Today we’d like to introduce you to Melanie Henriquez.
Hi Melanie, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstories.
My name is Melanie, I’m a Marketer that turned her hobby into a full-time business during the pandemic.
I went to FIU and got a BBA in Marketing and International Business. Worked in Marketing for 4 years and although I loved what I did, a little before the pandemic started, I was already looking for something different and more flexible than my agency job. Like many others, my company lay most of the staff off without certainty of when or if they would hire us back. I saw that as my sign of starting my own thing, and along with my mom, decided to turn my hobby into my full-time business. By the time my boss tried to hire me back, I was already happy with my own little business!
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?
Not at all but I found a niche market and decided to go for it! I used to bake for fun for friends and family but never thought about going full time into this. I always was asked to bake Dominican Cakes because we didn’t have many bakers in the area that would work with suspiro/Italian Meringue, or that would make the cake as moist and tender as we were used to. I was not very good at making cakes. But I kept getting asked to bake cakes so I decided to get better at it! Gradually, I started taking online classes and workshops with sugar artists from Dominican Republic, Colombia, and Argentina. It really was one of the many advantages we got thanks to the pandemic, having the possibility to take classes from all these amazing teachers that otherwise we would have never been able to do.
We got better and better at it to the point where I don’t run or cry because of a crazy cake request! Now we are proud to serve upscale Dominican Cakes to South Florida!
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?
We do dessert tables, cupcakes, Dominican sweets, and custom cakes for any occasion! But we are mostly known for our custom Dominican Cakes. And the best part? It’s all suspiro/Italian Meringue! Our customers reach to us because they want looks but also taste. We are so used to compromising taste for the sake of looks and end up throwing away most of a really expensive cake. When you come to us, we tried to avoid fondant at all cost! Of course, there are going to be little pieces here and there that will be made out of it but we want your cake to be beautiful AND DELICIOUS. We can proudly say we got to the point where we can make anything with Suspiro/Italian Meringue. One taste of our cakes will take you back to childhood memories of driveway patines with the kids from the block. But you’ll also get the looks and aesthetics for the occasion.
Are there any apps, books, podcasts, blogs, or other resources you think our readers should check out?
Definitely! As one of the Jehovah’s Witnesses having a balanced family and business life has always been a priority. At www.jw.org I’ve been able to find many articles and videos of how to keep my life balanced and how to prioritize the things that matter. Once I had this set, I was able to take classes from professors like Lilli Funji, Solange Cid, Juliana Alvares, and Leonardo Espinoza! With each of them, I was able to learn new skills that helped me develop my working structure nowadays.
Contact Info:
- Email: dominicancakery@gmail.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dominicancakery/?hl=es
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dominicancakery/
- Other: https://g.co/kgs/qWzHsn
Image Credits
@GadielStudios
