Cake Therapy
Cake Therapy is a heartwarming and uplifting podcast that celebrates the transformative power of baking therapy. Hosted by Dr. Altreisha Foster, the passionate baker, entrepreneur and advocate behind Cake Therapy, this podcast is a delightful blend of inspiring stories, expert insights and practical baking tips. Each episode takes listeners on a journey of self-discovery, emotional healing and connection through the therapeutic art of baking.
Cake Therapy
Journey from Justice System to Cake Therapy with Kristi Cobbs and Sue Berry
Kristi Cobbs never planned to become a social worker in the justice system, but her passion for helping girls who face significant challenges led her to a transformative career path. On this episode of the Cake Therapy Podcast, we talk with Christy about her unexpected journey from aspiring school social worker to supporting young women in juvenile detention. Her story highlights the essential need to address the basic needs of these girls before focusing on academic success, and how non-traditional interventions can lead to meaningful change.
We dive into the world of alternative therapies, exploring how creative outlets like Cake Therapy can provide both therapeutic benefits and vital skills for young people who have experienced trauma. Drawing on her experiences as a former director of a correctional facility, Kristi shares the ongoing struggle to bring innovation into juvenile justice systems. Kristi and I discuss the optimism surrounding programs like Cake Therapy, which aim to provide community-based support and early intervention to keep girls out of the system and promote better mental health and rehabilitation.
Then we tie in Sue Berry's inspiring journey from incarceration to entrepreneurship, illustrating the power of vocational skills in transforming lives. Through the therapeutic act of baking, Sue found healing, growth, and eventually success with her business, The Original Sue Berry. Her story underscores the theme of resilience and reinvention, showing how creativity and vocational training can open doors to new opportunities. We wrap up this episode by encouraging support for the Cake Therapy Foundation's mission to empower women and girls through creative outlets, fostering hope and healing in their lives.
Remember to subscribe wherever you get your podcast. Share the episodes and let's chat in the comments.
Support the Cake Therapy Foundation:
1. Cake Therapy - Cake Therapy (thecaketherapyfoundation.org)
2 Buy Me A Coffee : The Cake Therapy Foundation (buymeacoffee.com)
3. Buy The Book: Cake Therapy: How Baking Changed My Life https://a.co/d/76dZ5T0
Follow Sugarspoon Desserts on all social media platforms @sugarspoondesserts
Welcome to the Cake Therapy Podcast, a slice of joy and healing with your host, Dr Altricia Foster.
Speaker 2:Hi everyone, welcome back to the Cake Therapy Podcast, your slice of joy and healing, with me, your host, dr Altricia Foster. So today's guest is an exciting one. We're going to have an exciting conversation. I believe it's an important dialogue that must be had. It's going to be a little different because our guest today isn't a baker, neither is she a therapist. But we chose to go, you know, have conversations from a different angle today because our guest sits, you know, comes from a different vantage point. She's touch based with the Cake Therapy Foundation. She is a huge part of our organization, she's one of our board members and I want to introduce you to Miss Christy Cobbs. Hello, christy, thank you for joining us Hi.
Speaker 3:Thanks for having me.
Speaker 2:Of course, we're really excited. So, guys, christy's podcast debut, and she's equally as excited. You'll see it in video. Yes, let me tell you a little bit about this girl man. She is a true friend. Thank you for being a friend, christy. But not only is she a friend, she shows up in the space when she advocates for women and girls. So Christy holds a master's in social work and she has a background that provides direct services to system-involved girls. Christy comes with passion. She's provided leadership and direction to residential and community-based agencies around female responsive program assessment, program development, program implementation, and she is a member of the Department of Corrections Advisory Task Force on Justice Involved Women and Girls. So we want to welcome Christy to the Cake Therapy Podcast again.
Speaker 3:So we want to welcome Christy to the Cake Therapy Podcast again.
Speaker 2:Thank you, altrusha, that was a very nice introduction. Thank you, Christy, for being here.
