A Slice of Concentrated Love
Posted by Erin on April 16, 2008
There is nothing better than birthday cake. It’s like a slice of concentrated love with buttercream frosting.
-Takayuki Ikkaku, Arisa Hosaka and Toshihiro Kawabata, Animal Crossing: Wild World, 2005
Wendy Wagner was pregnant with her third child, home with her two other children, and living in a Baltimore neighborhood with no other children. She told her husband she was feeling very isolated during the day. He suggested she get out in the evenings when he was home—maybe take a class and try something new. A few weeks later she was in a cake decorating shop where she occasionally shopped, and she saw a sign for a weekly cake decorating class. She signed up for it and discovered that cake decorating was a creative outlet for her. “I needed creativity in my life at that point,” says Wendy.
Initially she used her newly-developed skills to make cakes for her own children’s birthday parties. “But the bug had bit,” she says. “I took an intermediate class, next one dedicated to making flowers, then one on borders, and so on.” The problem soon became what to do with all the cakes she was making for practice in her class. “I began to give them to my friends’ for their children’s birthday parties.” Other moms would see cakes at the party and ask the host who had made it. Soon Wendy’s friends told her that she needed to make business cards. At that point Wendy thought, “Maybe I should do this as a business!” She grew her business from word of mouth and established a good client base in the Baltimore area. Someone in her family (Wendy can no longer remember who) coined the term “Cake Diva” and the name stuck. My happiest professional moment is seeing the expression on a child’s face when they first see their cake with their favorite character on it, and their name in icing. “You think you are Santa Claus based on their face.”
But a move was in Wendy’s future—her family relocated to Leesburg, VA and she had to start over building a new client base. In the process of setting up her email account she used the name “Cake Diva” in her email address. At the DMV she registered for a license plate with the name on it, too. “I’ve gotten a lot of business from those two decisions.” Her email address was included in a mass email to the PTA of her child’s school and a school volunteer called her to make a cake. “Once a woman followed me home after seeing my license plate, and when she got out of her car shouted ‘I’m not a stalker—don’t worry! But do you make cakes?’” From then on Wendy began carrying business cards in her car.
Wendy doesn’t do too much marketing at this point since she typically does about two cakes a month and that is the perfect amount since she can schedule the cakes around her home life. As her children get older she knows she will be able to put more time into her business. “Eventually I would love to see myself rent a space in an industrial park. Then I can have huge ovens and fridges, and grow the business to hire assistants.”
As far as inspiration, Wendy loves Ace of Cakes Baker, Duff Goldman. “I’m in awe when I see what he can make. And there is always something that goes wrong. They show the disasters and I love to see how they resolve it.”
Wendy’s contact information and pictures of her fabulous cake creations can be found at: www.divinecakesbywendy.com.
