Today we’d like to introduce you to Claudia Castillo.
Claudia, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
The very first time I baked anything, I was about 11 years old. While cleaning my room, I found an EasyBake oven someone (I have absolutely no idea who) had given me years before. I couldn’t believe I had never used it. Unfortunately, all of the little packages had expired. Sensing my disappointment, my amazing mom suggested I should use leftover pancake mix from that morning and excitedly, I agreed. That was not the last of my obstacles. I couldn’t find a bulb with the correct voltage for the little oven, but by this point I was determined, so I used a bulb with a lower voltage and figured that would do. I was ready (not really, but I thought I was). It ended up taking me about 30 minutes to bake what was essentially a pancake (and you know I didn’t only do it once). Excited, I added condensed milk as the frosting and served it to my official taste testers, my brothers.
It was a pancake with condensed milk, but I was hooked and I haven’t stopped baking since that day.
I baked throughout my teenage years. Making disasters in the kitchen, baking at midnight so my mom wouldn’t get mad at me for the mess, selling cakes to my friends, and presenting my desserts to my dad, mom and brothers who now admit that a lot of my first things were terrible.
I continued baking as I got to college and when I was about 20 years old, I formally created Saccharo Baked Goods. It took me a long time to come up with the name. I grew up in Honduras and Spanish is my first language, but I live in Austin, so I knew I didn’t want it to be in English or in Spanish. I turned to Latin which is the root of many languages and found Saccharo which means sugar in Latin and well, all of my baked goods have sugar in them.
I have continued working on it growing little by little. Taking stories, personalities, human relations and turning them into unique mixes of flavors and designs is by far my favorite part. Today, I feel very happy and blessed to be able to contribute to people’s special occasions and my taste testers (my family) now look forward to my baking.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
NO, definitely not a smooth road.
Perhaps one of the biggest struggles I faced was finding good recipes. Like I mentioned before, I started very young and received no formal training. At first, I had no idea what I was doing. I remember for some recipes using margarine instead of butter because I thought they were the same thing (I now cringe at this memory). So it took a while to find the recipes I have now which I love.
Another big struggle was just learning how to do things. I have taken a few courses here and there, but I am pretty much self-taught. When I started in 2007-2008 approximately, the internet was not what it is today. There was no Instagram, no Pinterest and FB was just a baby, I learned from books, YouTube videos and A LOT of failures and testing. I am still learning and I believe I have had the biggest growth during these past few years where there are an infinite amount of tools available to learn anything we want to.
Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
At Saccharo, we believe that baked goods should not only look great but also taste great.
We specialize in personalized cakes and cookies. There is something magical about receiving a cake or set of cookies that was made just for you. We love creating baked goods that are just as special as the people receiving them.
We take pride in taking the time to talk to our customers to create something that they will truly be happy about.
We mostly make cakes and cookies but also offer macarons, cinnamon rolls, churros, cake pops, and more. Every time we test and like a new recipe, we add it to the menu, so our menu is not set in stone.
Do you have any advice for those just starting out?
WOW So much! jajaj
I think the most important thing I have learned from my years baking is the importance of continuing to put the work in. This applies for anything that you are trying to improve at. The first time you try something odds are you are going to be terrible at it (I definitely was), so you keep working, you learn from your mistakes, and you keep practicing. You can watch videos, read books, take courses and talk to people. Who are more experienced than you. If you put the work in, you will see results. Don’t be discouraged by failures and instead, learn from them. PRACTICE PRACTICE PRACTICE
A good example of this: When I first baked brownies, I didn’t know that they are supposed to look a little raw (even though they are not) when you took them out of the oven, so I baked them until they looked fully
cooked. They were delicious straight out of the oven but incredibly hard and inedible (unless dipped in milk)
once they were fully cooled. I definitely learned from that mistake.
For baking specifically, the advice I wish someone had given me when I was first starting out is to learn how the materials work. For example, knowing when to use fondant instead of gum paste or when to add more and what happens when you add more powdered sugar to buttercream.
Pricing:
- 6″ cakes start at $48 ($4 per slice, 12 slices)
- 8″ cakes start at $96 ($4 per slice, 24 slices)
- Decorated cookies range from $3-6 each. Minimum order of 10.
Contact Info:
- Email: saccharo.order@gmail.com
- Instagram: @saccharo.bg
