Today we’d like to introduce you to Laura Love Sweets.
Hi Laura, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Hello! I’m a custom cake decorator in Round Rock. I’ve been a single mom of two wonderful little men, and my world revolves around my little family. Even my name: Three Hearts Cakery! My logo has three hearts in varied shapes and sizes, to represent our uniqueness, yet are still all connected. I started out with the sole intention of making great cakes for my family, and now I’m thrilled to bring joy and sweetness to everyone’s celebrations!
When my younger son turned 4, I had an idea for the perfect 2-tier monkey cake, but I was nowhere close to being able to afford it. I worked hard to figure out how to make it myself, and I know I did the absolute best I could with the skills I had at the time. Yes, I thought it was cute, but I knew that was the ceiling, and I wanted to be able to do better, to give my kids what they really deserved. So I took one beginner cake decorating class in November 2013. For the next year and a half, I made all of my family’s birthday cakes in an attempt to perfect my recipes and practice various skills that I watched online, read about in blogs, or came up with myself. My computer started to get filled with pictures of cake designs that I wanted to make. Everyone told me that I should sell my cakes, but I never believed I would be able to make any kind of profession out of it! For Mother’s Day 2015, I decided to try! I posted a cupcake rose bouquet that I’d made for my mother the year before and asked if anybody wanted me to make one for them. I ended up with six orders! After that, other people slowly started asking me to make other designs for them, and so I began making cakes almost every weekend, in addition to my regular day job.
By the time my younger son had his 6th birthday, I was ready to attempt my first 3-tier cake! I love to see those two pictures side-by-side, to remember what just two years can do for a person.
Every step of this journey has truly been for my children. I pour my heart into every cake because I know that every cake I make is ultimately for them.
During 2016, I was working around 50 hours a week in an office and making around 3-6 cakes every weekend. Sleep deprivation demanded that I make a choice, and so I decided to leave my day job (and that miserable Austin traffic!) to pursue cake decorating full-time. I would “advertise” in the selling groups on Facebook, and it didn’t take long for word-of-mouth to become my #1 advertisement.
For years, I have stayed steadily booked, with occasional “killer weekends.” I try to limit myself to only what I can make comfortably, but I do have a small tendency to overbook myself because I always want to help people, need the income, and of course, they always send me designs that I’m dying to make! This is my art form. I was not blessed with the ability to draw or paint or sculpt, but I was blessed with creativity and the drive to make the world more beautiful and fun.
Like every job, cake decorating has its pros and cons. My focus on great service and products comes from an understanding and passion to make people’s lives easier and happier in order to help spread God’s love and peace. My favorite part will always be making people happy and getting to play a part in their celebrations. There’s no greater high than seeing someone get their first look at their cake, seeing their eyes light up, and feeling them jump in to hug me! Covid has killed the hugging part for the moment, but I can still feel it!
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Around six weeks after I started selling, I had two customers who did not show up to get their cakes in the same weekend. I was devastated. I knew that it had nothing to do with me because they hadn’t seen or tasted any of my cakes yet, and it really hurt my faith in people. Every cake takes me hours to prepare…. that’s time away from other things like my kids or like rest, both of which were very much needed at that time! That had already been an exhausting weekend, so when two customers heartlessly wasted so much of my time, it was traumatizing. I had people tell me I needed to start requiring deposits. I didn’t want to do that because it took away my sense of community, but I did eventually decide they were right. I’m very thankful that my customers understand, and they have no problem paying deposits.
When I began selling, I firmly decided I would never make wedding cakes. I take my work very seriously. Making cakes is already stressful enough, and I did not want the pressure of anybody’s wedding to be in my hands! Close to a year later, I got the itch to make a wedding cake. I met an incredibly sweet couple who made me feel comfortable enough to agree. However, during the many hours that I worked on their cake, I had two full-on total mental breakdowns, including crying in the kitchen floor and telling a friend of mine that I just couldn’t do it. A loving support system is crucial!! Their wedding was the next day, so I had no choice but to continue. The cake was well-received, and a couple of years later, I was even asked by a different couple to make them the same design! I can never take for granted the people who support me…. friends AND customers… who give me the strength to keep going, despite my own mental pressures.
I do have more stories of cakes gone wrong or customers gone wild. There were times that I didn’t trust my gut, and it backfired. There were times that human error took over. However, I try not to dwell on those and solely learn from them and move on. No road is without its bumps.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I’m mainly known for my firm policy of “no fondant,” my delicious/not-overly-sweet flavor, my unique designs, and my customer service.
I strive to personalize every design to be unique to the recipient and to make every order as simple on the customer as possible. I always want to “wow” people with the design and the taste.
Taste is always my first priority. I hear so many people claim they don’t like cake, and here’s a secret: when I was a kid, I didn’t really like cake either!! The problem isn’t cake in general… it’s that so many bakers just toss in a ton of sugar and think that’s enough. Well, I aim for flavor, not just sweetness. I’m always excited when someone tells me they don’t like cake because I’ve had almost all of them come to me later and tell me that mine was so good that they had multiple pieces! My cakes are not overly sweet like so many are, but they taste great!
I decided in the beginning that I would never work with fondant. I had tried it at a couple of parties before…. and I never want to put anyone through that disappointment! What good is a cake if you’re not going to enjoy eating it?? For years, I had SO MANY other bakers tell me things like “it doesn’t taste THAT bad” or “but it’s so much easier” or “oh, you’ll come around eventually.” I am proud to say that NO, I have NOT ever dropped my standards! I do not want anything gross coming out of my kitchen, and so fondant is not allowed!
In my 6.5 years of selling cakes, I’ve only declined a couple of orders due to the person actually wanting fondant or it was a design that couldn’t be made without it. I can make almost everything with cake, icing, chocolate, edible images, and toy toppers. There’s no need to make it taste bad!
Is there any advice you’d like to share with our readers who might just be starting out?
My main pieces of advice would be do not expect too much too soon, have high standards for yourself, and do not undervalue yourself.
Many people jump into the baking business, thinking it’s easy. It’s not. There’s so much that you have to learn as you go. If you try to start it as a full-time business, thinking that you’re already fabulous and have nothing left to learn, you’re probably not going to make it very far.
One of my favorite quotes is “If you always do what you’ve always done, then you’ll always get what you’ve always had.”
This is a part of life where you can learn so much from every customer to make yourself better for the next one, and the next one, and the next one. Nobody starts out being perfect, but if you allow yourself to start slow and learn from your mistakes, you can improve and grow.
Do not try to cut corners and do things faster or cheaper. Like I tell my kids with reading, writing, and everything…. work on skill/accuracy first. Speed will come with time. If you try to do things too quick or cheap, customers will notice and move on to someone who cares more.
Pricing is really hard. On my first paying job after the initial 6 Mother’s Day bouquets, I was so scared that I was going to price too high and my next potential customer would turn me down. We were in person when I gave her my price and asked what she thought. She stared at me a moment. She told me, “Honestly, I think that’s way too low. This is what you need to charge….” She paid me almost double what I had asked for, and she was right. I will always be so thankful for her honesty and respect. Many people starting out think that you just need to double your cost of ingredients. They don’t factor in all of the expenses or the time. You deserve a worthwhile hourly rate, in addition to your expenses. In the beginning, you’ll probably still end up working for what feels like too little because decorating takes forever, but you give yourself raises over time by improving your skills and speed and eventually increasing your prices too. There were many cakes in my first year for which I estimated I earned about $3/hour…. but do not let that be your goal or your intended starting price!
Contact Info:
- Email: ThreeHeartsCakery@gmail.com
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/TheRedheadBaker
