What’s your business name and what do you do?
Prairie Baking Co. I make cakes and pastries for everyday events, wedding cakes, and occasionally some breakfast pastries for some cafes around town.
How did you learn your craft?
I attended culinary school after getting my B.A. in studio art. I like to think my art background helps me a lot when decorating cakes. I have worked at a number of bakeries and restaurants, picking up various skills along the way for the past 13 years. For cakes specifically, I worked at Bittersweet pastry shop in Chicago and Sweet Heather Anne in Ann Arbor - both of these businesses have a very high standard for quality and appearance for their cakes (as well as the other things that they make). Learning from them was definitely instrumental to my current style of cake decorating.
What do you enjoy most about what you do?
I enjoy being able to be a part of peoples' celebrations, my first real year of doing this was 2020 and helping people celebrate at that time felt very special. I also really enjoy being able to source the ingredients that I want to use as well as the flowers for decorating cakes. It's great being able to go to the farmer's market to shop for the business, it really feels like a community there.
What do you enjoy least?
Probably general time management and always feeling like there's more to do no matter what. This comes along with the freedom to make all the business decisions, which is in itself great. Also, wedding cake delivery is one of the more nerve wracking things to do on a regular basis.
What’s one thing you wish people knew about your work?
For this business specifically, I am the only person, emailing, invoicing, baking, assembling and decorating all of the desserts and cakes. I think people tend to forget that a lot of small businesses are just one person, even if we have a professional looking website and good social media presence. As much as we try to have everything under control, we are still human and we do make mistakes/fall behind on tasks every once in a while.
What’s one artist you look up to?
Not to be too on the nose with the prairie/flower theme but there is a Detroit, Michigan (my home state) painter that mostly paints large-scale murals of flowers called Ouizi (Louise Jones). The murals are so dynamic, beautiful and look so wonderful in the urban environment.
What do you do when you’re not at Prairie Baking Co.?
We opened a bar in the same space that my bakery is, so I am mostly there. Otherwise, I enjoy hanging out with my husband and our cat and dog, going for walks, drawing, getting a beer at a brewery and gardening.
What's your favorite place in Maine?
I would say Two Lights State Park, I used to go more often than I am currently able to but I need to start making the time again. I've spotted whales feeding there in late summer, it's magical.
Night owl or early bird?
I'm not sure if I'm either, I do feel my most productive in the morning but also love sleeping in. I have worked jobs that have had me work very early (3 am) and late. I generally prefer a morning start and having my evenings to wind down.