Speaker 3:I know I spoke with you yesterday, but tell me like how are you? Doing. I'm good, things are good. Yeah, looking forward to spring. This is kind of my favorite time of year, although we're supposed to get dumped on, I know, with snow. I know, but I love this time of year, when the trees start to bloom and flowers come out. So I'm in a good spot.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, that's good. So for our listeners. You know, I don't think anyone just randomly finds themselves in social work, especially the work that brings them in such close proximity to the cross-section of impacted individuals that you've worked with. You've had over 10 decades of this kind of work. What caused you to work, you know, to this work and what's driving your dedication to this work?
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah. So, as you said, the last two decades I've spent most of my career working with girls who have been impacted by the juvenile legal system. I ended up there by accident. Actually, it's never where I set out to go. I never had a vision of wanting to work with girls impacted by the system. In fact, I didn't even know what they existed. It wasn't something that I had friends involved in the system, Um.
Speaker 3:But I went and I got my master's degree and I wanted to be a school social worker and I did that for a couple of years and just found myself working mostly with girls who were getting bullied at school, and one day they'd be at school and the next day they'd be gone. And I started asking questions like where are they going? Why aren't they coming back? And someone's like oh, they went to juvenile detention because they got in a fight or they keep running away, so they're now in juvenile detention. And I just so started asking more questions and then found myself working with that population. I left the school and started working directly with girls that were coming out of long-term correction facilities.
Speaker 2:So what made you leave the school? Was it a passion to do more work with those girls? Or let's talk to us a little bit more about that transition.
Speaker 3:The reason I left school was I didn't feel like I could do enough there. I felt very restricted by the school and what the school thought was best standardized. Like students need to pass standardized testing. Like teachers' performances were based on their ability to help to have students pass these tests. And I was working with girls who were scared to go home and didn't have food on their table, and we the principal at the school was like we don't have time for them to meet with you. You cannot meet with them during the school day because they needed to be in class learning. And so there was just this fundamental like they're not going to learn if their basic needs aren't being met rub. And so, oddly enough, I left the school system to go to the juvenile justice system.
Speaker 2:So you transitioned from the school system to work in a juvenile justice system. Tell me a little bit about your experience there, what you saw. Were you surprised? Tell me about your emotions and what you saw there the first time.
Speaker 3:Is that? Yeah, the first time. Yeah, to be honest, the very first impression that I had is still, like the impression that sticks with me Just the dreariness and the darkness and sort of the loneliness of facilities and just the fact of having really young, as young as 10 year olds, in places that are like dreary and dark, like that.
Speaker 2:That's sort of what stays with me you went into a dark space physically right and you saw that there was a need for change. When did you get that impression?
Speaker 3:that you could actually do more within this system? Um, that's a great question, because I think, like there's always more to do, and so there was a time where I was a director of a correction facility for girls and so I then had an opportunity to impact and change some things that I felt needed to be changed. As you can imagine, that system the correction system is old and the culture is old and it's well established, and so folks coming in with new ideas, different ideas it was swimming upstream most of the time. There weren't people that were cheerleaders of let's try something different. So that was my first opportunity to really impact some changes opportunity to really impact some changes.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I like that you mentioned that in your role as a director, you brought somewhat of a different vision. You know to be able to like loop upstream and start thinking just programs and management for these girls that are now and management for these girls that are now embroiled in this system, right. So in your experience, right of having being employed in this space you're a director of this facility and you've collaborated with other professionals, such as talk therapy and other you know the more conventional ways of intervention. Tell me your thoughts around non-conventional ways of interventions for girls in the justice system?
Speaker 3:Yeah, well, I think it's important to recognize first who the girls are that are impacted, that end up in the juvenile justice system, that end up in the juvenile justice system and I want to just say that long before they committed their first crime, they were a victim of a crime, typically early childhood sexual abuse, any of the adverse childhood experiences we know that have a great impact on the well-being of young people. Those are the girls that we had at the homeschool and who are involved in the justice system, and so a lot of those young people had had talk therapy and had been going to therapy for years or showing up at a therapist but maybe not participating. And there was some research that was coming out about these non-traditional what they call or what you referenced as non-traditional therapies. However, I would just say that they're not new. The reason they work is because they work for everybody.
