A variety of sweet treats were on full display on Sunday, Feb. 24 at the 2019 Seattle Cake Con in Fremont. For visitors and patrons at the event, Cake Con is a chance to salivate over the masterful desserts created by passionate bakers—and for bakers and business managers—it is a chance to bring exposure to their product.

By displaying their greatest culinary creations or letting guests sample their delicious treats, new small business owners are able to expand their clientele and get their name out in a crowded market of dessert artisans. James Siew launched his business, Sendacake, about a month ago and spoke about his experience navigating the process of small business ownership as a novice.

“This is our first event. We really wanted to see how it went before we committed to anything else,” Siew said.

Despite Siew’s cautionary approach, he has been encouraged by early responses to his business.

All kinds of cakes were displayed at the Cake Convention.

“We’ve been getting great feedback, great reactions. I think they’re loving it.”

Like many other bakers at the event, baking started as a hobby, but he had to be convinced to pursue it in a business capacity. Others, like Mariela Camacho, knew that they wanted to pursue baking as a business from the beginning.

Since going full time last August, business has been booming for Camacho’s Mexican bakery, Comadre Panaderia.

Her stand held an assortment of Mexican baked goods, including her best-selling canchas, which are not your typical pan dulce. Unlike most canchas, which are colored by food dye for variation amongst breads with a singular flavor, Camacho’s canchas are flavored to match their colors. Her brown canchas have bits of chocolate baked within them and she utilizes freeze-dried strawberries to give her red cancha its distinctive berry flavor. Camacho’s ingenuity was far from an anomaly at Cake Con, however.

Flying Apron, an entirely plant-based and gluten-free baked goods company, is managed by Christina Lugo who discussed the success of their unorthodox treats.

“It’s been really awesome to see the reactions of people. We’ve kind of pushed the boundaries of what’s possible with different ingredients, so we’re pretty proud of it,” Lugo said.

With a location in Fremont, where the event was held, it was unsurprising that the exposure from the event was already paying off.

“It’s been really cool,” Lugo said. “We’re already seeing a lot of support in the store right now.”

It was difficult not to notice the variance in the number of people that visited each stand. Those who put out samples, or had artful desserts on display, got the most attention from the guests. One table that received quite a bit of attention was that of Mark Schoenfeldt, who is part of a husband-wife business called The Perfect Mix.

He sculpts cake toppers out of fondant, and allowed the guests to try their hand at making their own. He has been sculpting fondant into creative models for eight years, and his toppers go on made-to-order cakes that his wife bakes.

Their operation started when Schoenfeldt’s wife, Ebony, started attending a baking class and brought fondant home at night. The Schoenfeldts played around with the fondant, and eventually placed them on cakes, leading to their current business model. Schoenfeldt recalled that it was not a serious business plan at first, but the cakes and his toppers caught on surprisingly well.

“She got a cake order, and then she got two more cake orders, and then we had a business,” Schoenfeldt said.

Cake lovers from all over attended the Seattle Cake Convention.

Stories like that of the Schoenfeldts were abundant at the Seattle Cake Con, as many of the bakers came to start their businesses in interesting ways.

Stella Martinez, owner of Liberated Foods, explained that her business began with constant encouragement from her daughter’s classmate’s mother. After learning that her baked goods were allergen free, the woman pushed Martinez to start a business.

“She prodded me for a year or more, saying, ‘You need to put your stuff out there. There’s nothing like this, especially that excludes everything that you do, and tastes just as good,
if not better.’”

There were small business success stories abound at the Seattle Cake Con, and it was encouraging to see so many examples of small businesses surviving, thriving, and supplying treats that evoke joy from their customers. Passion and tasty teats were everywhere at the Seattle Cake Con with dozens of small business owners reaping the rewards of following their dreams-and the cake wasn’t half bad.

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