The Business of Cake
In a city rich with bakeries and pastry shops, how does one take the cake?
With bakeries seemingly on every street corner in Philadelphia, it can be hard to get your confections to stand out, let alone kickstart your business. StarChefs chatted with three wholesale cake makers about how they developed their businesses, established their customer bases, and cultivated their signature baking styles.
Second Daughter Baking Co.
“Honestly, when we started, we didn’t have a customer base!,” says Rhonda Saltzman of Second Daughter Baking Co. Working out of her space in South Philadelphia, Saltzman offers a wide range of baked goods, like hand pies, cookies, focaccias, and, of course, cakes. After her brownies were named the “Best In Philadelphia” in 2021 by Philadelphia Magazine, she experienced a boom in sales across all her products. While her non-perishable items are now distributed across the country, Saltzman insists on having her cakes made the same day customers pick up their order. “We never hold anything on hand. I want to give the guest something fresh.” That mindset is also carried on to the way the cakes are decorated. “Our cakes are natural and botanical-focused. I like to make things that don’t look too touched.” Saltzman locally sources ingredients and gets her edible flowers from Green Meadow Farm in Pennsylvania, using whatever's in season to decorate her cakes. “We normally get our [flower] deliveries on Thursdays, and I always do an Instagram post to express my gratitude. It feels personal to me.” Engaging customers on Instagram has been a huge help in developing her business; Saltzman even polled her followers to name one of her cakes (called Rosie the Golden Child) which has become her most popular flavor. Second Daughter operates exclusively through their website and preorders, but Saltzman is ready to start introducing retail in the spring and encourages others who want to expand their businesses to ask for help. “Don’t be afraid to reach out to other professionals in the industry. A lot of people are ready to help.”
DREAMWORLD BAKES
“I was always baking cakes on the side, and baking was huge in the pandemic. I thought, hell yeah, I can do that! I took to Instagram when I wanted to turn my baking into a business.” Ashley Huston started Dreamworld Bakes in 2022, turning out her whimsical, otherworldly baked goods, including doughnuts, pop tarts, and cheesecakes. “Fantasy-floral is how I would describe my [cakes]. Someone even recently described them as Surrealist.” With bright colors, flowers, edible glitter, and elaborate piping, Huston’s creations blew up on Instagram, which is where she first got most of her business. She has since created a website and focuses more on celebration cakes instead of wedding cakes, although that has started to shift as Dreamworld grows. Huston worked to diversify her cake options, offering tiered cakes, sheet cakes (more popular for catered events), and “cakies,” or extra large cupcakes. In addition to her flavors, she credits her bold style for a lot of her success. “People want a cake that looks like a Dreamworld cake.” Huston is in the process of opening a bakery, which will include breakfast and lunch options, but will still operate as a cake studio to continue growing Dreamworld. “Don’t wait for the ‘perfect time’ or the ‘right’ moment to start your business.”
NEW JUNE BAKERY
During the pandemic, Noelle Blizzard was in full-blown “baking camp.” For nine months she baked constantly and consumed every cookbook and YouTube video she could get her hands on. “I knew that if I was going to scale a business, everything I did had to make money. That process brought about a lot of competitive research. What makes a good well-rounded menu offering? How much should I be selling my cakes for?” After about a year into opening New June Bakery, Blizzard decided to focus on cakes exclusively. “Cookies weren’t moving the needle, and buns weren’t going to do it—turns out, it was cakes.” Her style has evolved from more simple designs to focus on a vintage aesthetic. “As soon as I got a request for vintage piping, I realized there was so much untapped potential creatively—I just took that on full steam.” Blizzard offers flower-pressed and painted cakes, but vintage cakes are still the most popular with her clientele and with weddings, which make up seventy percent of her sales. New June is in the process of streamlining their ordering system, with their online shop recently going live. (“We used to take all our orders through email!”)
