For Goodness Cakes: Baby Cakes

After the wedding cake...

Meet Haines

In 2003, after graduating from UNC-Chapel Hill and spending almost two years in Wyoming, I came back home to Charlotte to try to figure out what I wanted to be when I grew up – realizing that I was grown up. Cooking and art had always been two of my interests, so I got a part time job assisting Kathy Allen, whose wedding cake business, “Cakes of Distinction,” is one of the most highly regarded anywhere around. I learned a lot working for Kathy, including that pastry arts might be the career for me.

So, in the fall of 2003 I enrolled in the Pastry Arts program at Johnson & Wales University in Charleston. During my year in that program I found that pastry arts, and in particular creating and crafting special occasion cakes, was indeed my passion. Upon graduation from Johnson & Wales, I worked for Geoff Blount, another accomplished pastry artist, at his Sugar Buzz bakery near Lake Norman. When Geoff moved on to take an executive chef job, I became a pastry chef at Blue Restaurant in Charlotte, but on a part time basis so that I could spend more time developing my own special occasion cake business, which by then I had named “For Goodness Cakes.”

For Goodness Cakes was formally begun in 2004, using Geoff’s ovens for baking and my parent’s kitchen table for assembly and icing. In 2007 it became my full time occupation. By then, I had gotten married and had my own home, with a nice basement that I converted into a fully equipped and inspected professional kitchen. We call it “The Bakement.”

I have been thrilled, and even a little bit surprised, by how For Goodness Cakes has grown. More important, though, what I do is still a joy as well as a job. I am grateful to those who taught and mentored me along the way, to clients who gave me a chance to show them what I can do, and – most of all – for having a career where my passion for creativity and quality can find an outlet every day.

Learn more about me HERE.

Baby Cakes

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