Today we’d like to introduce you to Megan Slaton.
Hi Megan, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I have always had a love for baking. I have fond memories of helping my mom or Nana make Christmas cookies to decorate for Santa or making a cake for a family member’s birthday. We were always baking for one reason or another, and I would help with cooking often as well. After a while, it all became second nature, and I have carried that love of baking throughout my life. At sixteen, I bought my first cake decorating set to enter a county fair for my high school culinary course. It was a participation grade, but I was excited to complete and submit the cake. I measured all the ingredients, baked, cooled, and decorated it all by myself, as you weren’t allowed to ask for help. I wish I had a photo of this cake because it looked terrible, but the taste was incredible. I made a chocolate cake with chocolate buttercream as it was my Papa’s favorite. Surprisingly, I won based on taste and effort in the decoration. Over the next several years, I cultivated my passion on my own and professionally by working at local bakeries as a cake decorator. There, I honed my skills, and my love of decorating deepened. I began to daydream of opening my bakery one day.
Today, that dream is being fulfilled as my bakery travels with me across the country as my family follows my husband’s career with the United States Marine Corps. My business began as an idea in March 2018 while stationed at Camp Lejeune, N.C., and came to fruition on the island of O’ahu later that year. I flourished as a home baker in the four years we lived on the island. I could bake for the base we lived on and other military bases across the island. I grew in popularity and started taking orders from locals in town. Two of the most amazing orders from O’ahu were a destination wedding and a military ball. The destination wedding was memorable because the people getting married found me through a friend of a friend who was local to the area in Hawai’i, and they were coming from Canada! The other cake was the military ball cake. I was honored to create the Marine Corps Birthday Ball cake for the Lucky Red Lions (VMM-363).
As of September 2022, Sugar, Spice, and All Things Iced operates out of Central Florida in Apopka. My husband’s orders will keep him here until at least October 2025 but may be extended to October 2026. After that, we are still determining where we will be going, but I am confident in my ability to pack up my family and business and thrive in a new location.
It wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been relatively smooth so far?
No matter what road you choose, there will always be a struggle. Two of the most difficult challenges for me and my business are navigating a global pandemic, moving from Hawaii to Florida, and starting from scratch.
There is no doubt that COVID was awful for everyone. I honestly have compartmentalized that time in my life and put it away. It was personally challenging as I had our last child in August 2019. My husband left for a two-month training a couple of weeks later and didn’t return until mid-November. I battled postpartum depression and took care of three young children on an island away from my support system 5,000 miles away. I am eternally grateful my mom could spend time with us during his time away. The last “normal” we had was Thanksgiving and Christmas, as, by the end of 2019, things were starting to start.
The isolation during COVID ruined any amount of work I had done in therapy for my PPD. Hawaii was locked down, and the base was just as strict. We weren’t allowed to go to the park, walk the neighborhood, or sit on the beach. We were having three young kids (one who was missing school and friends, one just diagnosed with autism and attempting to start services, and a baby), which proved exhausting when it seemed we’d never leave our home. My business also suffered as we didn’t need to figure out the beginning. Orders were canceled as all events were canceled. I had days when I would bake and advertise, and people would buy that way. It was a long year, and I was worried my business would be lost along with the thousands of others that lost theirs. I thank God for the ability to still be in business today.
The other obstacle was the move from Hawaii to Florida. I left a flourishing business in O’ahu to start over in Central Florida, knowing no one knew about it. Sure, I had family and friends just over an hour away, but I needed more to look into local markets and events, advertising, and baking for a local shop, and, honestly, I could get myself out in front of people. Being the “new girl” in an already saturated market made it difficult to stand out. Slowly but surely, though, I have found my way; I have done many local farmers markets, which led to orders. Those orders then turned into repeat customers and then new referrals. I have poured my heart and soul into rebranding my business and building a social media presence. This past January, I attended a meeting at my hometown radio station and won a $12,000 scholarship to advertise on their radio station! My ad started running a few weeks ago, and I hope to see some results soon. It has been an exciting year and a half since our move, but this last year has laid the foundations to take my business anywhere and thrive.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might need to become more familiar with what you do, what can you tell them about what you do?
I am a custom cake decorator and baker. I bake anything and everything, from cakes, cupcakes, and cookies to muffins, cinnamon rolls, and pastries. My heart, however, is more in love with baking and decorating custom cakes. I love customers coming to me with their ideas and trusting me to bring their visions to life. Life’s special moments deserve to be celebrated, and I love being a small part of that. I am most known for my custom cakes and dessert cups. My custom cakes are highly spoken of, and my dessert cups are highly sought after. My dessert cups were my best sellers at the market, and they had multiple flavor options. I have even been working out the shipping details to begin shipping my cake cups around the US!
I am most proud of my ability to overcome the challenges life has thrown my way and continue my business despite them. Outside of the pandemic and move, my family has suffered the loss of loved ones. My brother-in-law passed in November 2020, and my stepfather passed in December 2021. Both losses were sudden and unexpected when the world was already at a standstill with COVID. Through the grief, I used my business to raise money for the cremation expenses of both family members. It was a challenging and sad endeavor, but I was happy I could play a part in helping lay family to rest since we were 5,000 miles away from home. My fundraising efforts have been spoken about in a previous article with Canvas Rebel, and that article helped change my family’s life. Let me explain.
My stepdad passed away on 12/18/2021, and our worlds were shattered. That same day, I began to bake hundreds of cupcakes as a form of therapy and a way to raise money to help my mother cremate my stepfather. I posted them to my social media pages and the base page. So many people came out to support me, which was so emotional. Maybe it was because of all of the support, a week from Christmas, this happened, or lack of sleep since the phone call, but I was overwhelmed with emotion and gratitude. My mother moved in with my sister for over a year, and her things were stored in storage. When she moved into her place again, she noticed multiple things missing and had gained random stuff from others. We have no idea how it happened, but it did, nonetheless. Those missing items were from my stepfather’s time in the US Navy during Desert Storm.
Fast forward to a couple of months ago, and I received an email early in the morning from Mr. Scott Coursen from Goodwill in St. Petersburg, FL, saying they had found my stepfather’s military shadow box in their donations and tracked down his family through my business. Once they saw my business and the article previously written by Canvas Rebel about fundraising for my stepfather, who passed in December 2021, they knew they had the right person. Soon after, we set up a day for my mother and I to meet with them at their location in St. Pete to be reunited with his shadow box. This was a piece of him we thought we would never have again, and I am forever grateful for the effort they put into finding me and the time you all took to write my article last time. That right there is what I am most proud of. My cake business has changed my family’s and others’ lives through giving.
What were you like growing up?
Growing up, I was a shy kid. I was the oldest of six, and life was busy. I did not have many friends and was bullied a lot. Ironically, I attended a Catholic school K-8, and I am pretty sure God said love your neighbor. I have always loved art in all forms: baking, writing, painting, drawing, and music. I enjoyed writing poetry and short stories through middle and high school and even won a contest for a poem once.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.sugarspiceandallthingsiced.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sugarspiceallthingsiced/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/all.things.iced.791
- Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/@SugarSpiceandAllThingsIced