Speaker 3:It's not just somebody that's just as impacted that these um therapies are going to work for, and so what we saw was that girls who were impacted were unbelievably creative, and it's still one of my greatest mysteries is why so many young people with such vibrant creativity end up in our justice systems, and I would say that is true of both boys and girls, and I would say that really it's because the outlet for creativity they didn't weren't able to tap into it didn't exist. They couldn't fuel their passions that way, and so the reason I believed in it is I saw it work firsthand. You know that creative aspect for girls came through in their baking.
Speaker 2:In our discussion yesterday you had mentioned that you were not actively doing. You know a ton of work with girls, with young girls, right now, but as a board member for Cake Therapy Foundation, you will become a little bit more active and we're excited about that. But my question for you is can you provide any insight for our listeners right on the current landscape of juvenile detention centers and the challenges, the challenges that girls are faced, the girls that are impacted by the system? What are some of the challenges that they face in accessing appropriate mental health support and rehabilitation programs?
Speaker 3:a, that's a good question and I guess you're asking like so how are the girls is really your question, and it's a hard question to answer. Um, it is. There have been some reports that have come out from the Minnesota legislature around youth interventions and that report calls out specific resources for girls are lacking and have always lacked for decades. It's something that we've known. I would say each major county has one program maybe that serves their population of girls and so if that program isn't a good fit for you, like that's it, that's the only option you have. So there isn't a continuum of services. We talked about why cake therapy would be beneficial in detention centers. I don't feel that you need to go to a detention center to benefit from this program, this type of program, and so how do we get those resources to younger kids earlier on in the system and we have glaring gaps here, especially in Minnesota, but it's true across the country for girls, yeah.
Speaker 2:So you did mention like a program such as cake therapy and other alternative forms that have worked for decades for other people that have worked for decades for other people. Tell me how you see these programs working for girls, you know.
Speaker 3:Yeah Well, I think there's a lot, a lot of benefits, and I'll just maybe name a few off the top of my head, but skill development for one. There is skill involved in baking and a range of skills, and so the skills aren't only valuable in the kitchen but in other areas of life, such as future employment opportunities. I think one of the things that we saw was just a great sense of accomplishment that baking can instill, and for girls that have been impacted by the system, they really lack there in things that they're proud of or things that they feel that they've accomplished were things that they got to choose, versus saying you're going to complete this program. So I think that sense of accomplishment was huge. Also, the teamwork and the social skills that go into that.
Speaker 3:It was something that was important in the program that I was a part of is how do we all work together, and baking was a great way to do that together, and baking was a great way to do that. It taught patience. You know you might not get to put the first ingredients in or you might have had to wait to be the one to frost the cake, but so those, you know, social skills are really important. And then another big thing that we talked a little bit about yesterday was just the entrepreneurial opportunities that can come from this skill set and for girls and young women who have been impacted by the system, having a way to financially support themselves and their children is critical for them staying out of the system or being further exploited as a way to make basic ends meet. So I would say those would be the key things that I saw in this.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you mentioned skill building, which enhances rehabilitation right, but let's talk about the emotional well-being among the girls in the detention centers when they are introduced to these outlets of art.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I would say not only the girls but also the staff are affected by that. It's corrections tends to be very corrective and point out all the bad and negative things that you've done, and so when you're able to be part of a project like this, where you can see the end, you can see the beautiful cake, you can serve that cake to everyone you know on that campus. That starts to reinforce some positive things that these young girls are doing and, you know it makes them feel good about themselves. The staff can see the girls in a positive light and so I think that, yeah, just that positive feedback helps reinforce, you know, additional positive behaviors and attitudes, and we definitely saw that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, later in this episode, our listeners will hear from Sue Berry Cakes, who is a young lady I would refer to her as in New Orleans who is running a successful business a successful cake business and she learned all these skills while she was incarcerated. So I would like to hear from your perspective, christy, about success stories you know or positive outcomes you've witnessed as a result of implementing programs within the juvenile detention centers, such as you know, the alternative forms, as I refer to them as yeah, I would say those are our success stories.
