Today we’d like to introduce you to Erin Holloway.
Hi Erin, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
I was working as a paralegal for a law firm in Knoxville. The office manager was verbally abusive to everyone in our office. One day, while I was on my lunch, I had finally had enough. I had worked previously as a cake decorator and enjoyed it. I called my mom while on lunch and asked her if she would be interested in making cakes with me.
She thought it was a great idea so I never looked back. She had just purchased a home with a commercial kitchen attached to the back. We began making cakes from there. My mom was always a great cook and we figured everything out from watching videos online and applying our knowledge of cooking to anything we tried. The first few years, we were working long hours to be able to get everything ready in time.
We were working all day and sometimes until 2 or 3 in the morning. After a few years, we had outgrown working from her house. We found a storefront available for lease about 2 miles away. We have now been in that location for about eleven years. Having the room to hire employees helped tremendously. My sister now works as a decorator with us as well.
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?
It was a struggle starting out. Just the matter of marketing yourself to get people to notice you, especially when you are out of your home is a hard job. I had previously worked as a webmaster for a local school system.
So, I knew how to create and manage websites. I believe this helped us more than anything with getting our brand out to the public. Another struggle would be the extremely long hours we worked in the beginning. However, that has all paid off being able to finally be in our own storefront.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
We offer custom cakes and cupcakes. Our icing is made from scratch daily from all butter. I believe our icing recipe has truly set us apart from other bakeries. I specialize in buttercream, especially the Lambeth method with fine string work. My mom, Angela Lemanski, specializes in fondant. She is the creator of all of our fondant decorated cakes. She has become known for her 3D cakes.
One of my favorite things about our business is that we offer free birthday cakes for children in foster care in Blount County. We have a family friend who grew up in the foster care system. She told us when she was growing up, she never received her own birthday cake. That really moved us. We thought, if we could give children in these circumstances their own personal birthday cake, that would be something we could do to help make them feel loved.
As far as the bakery, we have won numerous awards over the years. Including the best bakery in Tennessee by Trip Advisor.
Is there something surprising that you feel even people who know you might not know about?
We are very down-to-earth. It makes me so anxious to be around people but decorating cakes never makes me nervous. I feel more at home in the kitchen rather than socializing.
My son has been working with us since he was born. I gave birth to Levi on a Monday and took him with me on a wedding delivery on Friday. He is now six years old and becoming a fine decorator himself.
My mom is a portrait artist, so I believe that is where her talent with being able to paint art into fondant comes from.
Pricing:
- Buttercream wedding cakes are $3.75 per serving
- Fondant wedding cakes start at $4.50 per serving
- Custom cake prices are priced depending on the complexity of the cake and the number of servings.
Contact Info:
- Email: Artofcakesbakery@gmail.com
- Website: Www.artofcakesbakery.com
- Instagram: Instagram.com/artofcakesmaryville
- Facebook: Www.Facebook.com/artofcakesbakery
