Community Highlights: Meet Tamara Brown of Mwokaji Cakery

Today we’d like to introduce you to Tamara Brown.

Hi Tamara, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
I am a Black woman, a wife, a mother of five, first responder, a pastry chef and custom cake maker, and entrepreneur. I have worked as a 911 operator/police dispatcher for more than 17 years for LAPD. All those years of assisting the citizens of Los Angeles at their greatest moments of need had begun to take an emotional toll on me and my family. I needed to find another way to be of service and to impart more joy into my life. In 2009, a new journey would grant me the opportunity to combine my experience in service with my passion for the culinary field. A calling in my life to pursue this path would become too great to ignore. Creating cakes and other sweet treats would allow me to continue to be of service, but now I could be a part of peoples’ happy moments. Cake was always my favorite part of any celebration. The smell of the frosting, the texture of the crumb, the moisture of the cake as it hits the tongue was always satisfying.

However, my passion for making cakes and pastries was not an inherent talent. I have vivid memories of attempting to make my first cakes from Duncan Hines cake mix and completely messing them up. It has taken years of long nights, trial and error, and failed doughs & batters for me to have reached this point in my journey. Today I am proud to say that I have ditched the box cakes for my own recipes; and all my pastries, cakes, and frostings are made from scratch. The knowledge and confidence I gained would help me to move from the privacy of my home to the outside world, where I began selling cupcakes and pastries at underground night food markets, LA Food Fest, popup markets, and farmers markets. My kids would dress up as cupcakes, would spin signs, and would do anything else needed to bring customers to my booth. Throughout these years, my family has been my biggest source of support and were there to encourage me when I came close to walking away from my dream. In 2019, the exhaustion from maintaining my day job, motherhood and cake making almost overwhelmed me, but thankfully, my husband pushed me to dig in deeper, and we opened our own bakery.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Working full-time for the City of Los Angeles and running a bakery is extremely challenging, and with the arrival of Covid-19 and the resulting quarantine, I have been closed for the majority of the pandemic. My bakery is directly situated to allow us to be of service to the civic center community of City, County, State & Federal workers. My shop is in a prime location to serve a large amount of the downtown Los Angeles workforce, but since the pandemic has forced thousands to work from home, the mall area has become nearly vacant. With the closure of businesses and venues, many weddings and parties were canceled, which meant much fewer cake and dessert orders were coming in. We have persevered, and we took the pandemic as an opportunity to regroup and revisit our objectives. We took this time to be thankful for the blessings that we have, big and small.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
Our bakery is located in the LA Mall in downtown Los Angeles, right across the street from City Hall, on Los Angeles Street between 1st st & Temple. We are open seven days a week and offer a small array of fresh pastries, desserts, gourmet coffees and teas. We specialize in pre-packaged individual desserts for your special occasions. We provide large corporate dessert catering, wedding cakes, custom cakes and dessert options. We also offer delivery services, including a select menu available on UberEats. Our business is operating in complete compliance to ensure the safety of our workers and our customers. Our day-to-day menu of delicious pastries and cupcakes are often seasonal, so please give us a follow on social media to see what’s new in the shop.

What would you say have been one of the most important lessons you’ve learned?
I have learned so many valuable lessons in this cake journey. I learned that my love for all things cake would not be enough to make me a success in the pastry world. It takes dogged dedication and consistently showing up. It also takes having tried and true processes in place to ensure that orders are processed and delivered in a timely manner. I had to learn how to charge what my products are worth and how to keep performing even when no one was watching. My success can not be measured in social media likes, but rather in my ability to keep showing up and staying true to my “why”, to be of service.

Contact Info:

• Email: mwokajicakery@gmail.com
• Website: www.mwokajicakery.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/mwokaji