Speaker 3:When a young person finds that their spark was baking or culinary, or you know that they feel like I can go out of here and use this skill set. We had girls that would make birthday cakes for their friends' kids or, you know, as a way of showing off their portfolio and some of the work that they've done. So I said that sense of pride, but I would just say the ability to cope. I think you know your book speaks of of that as baking, as a way to cope and heal. You don't. It doesn't have to be the focus of you know to be the focus of, you know the baking, but some of the core principles of baking again, the mindfulness, the you know teamwork, the all of that. You can see that and you know when girls leave and they're calmer and they're able to have calm conversations with you know folks that they may struggle with. So I would say our most successful young people left with skills from these non-traditional therapies.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So the book that Christy's referring to is my book Cake Therapy how Baking Changed my Life, and it talks about how baking really did help center me and to help me come to grips with some of the challenges that I've had growing up and some of the difficulties that I've had trying to process those emotions as an adult. So, christy, for over two decades of work work with girls we know that there have been challenges financially to introduce such programs. But what are some of the other unique challenges and barriers to introducing alternative therapies like cake therapy into the juvenile justice system and how do you navigate these challenges in your advocacy work?
Speaker 3:Yeah, and I would just really emphasize that first point you made about funding that funding for Black girls, girls of color, women-led organizations is the lowest it's ever been, and so that is on a national picture. So we have to change that to say we need more of an investment. It is not okay to leave out a population of folks, and so, first and foremost, we need to do more awareness around why Black-led, women-led organizations don't receive the philanthropy of other organizations. Second, some of the challenges are just the belief that this is just fluff and stuff. This is not real therapy, this is not life-changing for folks and, again, if we think about the folks that work within the correction system, they would see this as a reward. They wanted young people to have to earn something like this instead of this just being part of the program because it's helpful, and so I think there's a mindset change of what therapy needs to look like, what these young girls specifically deserve, and so that's a challenge. That's a challenge.
Speaker 2:So you think we have to implement ways of changing mindset that baking is not a reward. Art is not a reward, it's just a form of centering oneself. So I think that's part of the issue and it's something that we, as advocates in this space, need to start, you know, taking head on, like trying to increase their knowledge about the power, the healing power, of these forms of art. You know of these art forms. So, Christy, for me I've always wondered right, and I would love to get your input on this, your thoughts, because you've worked so long in this space how does the practice of baking and decorating cakes align with trauma-informed and developmentally appropriate approaches to therapy for justice-involved youth?
Speaker 3:youth. Yeah, I think the alignment is in the sense of the outcome, so what the young people are able to experience. And again, you know that sense of accomplishment, a sense of structure, a sense of routine, all of those things are really important part of trauma-informed care and trauma-informed recovery. And so I think it is looking at baking also through. We use baking when looking at like healthy choices and healthy decisions and how do you know which ingredients you should be including in the cake, what is the nutritional value of that cake? And so I think the therapy is in the baking. It's just in the mix of the mindfulness of the. You know something that they can come to expect. They know that they're going to have a cake. They might not know what that cake is going to look like in their mind. It might look different than what it came out as. So I think some of that is really powerful when you start to talk about trauma.
Speaker 2:Yeah, what are some of the key considerations would you like advocates to hear when they're designing or implementing effective therapies for the juvenile detention centers? What are some of the key considerations you want to see in a curriculum?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think the coping mechanisms like how it is a coping mechanism is really important. I think some of the curriculum around these non-traditional ways of healing and why they work and you know, this isn't this isn't going to work for everybody. Yoga doesn't work for everybody, mindfulness doesn't work for everybody. But really what it is is it's an opportunity to explore and see. Is this something that works for me? And I think that's an important piece. I think what facilities also need to consider is, again, really this gives an opportunity for the staff to see these girls in a different light, to see them being successful at something, and I cannot underscore the importance of that in a facility.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we talk about having facilities realize or recognizing how powerful these art forms are. But how does one really address? You know these types of skepticism, because you know that skepticism around the product itself. You know how it's going to change a person's life. You know how does this regulate someone's emotions. How do we address skepticism or resistance from stakeholders? You know about the value and the efficacy of these types of therapies.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think that's the age old question, but you just have to. You know, what I found unfortunately or fortunately was that I relied on a lot of volunteers that came into the facility, who came in and used their skills and their talents and shared those with the girls, and once staff started seeing like the change in behavior, the change in attitudes, that is ultimately what brought them full circle to say we need to bring this program in once a week, we need to, you know, find funding for this program, and so the hard part is getting through that initial push. But programs like this sell themselves once you know, once they're implemented. And I think again, that's tied back to the national funding scene and we need to invest more money in spaces that support Black girls.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know, christy, you and I met because of our passion for this kind of work. You know, around girls, we're always asking what about the girl? I think we met asking the same question, like what about the girl? What's happening for her? And I think I'm hopeful because I've got my feet in the game more planted in the game in the sense. Okay, I know that there's work that needs to be done for the girls. So therefore we have the Cake Therapy Foundation.
