Today we’d like to introduce you to Natalie Sideserf.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I grew up in Cleveland, Ohio and graduated from The Ohio State University in 2008 with a Bachelor’s in Fine Arts. While in school, a lot of my work was focused on hyperrealistic painting and sculpting as I was influenced by other artists such as Ron Mueck and Evan Penny. Soon after graduation, a friend of mine who watched a lot of cake shows like Ace of Cakes and Cake Boss suggested I make a cake for a friend’s birthday. I had never worked with edible materials before, but was up for the challenge and made a cake in the shape of a cow skull on sand. After that project, the thought of using edible materials to create hyperrealistic objects felt really interesting to me and, at the time, nobody else was doing it. So my now-husband and I decided to move to Austin, which given the “Keep Austin Weird” slogan, I thought there could be a market for cakes like these. I found work at a local bakery where I had the opportunity to familiarize myself with more edible materials, and discovering modeling chocolate was my game-changer. I entered a cake competition with a bust cake in the likeness of Willie Nelson, and walked away with first place in all my categories as well as best in show. Because hyperrealistic cakes also didn’t really exist yet, pictures of the cake also went viral online, reaching #1 on the front page of Reddit. This gave me the confidence to start my own company: Sideserf Cake Studio, choosing “cake studio” rather than bakery because I wanted to project the art as the primary focus of my work. Like hyperrealistic cakes, “cake studios” also did not really exist at this time and so I was very much in my own niche. After many commissions working with local businesses and several more viral moments, I was approached by Food Network to star in my own show called “Texas Cake House” with my husband Dave, which ran for two seasons. While I felt the show could have better represented the full scope of my abilities, I learned enough to start my own YouTube channel where I felt I could better demonstrate my skills and share my learning process with others. While I had participated in other TV shows like two seasons of “Buddy vs Duff” on Food Network and as a judge on “Nailed It” on Netflix, I was committed to my YouTube content, which culminated in the “Everything is a cake” trend in 2020. By then I had a couple years of content on my YouTube channel, and clips of all of it seemed to go viral at once. To this day, I am grateful to have supporters from all over the world and my Sideserf Cake Studio YouTube channel has continued to grow beyond 7 million subscribers and more than 5 billion total views.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
There have absolutely been struggles along the way. Even in my viral moments when hyperrealistic cakes had not yet reached mainstream appeal, I always got comments like “who would want to eat that?”. But this was mild in comparison to the financial difficulties of building a career on such cakes. Because of the amount of effort that goes into just a single cake, the price point can often be very high just to make enough money to pay the bills. A cake that takes 40 hours to complete, for example, is going to cost 40 hours worth of effort (I have techniques I use so the cake is added at the very end to preserve its freshness). While that sounds reasonable, it’s a difficult sell given that at the end of the day, it’s not just a cake but it’s impermanent. So in addition to selling cakes to individuals, I began approaching businesses, leveraging the cakes not only for their events but also as a marketing prospect – agreeing to share their custom-branded cake on my social channels. This was very difficult when I was still building my channel and online presence, and Dave had quit his job to do “Texas Cake House” so with me doing the cakes and him doing the editing, we were forced to take on a lot of debt at that time. But we agreed that hard work and perseverance would eventually pay off so long as we improved the quality of the content week after week. Ultimately it did pay off, and while I do not do many custom individual cake orders these days, brand partnerships still remain an important part of the business.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about Sideserf Cake Studio?
We like to say that Sideserf Cake Studio makes hyperrealistic cake content that makes you feel good. My videos share the process of making hyperrealistic cakes but, just as importantly, they chronicle real challenges that arise from taking on difficult cake projects. I want my viewers to know, especially the young ones, that problem-solving is essential to success and no matter how tough things can get, you can’t give up. In a world that can also be polarizing and often stressful, I try to maintain a positive outlook in an effort to lead by example. The extends beyond just myself but into the brand as well. Sideserf Cake Studio has a cast of cute mascots that we refer to as the “Cake Gang”. Each one is based on some of my most popular cakes, and they each have their own personality: Larry the Onion is a fatherly leader, Paige the Notebook is an artist, Corey the Apple is mischievous, Bob the Boba Tea is cautious, and Mel the Lemon is childlike and curious. It’s always fun to hear how different members of our audience find comfort in relating to different members of the Cake Gang.
We love surprises, fun facts and unexpected stories. Is there something you can share that might surprise us?
Something I don’t talk about very much is that back when I was in high school, I was a flyer in competitive cheerleading. We used to travel all over the country for competitions, many of which were broadcast on ESPN.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://sideserfcakes.com
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/sideserfcakes
- Facebook: https://facebook.com/sideserfcakes
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/@sideserfcakes
- Other: https://tiktok.com/@sideserfcakes
