life (aka my husband, Pete) that keeps me company on deliveries and washes my dishes when he's not working his full time job. Even after four years of being in business, I still have a passion for cake!

It's a passion for cake that keeps me going, but just like all cake designers and artists, I'm a perfectionist. I have an extremely critical eye, but when it comes to decorating cakes, I have to remind myself that sometimes it won't be perfect. And you know what? That's OK! You just need to keep practicing and trying your best. I never turn down an order if it is something I've never done. I actually encourage it! That's what makes me better at what I do and keeps me motivated. If I had to do the same cake week after week, I'd be bored out of mind. I love that things are always different and unique. I look at my cakes as edible party centerpieces and I find it so gratifying that after my clients and their guests get to look at my cakes they get to eat it!

Kelly Zubal