When Kathy Davis decided to try her hand at baking she had no idea where the icing trail would lead.
Initially interested in just baking with family, the 31-year-old Auburn resident and single, stay-at-home mother of four was shocked at what happened when she posted pictures of her creations on the Internet.
“When I started posting pictures on Facebook, they started asking if I did baking for a living,” Davis said. “I said, ‘No, it’s just my hobby.’ After that, they wanted to order from me, so I said sure.”
Happy to make a little extra dough on the side, Davis – a native of the Philippines who was raised in the Marshall Islands and moved to the United States in 2005 – began selling her creations.
“After awhile it kept blooming, so I thought I should continue this,” she said. “And then I started advertising on Craigslist, and people started coming back for more. I wasn’t expecting it to get this big.”
Completely self-taught with just a little help via the Web site YouTube where she learned to make fondant icing, Davis makes goodies indistinguishable from cakes made at professional studios.
“It’s just my talent,” she said. “I bake at home and decorate. I never took any classes.”
In August of 2011, after getting a couple of rave reviews on the wedding planning Web site weddingwire.com, Davis began doing business as Kathy’s Cake Delight.
She said the reaction was overwhelmingly positive, happy customers touting her skills and reasonable prices on Web sites like Yelp and Yahoo.
She designs, bakes, decorates and delivers about three to four cakes a week.
“I could make up to three cakes a day, but if it’s a bigger cake like a wedding cake it would take a day,” Davis said.
Davis said she charges about $20 and more for small cakes, $2.75 a slice for wedding cakes, and up to $400 for her most elaborate creation so far, a Snapdragon-adorned masterpiece.
In addition to her traditional wedding cakes, Davis creates birthday cakes, cake pops and cupcakes and is skilled at designing 3D cakes from pictures, such as her Angry Bird cakes, based on the popular video game.
“A lot of people comment about my Angry Bird cakes,” she said. “It’s just imagination. Some people will come in with pictures of what they want, and I’ll do little changes from the picture to make it more elegant.”
Davis said she’s drawing customers in from as far away as Lynnwood and Olympia and wants to open a shop soon, hopefully in Auburn.
“I’m looking for a shop right now. I’ve met some agents already,” she said. “It’s tough when you’re talking with them because you need to know how much space you need and everything else. But it’s fun. Hopefully soon, I’ll get my own bake shop.”
For more information visit www.kathyscakedelight.com
