Exploring Life & Business with Larry Sanchez, Sr. of The Baking Fool

Today we’d like to introduce you to Larry Sanchez, Sr..

Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I started baking cheesecakes when I was very young. I love cheesecake, but it’s just too sweet, so I started playing with recipes and cutting back the sugar until I found the perfect balance. Everyone around me seemed to love it, so I became the person that brought cheesecakes to family functions.

Fast-forward twenty years and I started baking cakes and cupcakes for work functions…birthdays, events, and sometimes just because it was Tuesday. I wasn’t really a fan of cakes/cupcakes because, again, they were just too sweet. I would often taste it, then scrape the frosting off the top. This is very common. I started playing with frosting recipes and finally just came up with my own. The first iteration was called “Feathercream” as it was very light with far less sugar than most recipes. I was playing with different recipes and came up with a cream cheese based version of our Feathercream frosting. I gave a sample to our #1 taste tester (my mother) and she said, “Oh, that’s heavenly.” I named it “Heavenly Feathercream” and it is the frosting we still use to this day. We now have several varieties of Heavenly Feathercream and it is truly the backbone of our business. We use between a quarter and a third of the sugar that most recipes call for. It is still sweet, but you will never make that “Sugar” face (you know the one I’m talking about,) and you will never see anyone scrape the frosting off the top.

I was laying in bed one morning thinking about how I could combine these two things that I was good at… cheesecakes and cupcakes. It was 3:30 am and I couldn’t sleep. For cheesecakes I’m in the oven for 40 minutes and for cupcakes only 13-15 minutes. I just couldn’t make the math work… then it hit me. What if I …? So I got out of bed and started baking at 3:30 in the morning. I nailed it on the first try and the “Cheesecake Cupcake” was born. I have seen others that make a cheesecake cupcake, but from what I have seen, these are cupcakes that are cored out and injected with a no-bake cheesecake filling. I have yet to see anyone that does it like we do. We have a graham cracker crust, a layer of cheesecake, a layer of cake, and our Heavenly Feathercream frosting on top. We have a variety of unique flavors and they are all fantastic!

After baking these for friends, family, and co-workers, I was getting several people telling me that I really had something here and I needed to share this with the world. After hearing this repeatedly from several different people, the pressure finally got to me and I caved. I discussed it with my wife and we opened The Baking Fool.

The name: I am often asked where the name “The Baking Fool” came from. I have lived what some would call an “interesting life.” I’m a second generation Marine and I have been beaten, stabbed, shot, dragged… if it could happen to a person, it’s happened to me. I don’t really look like a baker. A biker, yes; a baker, not so much. That being said, I’m as tough as they come and when the people that know me would find out that I bake, their reaction would always be, “You bake?” I would always say, “Oh yeah, I’m a baking fool!” When we opened the business, the name was already there.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
For the most part we have seen our business grow without too many challenges. Of course during COVID, we all took a hit, but ours was minor compared to what so many other businesses went through. We had to shut down for a short time due to the inability to get supplies. There was just nothing to be had. We couldn’t get flour or sugar, or many other items, just like everyone else. For us, this was short lived and we found that many brick and mortar bakeries closed permanently. This left people scrambling to find a new bakery. We were just starting to gain popularity during that time and saw our business increase 10 fold.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
We bake cupcakes, cakes, cake pops, cheesecakes, and cheesecake bites.

We are well known for our one of a kind cheesecake cupcakes.

Our unique “Heavenly Feathercream” frosting is the cornerstone of our business. It is akin to a cream cheese frosting, but much lighter with much less sugar.

We are a home based business and we really enjoy helping people if we can. We try to keep our prices low so we can help as many people as possible.

We’d be interested to hear your thoughts on luck and what role, if any, you feel it’s played for you?
We all face challenges in life. How we face those challenges defines who we are and, more importantly, who we become. I have certainly had my share of “bad luck” in my life, but I refuse to dwell on those things. I will always look for the positive in any situation. It is not always easy to see, but it is there. One can take any negative situation and turn it into a positive. This can be applied to any personal or business situation.

I have found in my life that when you try to do right by people and always choose to do the right thing, it comes back to you in spades. This is how I conduct my life, and this is how I run my business.

That being said, we were very fortunate to have been named the #3 bakery in the state and #5 in the nation by Yelp. Our business exploded after this and we were even given a Certificate of Recognition by U.S. Congress.

Life is good!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://thebakingfool.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thebakingfool/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100063681154986
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/the-baking-fool-garden-grove