Today we’d like to introduce you to Amy Tam and Andres Fuentes.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Amy and Andres. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
Andres & I are the owners of Cake Girl; an allergy friendly one baker bakeshop where all the baked goods are free from eggs, dairy, gluten, nuts, and everything is vegan as well.
Andres grew in Boyle Heights and I grew up in El Sereno.
Growing up, I was always in my home kitchen helping my father prep for dinner. He had muscular dystrophy, so over the years, daily tasks became more difficult for him to execute. He taught me how to cook and gave me a lot of freedom and creativity whether it was preparing meals or baking. My father was a huge inspiration to me and always encouraged me to work hard, take chances and follow my passion. He passed away early 2018 before the storefront had opened, but I know he is proud of how far Cake Girl has come.
In my early 20’s, I decided to focus on baking. I was going to college and the classes I was taking for my major did not interest me. I would bake instead of writing a paper or reading assigned chapters. My boyfriend at the time Andres (now fiancée/business partner) suggested that I should follow my passion in baking and enroll in pastry school.
When I enrolled in pastry school, I learned French techniques. The majority of the pastries I learned to make a contained egg, dairy, and gluten. I was unable to try my creations. At the time, there were very few options for alternative baking in my area of Los Angeles. I taught myself gluten-free baking, a lot of trial & error and experimenting with mixing different types of flours together to get the right blend and consistency.
In 2010, I Cake Girl from my tiny home kitchen. Baking for friends and family, selling at events and catering while working my day job.
In 2015, Andres found a vacant counter space inside St Louis Drug Co on his way to the Goldline to take to work.
This was the beginning of our storefront and a long three-year process of bringing the original counter space up to city code.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
The obstacles Andres and I faced were the three years we spent to bring our counter space up to city code. We started in 2015 and opened in the summer of 2018.
The city of Los Angeles makes it difficult for small businesses to even start the process. When we began to bring our space up to code, we had to visit numerous city departments to get their approval to begin construction.
Each time we visited the departments, we would receive a new requirement for our space and would need to revise our floor plan. Our construction was not major, we simply wanted to bring the original space up to city code and keep all existing counter, stools, pastry display case… etc.
It was a financial challenge, we did not have investors and worked our day jobs to pay for each permit fee and construction expense. We did not have expeditors to run our plans, we took time off to go to the city. At times, we felt discouraged, defeated and drained. Our good friend Daniel Ziese of Ziese Architecture helped us with our project and guided us as much as he could through our process.
What should we know about Cake Girl? What do you do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
Cake Girl is an allergy friendly one baker bakeshop. Everything is egg-free, dairy-free, gluten-free, contains no nuts and vegan. I am the only baker at the moment, Andres helps out sometimes too if he isn’t at his other job or going to school.
We are known for our baked donuts, cupcakes, brownies and custom order cakes.
Andres and I are happy that we are able to provide a closer allergy-friendly alternative option to those in the area and surrounding areas. We have had many customers tell us that they no longer have to travel to Westside or Silverlake to find baked goods that they are able to consume.
Do you have a lesson or advice you’d like to share with young women just starting out?
The advice Andres & I would give is to just follow your passion, take chances and work hard.
Contact Info:
- Address: We are inside St Louis Drug Co
2100 E 1st Street
Los Angeles, CA 90033 - Website: www.hellocakegirl.com
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: hellocakegirl
- Facebook: hellocakegirl
- Twitter: hellocakegirl
Image Credit:
Nadia Pacheco
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