Speaker 2:But looking ahead for Christy? What are your hopes and goals for you know, the continued integration of these alternative therapies, including cake therapy, in these systems, in the juvenile detention centers. What is your hope?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so my hope is that we don't offer this in the juvenile detention center, because there are no girls in the juvenile detention center, so that's my big hope. What I am always passionate about is how do we get to these girls earlier than the juvenile detention center, and so, again, I don't feel that you need to go to a juvenile detention center to gain the benefits of cake therapy or these other alternative healing arts. We have a responsibility to have community-based options for girls to be able to go to and take advantage of these very valuable programs and, in the long run, investing earlier upstream is going to save everybody money in the long run, if really what we're focused on is money, if really what we're focused on is money, and so, to me, my vision would be that there's a healing center in the community that has a variety of therapies, that's fully supported, fully funded, has the support of folks that make those decisions, because that is what is going to keep girls out of the juvenile justice system.
Speaker 2:Imagine envisioning a solution and not being able to find funding to support solutions for girls to be able to have productive lives and productive outcomes. Seriously, to me that's a little bit heartbreaking. You know what I mean. But together we continue to do what we can. Christy, like I mentioned at the top of the episode, she has been an advisor to me throughout this work with girls. I trust what she brings to the table and you know christy says that we need more funding. Christy says that we need more support. What is your encouragement, christy? Before you know, we wind down here to those who want to support cake therapy foundation. Why should they support us?
Speaker 3:yes, cake Cake Therapy Foundation needs support because this program is vital to girls in our community and, I know, nationwide. This is something that would benefit so many young people and, again, it's the creative outlet that they don't need to disclose any sort of thing that they're going through. But my guess is, by going through a program like this and I know Kik Therapy has three hour long sessions, eight week sessions, 12 week sessions and so the more time that these young women are exposed to the healing benefits, the likely are they're going to have those coping skills to be able to talk about what has happened to them when they're ready. And that is a really significant investment in young women and girls and we. It is time we need that.
Speaker 2:It is time. That's what Christy says. She says it's time and she said Even though we know that it's time, this investment will get girls To where they need to be, when they're ready. So we would say the time is now. Later on in this episode you'll hear from Sue Berry. She will share her own powerful and personal testimony of how her life changed behind bars simply by doing cake therapy. Christy, I love you. I told you that yesterday. I tell you this every time I see you. You are a special friend to me. Thank you for joining us on the Cake Therapy Podcast.
Speaker 3:Thank you, altrisha, it's always good to see you. Always good to see you.
Speaker 2:This baker and entrepreneur has overcome so much, from incarceration to entrepreneurship, to leadership. She makes cakes that make the extraordinary events extraordinary. We are excited to have Ms Sue Henley she's the owner of the original Sue Berry and the owner of Elevated the cake supply boutique all coming from New Orleans. I'm happy to have you on, sue, all coming from New Orleans. I'm happy to have you on, sue.
Speaker 2:I was telling you, before we hit record, that I've been following your artistry for a while, but, more importantly, as I was building out the structure of this podcast, I'm trying to reach girls, women and girls impacted by the system, to tell them that there are alternative forms to responding to the trauma that they're experiencing as individuals, and not just talk therapy. People bake through the therapy, bake through their trauma, and people use other art forms to respond to their traumas, so I found it intriguing that you have a story. You have an important story that girls and people listening to our podcast should hear, so I'm excited to have you here today, thank you. So how are you, though? Is this your first podcast?
