I was 28 and working at the ARA Services cafeteria, and he worked two jobs. “We saved enough money to buy a house in 1988. Later, life took a turn for the better after her near meltdown from work exhaustion when she met a nice man who worked as a chef. Then everybody wanted me to bake their cake. I added a lot of different ingredients to make it my own. “I started doing cakes for my daughter, family and schools, and I played with the icing recipe to make it better. One motivational moment occurred at a birthday party when she saw a clown cake, made by her sister-in-law, that was amazing in detail. “It was a three-tier yellow cake with buttercreme frosting.” Funny thing is, she can still remember the wedding cake. White had not even reached the age of 18 when she had a baby, a husband and a load of responsibility on her shoulders. I believed that my story could inspire other people.” Milestones But the only reason I shared my story is that hopefully it will inspire somebody. “There are a lot of things we are going to get to do to make this business better. “This is a huge honor for me, and very humbling,” she says. White, who plans to use the $10,000 first prize to renovate her cake shop, is thrilled and humbled about the award. In the 2018 contest, there were five second-prize winners who each received $2,000. Flavor Right takes the winners with the highest score and awards their bakery a check. Participants are invited to share their bakery story, including “What inspired you to get started in the bakery business and what do you love most about your work? What’s the hardest part of running a bakery and what challenges have you overcome?” Entries are then judged by a panel on a large scale of various criteria.
Bakery story 2 scone series#
By going to Flavor Right’s Facebook page, retail bakeries submit their entries via a tab on the page, by answering a series of questions. Participants get involved by following Flavor Right on social media. Retail bakeries do not have to be a Flavor Right customer to enter the contest. Winners cannot be at-home bakers they must have a physical storefront location. This contest is focused on retail bakery owners. The goal of the contest is to support retail bakeries and the bakery industry. This marked the third consecutive year that Flavor Right has conducted the Flavor Right Icing Funds Contest. Her motto is, “If it’s gonna be, it’s up to me.” As a tremendous honor, White’s Kake Korner was selected in November as the first prize winner in the 2018 Flavor Right Icing Funds Contest. “By the grace of God, it’s worked out,” she says. In talks with others, White shares the bad (she says she was sexually abused as a child by a neighbor babysitter) with the good (she took a leap of faith in 2003 when she bought the Kake Korner and turned the business around into one of the most successful retail bakeries in Maryland). In her own way, she is part of the Me Too Movement, a strong survivor. White speaks at schools and tells young girls to never give up. She is writing a book on her story with her good friend Linda Richardson, a retired school professional. This is the stark, yet hopeful lesson The Cake Lady wants to share. Some people measure their lives by the distances they have traveled, while others by the pain they have endured and overcome. People told her they thought she had narcolepsy. “I was falling asleep at the register at work,” she says.
She was back in Glen Burnie, Maryland, and baked cakes whenever she found time. to 3 p.m., followed by a quick change of clothes and off to work as a Holiday Inn waitress, pulling the 6 p.m. My mom told me, ‘You made your bed, now lie in it.’ I was basically homeless.”Īs a single mom from the ages of 22 to 27, White busted her tail working two jobs: running the ARA Services cafeteria from 5 a.m. “I left the house with my daughter and a laundry basket. “I almost lost my life,” White says matter-of-factly, explaining how she learned to hide pain because of experiences from her childhood. Selling those Bundt cakes got me started.”
We’d use that for Christmas presents,” recalls White, who is affectionally known today as The Cake Lady.