Today we’d like to introduce you to Alyssa Young.
Hi Alyssa, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
My personal story is very intertwined with the Cake Llama story. I grew up running around in my family pie bakery, always in awe of the idea that baking pies could actually be someone’s grown up job – “how fun is that, these women are so lucky!” was my common thought. Growing up, I was heavily influenced by all things baking and entrepreneurship. I come from a proud line of Croatian immigrants, and the art of baking has been passed down through the generations. I channel and honor my heritage into my work on a daily basis. Being active in the kitchen has helped me through difficult life events when I was younger and was always a peaceful creative outlet. After working in the mental health field for years, I decided to really follow this passion of mine and made the jump into the food and beverage industry. I started working in a wedding cake boutique and went on to work for another bakery nearby expanding their bread bakery to include more sweet treats. This path evolved to running a pastry kitchen in a downtown Austin restaurant which led me to building out the dessert catering department for a luxury hotel chain in the city. Through hard work and dedication to my passion for baking, I’ve held titles of Executive Pastry Chef and now Owner, I have fought harder than most men in the industry do for these positions and have endured incredible amounts of sexual harassment and pay inequality. I had reached a breaking point with dealing with education bias and the egos the culinary industry carries, I never went to culinary school and never completed college- In fact I was nearly a high school dropout. This sets many up for scrutiny and unfortunately, the lack of “formal education” holds many back from opportunities in the culinary world. I decided to start Cake Llama as a way to hone my skills to one day prove I was more than my lack of education suggested in the eye of others. It rapidly turned into a thriving side hustle. When the pandemic hit, I lost my job and took advantage of the opportunity to pivot to making Cake Llama a full-time business. While we focus mainly on customized luxury wedding cakes and online baked goods, we do so much more than just play around with sugar and flour.
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?
Going full-time at the beginning of the pandemic came with its own unique set of challenges. My business was wedding cake, and when weddings stopped, I had to either get creative with pivots or shut down and give up… the latter has never been an option. The pivot became my favorite dance move very quickly. After not being able to find any product in the stores, I decided to jump into the Zoom world of interactive (online) baking classes, mostly teaching parents and their kiddos all together. As the pandemic slowly dragged on, I noticed bread on the shelves of local markets and stores were disappearing and it broke my heart. The economic toll the pandemic took on families and individuals was already apparent in the summer of 2020, so my immediate reflex was “I need to start making bread immediately and get it to people who are hungry and needing it.” The Cake Llama Free Bread Program was created and hundreds of loaves were baked around the clock and delivered to people’s doorsteps all over the city of Austin. This program has been entirely donation funded since its inception and isn’t going to end. It has evolved to become more of a sandwich kit including a loaf of fresh bread, a jar of peanut butter, jelly and sometimes honey, all for absolutely free. We have expanded delivery from Austin to San Antonio and so many of the small towns in between. This has inspired others within their community to get involved with either donating or ordering multiple sandwich kits/loaves to hand out on their own within their own neighborhoods. I truly believe that if you’re going to open a business, one of your key focuses needs to be on philanthropy within the very community you’re located. We have survived the pandemic, we have survived inflation, supply chain issues and product shortages and it has been hugely in part due to our incredible support base of our customers and clients.
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?
We specialize in customized wedding cakes and dessert tables. From hand painted cake designs to hand crafted hyper realistic sugar flowers, every client has a true 1 of 1 experience. Our event work supports the community outreach ideals I founded this bakery on. Booking with Cake Llama supports our community mental health initiative, it supports our free bread program and most importantly it supports the ability to provide work for those trying to get another chance in life.
Is there something surprising that you feel even people who know you might not know about?
Aside from just providing free bread and sandwich kits to anyone in need no questions asked, our focus is in being advocates for mental health within our community. We have recently partnered up with The JED Foundation for a donation program through our online store, this encourages more people to have conversations about mental health and works at chipping away at the stigmas surrounding things like depression and anxiety. We are currently working on becoming a registered meeting space for local AA/NA meetings as well as working exclusively with local halfway houses to help provide gainful employment opportunities for those doing their best to get their lives back on track. We welcome anyone with an incarceration record or a long gap in unemployment due to being in any type of treatment/recovery. Without the recovery community, I can confidently say I would not be alive today to be doing what I do. Everyone deserves a chance to shine regardless of their background and this is what Cake Llama stands for, equality, second chances, community support and really really good cake.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.cakellama.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cakellama/?hl=en