Speaker 4:How are you doing First podcast? A little nervous yeah, don't be.
Speaker 2:This is I. I try to make it a really safe and you know, safe space. So just if you don't feel safe at least you can.
Speaker 4:It's way more comfortable already than doing one of those skype interviews for the cake tv shows okay well, that's good.
Speaker 2:Well, well, I'm glad that, um, you know that you're feeling comfortable already. I know that it's busy season in Louisiana. You know New Orleans right now. So how are you doing? Is a shop busy? Are you baking a lot?
Speaker 4:Well, I mean as a whole, it just seems like economically, everybody's struggling. Yeah, so it's been a struggle, but we have Mardi Gras and Valentine's one day apart, and so that should be a big boost. Yeah.
Speaker 2:And, yeah, it's been a little busier in january than usual. Okay, that's good, that's good. So tell our listeners right, I know you have over 40 000 followers on instagram and you have this cake supply store now that serves a lot of bakers in New Orleans. But besides that, tell us a little bit about Sue. How Sue growing up. You want to know more about who's the woman behind the cakes.
Speaker 4:Mm growing up is interesting.
Speaker 4:Growing up I was a loner because very early on I was born white, but a lot of well, none of the white children that my mom had me around. They didn't like me. Yeah, I was overweight, I had frizzy brown hair. I didn't look like them. I didn't have the blonde hair, blue eyes or whatever. So I remember from an early age they didn't like me, Always being picked on and teased. So I went home crying a lot of times.
Speaker 4:But in sixth grade I was in band playing the clarinet and this girl she was a Black girl, Her father was in the military and there was a base at the school I went to. I got expelled from a kindergarten and private school because somebody took my crayon and I stabbed it with a pencil, got expelled, went to another public school and they ended up putting me on in second grade. So that's why I ended up in Belle Chase, where they have a base, and this girl in sixth grade moved to Belle Chase and she was in a band and played the clarinet and sat right next to me and that was my first friend. Yeah, so she was my best friend all through high school, middle school and high school and then, uh, I went a separate way. She's a doctor.
Speaker 2:Now I went to the streets yeah right so so were your parents in the military, while you ended up in that military base.
Speaker 4:No, I wasn't on the base. There was a base in that town. Okay, there was a base in that town. Yeah, that's where you would get out of town people moving, coming to school. Okay, I see you had a different mix of just the people that's already there, because the people that was already there. None of them messed with me.
Speaker 2:Okay, I see. So your first friend was in sixth grade. How was that for you? How did you feel like knowing that you weren't connecting at all with the, you know, the students or the youth in your community?
Speaker 4:I mean, I was just alone. I used to sit at home and cry. But once I made friends with her, she had, she was popular, she played sports, she was straight-a student, she was straight a student, so she had a lot of friends. So next, you know, you know I made friends, yeah and um, I remember the first time the other kids that made fun of me my whole life spoke to me was in the eighth grade. Um, my mama never believed in buying likeikes and that brand stuff $100 for shoes. Well, finally, in the eighth grade I convinced her to buy a pair of Rod Woodson Nikes. It was black, blue and white. I put them on water in the school.
Speaker 4:When I walked in the homeroom that morning, the people that had made fun of me my whole life was like, hey, hey, how you doing, doing I like your shoes. I was just like, hmm, that right there switched something in me. Oh, it's material things. If I got the nice shoes on, if I got the name brand stuff on, then I'm cool. Then everybody mess with me. That started something right there on. Then I'm cool, then everybody mess with me, so that started something right there. So by ninth grade I want the polo. Well, back then, hilfiger, until we boycotted him.
Speaker 2:I wanted the Hilfiger.
Speaker 4:and then, once we boycotted him, I wanted the polo and my mama wasn't going to buy it. She was like you better go get a job or get your own money. So I started working fast food like 15 Popeyes or something. But that wasn't enough. That wasn't enough for me, so it eventually led to the street.
