Cupcakes, Chaos, & Clarity
LoLo', age 9
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The Journey.
My obsession with sweets is more like a memory than a realization. Growing up, I would hide canned chocolate frosting in my room and inhale it after school, telling my mom she was going senile when she couldn’t find the can she “claims” she just bought. These habits ultimately led to a childhood full of sweet desserts, an unfortunate struggle with weight, and a deep hatred for low-cut jeans (give a girl a break, middle school was hard enough!). So, it didn’t surprise me when I obsessively began following cake account after cake account when cake decorating videos became a trend.
What started as scrolling through cakes on a screen to making my first cake order in 2017, suddenly my love for baking set me off on a path I could have never predicted for myself. I began learning everything: how cakes rise, how to hold a cake scraper without looking like a toddler with a butter knife (spoiler: angle and patience are everything) and ultimately began baking all the time. I was so hooked, I’d bake for anything—a birthday, a breakup, a mildly inconvenient Tuesday. No excuse was too small for me to break out the stand mixer.
LoLo’s Cakes was made when I quickly learned baking cost money. The name LoLo was a nickname I had when I was younger, decidedly choosing to stay during highschool when my friends would shout it in the hallways like a lost flock of birds. My parents were the first to assign it to my business, saying it sounded “cute and sweet like a cupcake,” and well...it’s hard to argue with that logic.
These early days in my journey were filled with days when I would soften butter using warm cups and deliver orders with blissful ignorance, open to air, and no delivery boxes (yea...). As chaotic as those days may be, I was learning so much, but three impactful women helped me turn my chaos into clarity: Sheri, Ali, and Christinia.
Sheri: During this time, a family friend and a retired Wilton instructor offered to teach me basic cake decorating skills for free. The only stipulation? I had to do the dishes. So, I spent hours bent over her counter practicing my shell borders and fondant work, to finish the day washing dishes and talking over a slice of cake.
“Pressure is key!”
-Sheri’s favorite piping advice
Ali: Fast forward a few years, freshly 18 and working on getting into nursing school, a new bakery opens up in my town. A gourmet bakery specializing in cakes and other baked goods, owned by a retired oral surgeon and- as luck would have it, a friend of a neighbor. Through friend connections and a Facebook text brimming with hope, I decided to reach out in hopes for a job. I remember sitting in her brand-new kitchen, my fancy "interview” shoes hurting my feet, and Ali handing me an apron10 minutes in, saying, “all right, let's get started.”
What I once did at Sheri’s house, I was now getting paid for! In between dishes and cake baking, our team of two grew into a full bakery team, thriving on Pitch Perfect reruns, bowls of buttercream, and afternoon squat breaks.
Christina: In 2020, COVID hit, and I was enduring the hardest semester of my entire nursing career. To put it plainly, I was getting my ass kicked. I had to quit my job at the bakery, stop part time work with my mom and as a babysitter, and focus completely on school. Like everyone during that time, I was suffocating in my own bubble and desperate for an outlet.
That’s when Christina Tosi saved me. A woman of humbled beginnings and the founder of Milk Bar, Tosi released a fully online course that taught students the art of creative baking. From the science of cookies to crafting flavor stories, she helped me embrace a side of baking I’d always avoided—rule-breaking. She taught me to look at a single ingredient and re-imagine it, breaking it down to its core and reshaping it into something new.
Next thing I knew, I was baking cookies during lectures—slipping in and out of frame just enough to avoid tipping anyone off while trying not to burn myself pulling two dozen cookies out of the oven. Meanwhile, my professor was going on (and on) about how to structure nursing care plans.
(Pro tip for the baby nurses out there: the computer does it for you.)
Recently my boyfriend, Aaron, told me that I love starting projects that have no due date...and boy is he right. My entire cake journey has been just that, throwing myself into it as fully as I can with no end and goal in sight!
Until now.
Tune in next week for the phone call that changed everything. My life, my business, and yep—even LoLo’s Cakes. You’re gonna want to hear this one.
Until next time,
LoLo
Crumb for Thought: What is something in your life that has brought you joy and clarity? Let me know in the comments below and remember to subscribe for post notifications!