NEW WHIRLED ORDER: One-off cake leads to full-time business

The old saying goes “if you want to hear God laugh, tell him your plans.”

For Florence native Julie Becker, those plans involved interior architecture and design.

After graduating from Bradshaw, she attended the University of North Alabama, where she earned a degree in her chosen field.

She was working in a real estate office in 2017 when her parents were set to celebrate their 40^th wedding anniversary.

“Mom made all of our cakes growing up,” Becker said. “She was very creative. I thought I should bake their cake even though I hadn’t really dabbled in it that much.”

She said what turned out wasn’t perfect — which nothing is in this life — but was acceptable.

What Becker didn’t realize was this one project would completely change the course of not only her career, but her life as well.

After seeing the results of the anniversary cake, a friend reached out to Becker and asked if she could make another cake for an event.

“I told them it’s not really in my wheelhouse, but it’s worth a try,” she said. “Then things snowballed from there.”

Becker began making baked goods like cakes and cupcakes for events like weddings, birthdays, anniversaries, parties, etc.

Becker said she makes items for multiple events each week year-round, so many so that she has trouble keeping track of just how many she covers in a year.

She said she found herself in a position where she needed a full-time job while still being a full-time mother.

Things got to the point where she was getting so busy that she had to decide whether to push away from the business or go all-in.

Fast forward to 2023, and Becker was going full-time with her business, The Cakery Co. LLC.

“Watching my mom bake when I was growing up was a seed God planted all those years ago,” she said. “It’s been such a blessing ever since, and the work really hasn’t slowed down. It has all been word of mouth.”

Becker works from her home kitchen under Alabama cottage food laws.

She said working from home has been very useful, as she can work the hours she needs to while also spending time with her two kids, ages 12 and 10, attending ballgames and school functions, etc.

“I get in the kitchen on Wednesday or Thursday, because a lot of events are on the weekends,” she said. “I am in there on the clock until Sunday afternoon. We try to make it to bed and try to make it to church during that time. The keyword is try. There have been weeks where I consistently went to bed at 3 a.m. and woke up at 7 a.m.

“It was a learning curve for sure. I was a single mom and had to figure out how to balance things. It was a relief when I figured out I could make the business work and still be mom.”

Becker said it takes her a couple of days to make a wedding cake. She said she waits to put the top layer of icing and decorations on until late the night before the event or the day of so everything is fresh.

She said when she first started baking, she was hesitant to make wedding cakes due to the difficulty in the necessary steps, especially getting the product from her kitchen to the venue.

“I don’t build the cakes until I’m at the venue,” Becker said. “I have to carry them in, and we are in the South in the heat nine months out of the year. I will deliver them in tiers, haul them in, build them and add any final touches.

“I did not know the level of anxiety I had within me until I started driving cakes to venues. Once it falls, it falls. You don’t get those days back, nor the customer’s trust. One thing I’ve learned is how to pivot, because something can always go wrong, even with the smallest birthday cake.”

Becker said she has probably prayed over her cakes more than several other aspects in her life.

She recalled one instance of taking chocolate cakes to an outdoor, Southern summer wedding at a farm.

Before she was even at the venue, the icing started to melt.

“I started to panic,” she said. “I went into the kitchen and stayed there in front of a fan the whole wedding day repairing and restructuring the cakes. We made it happen.”

Though Becker has honed her craft over the years, like she says, nothing in life is ever perfect.

“I’ve had to learn the beauty in the imperfections,” she said. “I used to spend so much time worrying about the tiniest little things, when in reality I had to step back and look at the big picture.”

You have to take the good with the bad. Becker’s standard oven burnt out, but she was able to replace it with a more commercial dual oven.

Another area that has gone well is activity on Becker’s social media, especially after making cakes for meteorologists Brad Travis and James Spann for different school visits.

“What really got the Facebook going was baking a cake for James Spann after making one for Brad Travis. I’ve done two for each now. When I made the Brad Travis cake at Mars Hill, I was totally starstruck. We grew up watching him on the news. I was so excited. I made the top spin and had a tornado on top. Then their studio reached out to me and interviewed me for a segment. It was the coolest thing ever.

“Brad was coming back, so I did another cake, but I had to top the last one. It looked like it was raining inside the layers of the cake. Then Shoals Christian reached out for a cake for James Spann. Then Mars Hill had me come back for a James Spann visit.”

Becker said her favorite aspect of the job is getting to be creative with her cake designs, making something where people go ‘That’s cake?’ and making something out of nothing.

Still, business is business, and the work can sometimes take its toll. Becker said she has filled as many as 13 orders in a week before.

Customers also have high hopes for their purchase, because they are typically for important, special occasions.

“We joke that sometimes my boss is really terrible, and I’ve come a long way with time management, but nothing’s perfect,” she said. “I think every mom struggles to find that balance. But I am thankful for what the business has grown into. I want to watch it grow, and I want the cakes to be what the people want them to be.”

Interested parties can visit the Cakery Co. Facebook page to see a number of examples of Becker’s work, as well as many comments from satisfied customers.