Speaker 2:So do you think it was the material things that made you go to the street, or was it something else?
Speaker 4:No, it was wanting that money to get the material things. Got a job at Popeyes but it was only a couple hours. I was a minor, you couldn't get too many hours and I did. I did fast food what? 15, 16? By 17, not 16. I met my baby daddy, got pregnant at 17. And then I had my son right after I made 18. But being around my baby daddy, I met this girl that stayed across the street and she sold weed. Okay, and she sold other stuff, but I'm seeing and she saw other stuff, but I'm seeing her get money and I'm seeing you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 4:So really, it came from her like I think I might have got my first ounce from her. Okay, and you know, that's where it started.
Speaker 2:So I see on your website that you said that growing up you never dreamt that you would become a baker, right?
Speaker 4:No, I never thought that your career path?
Speaker 2:yeah, right, so tell us when. How did you get into baking? How did you become Sue Berrycakes?
Speaker 4:So that started in prison. So from that first time of getting weed and start selling at 17, I went in and out of jail what? From 96 to 2009. And 2009 is when I got the what, the fifth felony, and it was like 30 pounds and a gun, so it was like they were offering like 10 to 20.
Speaker 4:I ended up taking eight years and, with the good time and stuff, like that I did three years, so that that three years I ended up going to prison, the saint gabriel woman's prison in louisiana. Okay, okay. So in there they have vocational programs, right. So I wasn't even thinking about going into culinary arts at the time, okay? So when I was locked up, they used to make these brownie things out of cookies. Mm-hmm, they used to call them mollies. They'd call different things in different states. So in the parish I started making these cookie cake things with a pack of cookies and Snickers. It was chocolate.
Speaker 4:When I got to prison upstate, a lady showed me how she would take color off of the M&Ms. With a little bit of water she was able to take the white icing from the middle of the cookies and color it. So once I got up there, I started making shapes. I'd make a butterfly shape with the cookie base and then I would start drawing and filling in with the colored cookie icing from the M&Ms. Now, all this started from when I also got locked up. I never knew I could draw. All this started from when I also got locked up. I never knew I could draw. So when I got locked up, there was a girl in two. Now, in 2003, is when I first encountered drawing in the parish. A girl was drawing portraits like just her.
Speaker 4:portraits were just amazing and I would sit there and just watch her and I would watch how she would shade and stuff, and just from watching her I would go back and just practice doing what I saw her do. So I started drawing in 2003. For a couple months I got out, never drew again. I was like back in the streets, you know. So when I got locked up this time, I got in the parish back again with somebody who could draw portraits and she ended up bunking right next to me. So she would tell me start with the eyes, start right here. She would give me the pointers on what to do. So then next thing, you know, I'm drawing portraits. I have deputies buying portraits from me and sending them home. Buying portraits from me and sending them home.
Speaker 4:Um, so that's where I create. You know, that was one undiscovered talent, creativity that came out of it. So from there that went into. Okay, I could draw this, I could shape this cookie thing into a shape and, you know, with this ice. And so I started doing that.
Speaker 4:And so other people was like you should go into the culinary arts program. I'm like culinary arts Nah, I don't want to do that. Then, finally, this lady kept telling me I should. She was like you know, you get to eat regular food. I was like we get what we get, different food. Sign me up, that's why I went in there. Um, sorry, I didn't. I'm supposed I'm in the middle of doing my tree for mardi gras, that's why it's blank right now. I wish I could have had it ready for y'all, but okay.
Speaker 4:Um, so I get in the culinary arts program and the teacher in there he makes cakes, makes, you know, basic buttercream cakes with a little decoration or whatever, and the deputies if they want a cake, they can ask him for a cake and they get it for free through there and we pretty much are like supposed to be getting some hands-on experience, but really we were like helpers, like we would make ice and clean up, color ice and things like that, but never touch the cake. He okay, he's the only one touch the cake. So now I haven't been in. Now what I didn't been in the program? Six months, sir, till a year. I finished it and once you finish they have spots for tutors so you could be a tutor instead of to have go get a job, you know, working in the field or something. So I'm like, sign me up for tutoring. I don't want to go work at the field. So now I'm in there and I have a lot of free time, because you really don't have to do much as a tutor so.
