We had the good fortune of connecting with Porsha Clayton and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Porsha, is there something you can share with us that those outside of the industry might not be aware of?
That cake is not just cake, it’s edible art. I’ve been in business 3 years now, but baked as a hobby for at least 10. Now that I bake for profit and I’ve increased my skill set as far as design capabilities, I now realize how much time it takes to create something that will be devoured in minutes. Customers do not understand the time that is put into making their cake dreams come true. One cake design can take anywhere from hours, days, or weeks to make. And that’s just one order. Imagine the preparation that goes into fulfilling a multi order weekend. That time it takes reflects in the price that’s quoted. Some will think spending $200 or more on a cake is too much, but not to the baker that has sacrificed hours and days to create it for you. That’s why I enjoy making time lapse videos of customer cakes to show them the effort and love that was put into their cake.

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
Cake Me Away is a Marietta, GA based home business. I started my small business back in 2019 and it has been quite a journey. There were many times I wanted to quit as the burden of starting up a business was not something I had really prepared for. My best friend convinced me to turn my hobby baking into a business and since I was going through a recent break up, I thought, yeah, why not?! I needed something else to focus on. I spent every free dime I had buying new equipment, obtaining licenses, and taking refresher courses for buttercream piping techniques. I spent weeks perfecting scratch recipes to ensure they turned out moist and consistent in taste and texture each time. I originally wanted to only do cupcakes. They were fun and low stress. However, I kept getting orders for custom cakes. I was eager to try new things so I agreed to make the orders. OMG! These custom cakes were stressing me out! I can’t tell you how many hours I stayed up working on cakes or crying because it was not going right. Cake is NOT just cake. Sometimes it has a mind of it’s own and I learned the hard way that there is beauty in imperfections.

Towards the end of 2019, I decided to take a break. Not only for my mental health, but my carpel tunnel was flaring up again and it was becoming painful to frost cakes. Those few months off were the best thing I could have done for me and my business. People started requesting orders again and at that point, I was well rested mentally and physically. Since then it’s been a non-stop ride. Thankfully, even the pandemic did not affect my sales as dramatically as I thought it would. Over the next year, my skills drastically improved. Cakes that took me all night to complete, took less than half that amount of time. I LOVE making custom cakes now. I even tried my hand at making wedding cakes and that was so stressful, but the outcomes are always worth it. This year, I want to add a lot more weddings to my books. I’m a registered vender with Zola so I hope that brings in a lot of new wedding clientele.

Each year I am in business, I get better and better. I love looking at the recap of the year to document how my decorating style is changing. If I had to give advice to new bakers, I’d tell them three things: 1) find your happy cake place. What designs do you LOVE to do? That’s where your best work will come from. Do not burn yourself out making things that do not bring you joy, 2) There’s beauty in the imperfections. Not every cake will be perfect, but I find that sprinkles and gold leaf add that razzle dazzle that you need, and 3) This is perhaps the most important, invest in a good cake pricing class! Pricing is something that all bakers struggle with. Most do not charge their worth. Do your research and find some reputable bakers who offer these type of financing classes.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I’d like give a shoutout to my two best friends, Kristina and Ashley! Kristina really pushed me to take a leap of faith to transition my hobby baking into a business. Her wedding cake was my first order and really gave me the push I needed to start the process of forming my LLC. Ashley gifted her business savvy skills to help me with my pricing, advertising, and policies/procedures. These two continue to be my best customers/biggest supporters. I don’t want to leave out my family and other friends who also support by business whether that’s by purchasing a cake or reposting my social media posts. I truly am blessed to be surrounded by such a supportive group of people.

Website: www.cakemeawayllcga.com

Instagram: cake_me_awayllc

Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/cakemeawaypc/

Other: TikTok: cakemeawayllcga

Image Credits
Professional Photo: Blck Ivory Photography

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