Today we’d like to introduce you to Yi Han.
Yi, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I used to work in advertising media. After my divorce in 2017, I became a single mother raising two young children without any custody money from chirdrens’ father. He disappeared for 7 years. I needed a relatively flexible job that could support the children and continue to pick them up from school. That year, my ex-husband sent the children to live with their grandparents. At the end of 2017, I went to NGI in New York to study to become a vegetarian chef because both of my children were vegetarians. I was planning to make vegan food for sale. Once, during a dessert class, the teacher proposed a competition and invited all the teachers and students in the school to judge. The fruit pie I designed with traditional oriental patterns won first place. The teacher at the time told me that you seemed to have entered the wrong school. He said that there was a school in New York that specializes in cake decoration design. So I graduated from NGI and entered ICE in Manhattan in the same month. I missed my kids so much, but I have to hold on. my classmate sugested me to buy a toy bear I could hold when I miss my kids. I never seperate with them since they were born. it took 9 months already. During my study, I suddenly received photos from kids, they were abused at their father’s parents’ home in Taiwan.. I was in class that day. When I saw those horrible pictures, I immediately collapsed and rushed out of the classroom. I wanted to give up my studies and go to Taiwan to pick up the children and bring them back to the United States. My eldest daughter text me: Mom, I can persist. You must finish your studies and graduate so that we can have a bakery to Survive! My elder daughter was very brave. When she was beaten by her grandparents or father, she would always hide her younger sister in the closet first. She gave me a card that I have treasured. It showed A mother holding a girl in each hand and the text is: if you ever feel like giving up, just remember there are two little girls watching who want to be just like you. . .don’t disappoint them…
These two children are angels sent by God to help me achieve my goals. Similarly, my study and restarting my life have set an example for my two children to study hard. The three of us are always busy, and everyone has a goal to strive for. The eldest daughter wants to be a lawyer and speak for single mothers who are bullied and children who suffer from domestic abuse. The youngest daughter wants to be a scientist who can solve medical problems. Now the elder girl went to her dream college, the younger one is on the way. They are getting closer and closer to
their dreams.
For our family, There was no way out of failure. A+ only please, for every one! Later, I graduated from the cake decoration major with the highest score in the class. The school also wrote special interview reports after I got a few first places. After graduation, I got my 2 kids back to California. While raising them, I started a business at home and taught students at home. At the same time, I participated in many cake competitions. It went smoothly all the way. I won first place in the highest level competition almost every time. So far, I have won first place in 8 cake competitions. Now my students got many first place. I have studied art since I was a child, and my major in college was also fine art. I used China’s dough modeling techniques that have been around for more than a thousand years in the creation of fondant cakes. The sophistication of this kind of cake is far beyond expectations. It is very luxurious to put characters on the cake. It takes a lot of time and extreme patience. Such exquisite fondant cakes represent the highest level of the industry. Although not every day someone will order this kind of cake, as long as the guests have seen my works, they don’t have to doubt whether I can make any design picture they find, which saves me a lot of time. Later, I started to hold cake-making parties for the children at home, but the space at home was limited. I successfully found a store, and just after signing the contract, covid broke out. The agent even threw the keys into my mailbox and left without meeting me. Then, three years after the pandemic, I closed the business almost as soon as it opened. But this time the difficulty was much better than when I had no goals with two children before. We have 2 rules agreed for our 3 people: rule 1, never compare with other people, only compare with self. and rule 2, When we encounter difficulties, we just take a few more steps forward! Sure enough, the situation is getting better now. I cherish every customer. It is all of them who helped me raise the children alone for 7 years so far. Every Yelp review makes me feel very touched and encouraged. I am sincerely grateful. I have accumulated a lot of loyal customers. Every year on their family’s birthdays, they come to me to order cakes. They trust me very much and say that I am a real artist.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
For me, it only took a few years from learning to make my first cake to starting my own cake playhouse brand and owning my own store. Apart from the three-year impact of the covid epidemic, overall, my entrepreneurial journey has been very smooth.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I love my job because 99% of the custom cakes I make every day are brand new, I almost don’t repeat a design. Customers like to choose their own cake designs. From this year, many customers have used AI technology to generate the cake designs they want. In other words, we professionals engaged in high-end custom cakes must do any design given by the customer. Yes, I can make any style they want without limitation in technique. Many people think that custom cakes are expensive. In fact, for a professional artist, it is very difficult to integrate art into commercial products. Most of the time, in order to achieve the best effect, I will unconsciously spend a lot of time on a cake with a small budget. Time is never enough, which is the shortcoming of this job. I always hope to make something better than the sample pictures that customers bring me, because I am CHEF Yi and they have high expectations of me.
We’d be interested to hear your thoughts on luck and what role, if any, you feel it’s played for you?
Starting from scratch, learning new skills and entering a completely unfamiliar field, On the surface, it seems very smooth, but let me start with my growth experience. I learned to make puppets and dolls with my grandmother when I was 5 years old. During the summer breaks, I stayed in the studio of my uncle and aunt, they are famous artists in China who made teapots, to learn three-dimensional clay modeling. Later, after 7 years of education and training in college in fine art, I also learned traditional Chinese dough modeling techniques. I used to run a small advertising company, creating TV commercials , designing product packaging, market planning and company management. I have an MBA degree and over 20 years work experience, and even learned flower arrangement techniques from working in a flower shop when I was in college. Looking back now, I have used them all, which confirms the saying: Wherever you go, you will leave traces. The only thing I feel lucky about is that I finally found the cake customization business that I love all my life at the age of 48. I was very excited, I was crazy about this fun job, and spent almost 24 hours thinking about sugar dolls, and some solutions were solved in my dreams! I was dreaming of fondant dolls every single night! I know that my golden years have come. I have all the accumulation required by this industry, and my reserves are far beyond the average level of this industry. For me, work is play, and I can even earn living expenses, which is such a dream job. My daughter said, “Mom, you play” Play Dough” all day long, but we have to do math problems. Many of my students asked why I spent a lot of time but did not make much progress. I told them that it was because they did not practice enough. I always asked them to look up at the hundreds of figure sculptures displayed in my store. They are proof of hard practice day and night. Anyone who can make so many exquisite fondant sculptures in just a few years can become me. Luck is just a natural result after all the infrastructure is built. It is not a one-day effort at all.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://cakeplayhouse.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cakeplayhouse/?hl=en
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cakeplayhouse/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@cakeplayhouse
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/cake-playhouse-artesia?start=40
