Today we’d like to introduce you to Felicia Miranda.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
My career as a full time Pastry Chef began when I was wrongfully terminated from an office job two weeks before Christmas. Devastated and determined to turn my setback into a comeback. My husband encouraged me to enroll in the baking and pastry arts program at the Culinary Institute of America at the Pearl, so I toured the campus in May and started classes in September 2015. In the meantime, I purchased the Buttercream Bible and 100 Buttercream Flowers from two amazing cake artists, Queen of Hearts Couture Cakes to expand on my cake decorating skills. What all began as a dream became incredibly surreal in June 2024 when we got keys to our Bakeshop! Even more surreal because our new location(previously a coffee shop)was the same place I used to do weekly pop up bakeshops inside two years ago! Talk about manifestation and the universe at work with the icing on the cake being all part of God’s plan not ours when it all came to reality. Every single step of the way.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Some of the challenges going from a home bakery to a brick and mortar location are inventory, staffing and production. The amount of inventory is hard to keep up with as well as the quantity or amount it sold by. Buying in bulk does offer better price point per item, however the case is much more expensive and choosing which one would serve you best. The production schedule for daily operations, custom orders, holidays and events is challenging to maintain. Knowing how much or how little to produce is not always easy to calculate. If we sell out of one product, it sounds like a good idea to increase the amount for the next day. However, there are times where none will sell the next day. Staffing is challenging because we want to be in full operation but the reality is that our traffic on a daily basis does not allow us to be open as often as we would like at this time. One huge change is not having any time off whatsoever, working more than I have ever worked in my life. Long hours, late nights are hard and with a supportive, understanding, loving husband by my side makes all the difference.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
Cakes by Felicia is San Antonio’s premier destination for custom cakes and gourmet desserts. My passion for creating unique designs and delectable edible art is what sets us apart. Our specialty is baking your day betta with a ton of FELICIA LOVE, baked from scratch using premium ingredients with quality, consistency and creativity in mind at all times.
After earning a degree in baking and pastry arts, I started working from home under the cottage food law full time and doing more pop up markets and events throughout the city in 2018. I became a Sugar Angel with Icing Smiles to give back to my community and bake for kids that are sick or in the hospital. Truly an honor and privilege to share my gift in this way. One of my recipes was featured in the first cake decorating magazine in the Philippines in 2019. Created by the same two amazing cake artists and book authors Valeri & Christina, and I had only dreamt of meeting one day, now we are friends, colleagues and buttercream sista’s. Cheering each other on from across the pond! Enrolled in the Break, Fast and Launch program and it was a game changer. The program dives deep into entrepreneurial life as a whole and what it takes to get where you want to be. Continued to do pop up markets and rented a kiosk in a mall food court for 6 months in 2021. Shortly after closing the kiosk, we were invited to collaborate with a coffee shop we had previously done pop up markets. Except this time, they wanted us back weekly. We hosted pop up bakeshops in a small corner inside their coffee shop for the next year. We partnered with the Girl Scouts for the Cookie Flavor Fest and created a stuffed concha with one of their cookies! Our small business was one of seven hand selected (out of more than 200 applicants) to participate in the Spurs Culinary Residency Program for the 2022-2023 season, the 50th anniversary of the San Antonio Spurs, and sell our cupcakes at the games. Later that year, we were invited to showcase our desserts at the Tasting Texas Food & Wine Festival hosted by Culinaria. Since opening our storefront, we have partnered with Culinaria to be the first bakery to participate in Restaurant Week here in San Antonio. The love and support we receive from our community is extra sweet and much appreciated! It’s the only reason we are able to do what we love to do. Without each one of our Sweetsters, we would not be here and for that WE THANK YOU SAN ANTONIOOOOO!
We’d love to hear about any fond memories you have from when you were growing up?
Swirling together boxed cake mixes to make fancy swirled cake batter
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.cakesbyfelicia.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cakesbyfeliciasa/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cakesbyfelicia