Speaker 4:I'm digging through stuff I find old Wilton magazines from like the eighties and in the magazines they had the pipe and like showing you what tip and what to do with it. So I started sitting in there and just practicing what I saw in the magazine.
Speaker 2:I see.
Speaker 4:And then he was um, cause I'm thinking I got to do something else when I go home, cause all I know is what I've been doing and I can't do the same thing because we can't do this again Because if I come back it's not going to be three years.
Speaker 4:So he was making it was a polo cake I'll never forget, and it was going to have a polo iced and buttercream on the top and the base was cream colored. And he's sitting there icing it and I'm sitting here like man. I got to do this. So I told him, give me that and I literally just grabbed the spatula out of his hand. I said, let me try this, and so I took it out of his hand and I started and that was it. So I helped finish icing that cake. And then the next cake they needed a cake for like a big thing at the chapel and so he put me in charge of like a whole sheet cake to do and decorate for that. And I did that and that had like strawberry vines and butterfly all in buttercream. And then I came home like right after that cake, like the next week or something.
Speaker 2:Oh, I see.
Speaker 4:And somebody I was locked up with. She came home a week before me and she was like, when you come home, I want you to do my son's cake, which was going to be a week after I came home.
Speaker 4:So it was like week week week, so she came home the first week. Then I came home. So it was like a week week week. So she came home the first week. Then I came home and she kept her word. And within that first week, that next week, I made my first cake. It was a Spider-Man sheet cake and from there I just went to town. I went back delivering pizza but instead of telling everybody I had weed, I'm telling everybody I made cakes. Yeah, I'm passing my cards out.
Speaker 2:That's good. So as you were baking, was there a moment for you that you felt like it was transforming you from the weed seller Sue to this new person who would now become Sue Berry Cakes. You know what I mean. How did you feel when you discovered your talent?
Speaker 4:Discovering talent. It was all about survival. I need to find something to pay my bills. I have a son, I need to take care of us and I can't do what I did before. So that's what that whole thing. Now, once I come home and I'm baking and I realize, do what I did before. So that's what that whole thing. Now, once I come home and I'm baking and I realize, hey, I can really make money off this, I really can pay my bills off this. I delivered pizza for months and months until I was like I kept getting calls for more cakes than I could do Cause I had to work and I was like well, but if I don't have to work, then I can take more cakes.
Speaker 4:And that came, bam. And then I quit delivering pizza and been making cakes ever since. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Would you say you found cakes, or cake found you, cake found me. And you know, I, as I sit back on and I often reflect on on my journey, because I too felt like, I feel like cake ultimately found me, because I was like in the science world, doing, you know, doing real work out there in the field, and then all of a sudden I discover I had this, this, this talent, you know. So what I do? I try to document my own personal journey of how cake and baking actually changed my life, and I realized that we all, most of us, come from the same place. So I have a question for you, like how did, how did cake change your life, you know, and how life changing has it been since you decided to just bake full time?
Speaker 4:you decided to just bake full time. Wow, I remember in prison, with that same friend that bought that first cake, she was telling me it's going to be bigger than you can imagine and I was like, yeah, it really is, because God said it's going to be bigger. I know you, you never actually, you know, actually know what that is until it happens. So I just started making cakes and posting them and my first cake that got like over a hundred likes was like a Abby Cadabby. No, abby Cadabby or no, it was, uh, what's the doctor, doc, max stuffings. Okay, those were my first two cakes that got over 100 likes and I was like, oh my gosh, I was blown away. I had over 100 likes and all just started kept coming in and kept coming in and next thing, you know, everybody's trying to get a suberry and I'm just blown away. You know, I'm just like what.
Speaker 4:I feel like I had no training. I had no, I'm just doing, I just do stuff. I don't even know what I'm, I just do it. You can send me a cake I did years ago. I don't know what I did and I feel like it's just God, because I didn't practice none of this. It just I just do it. But people just kept saying I'm you know, I'm so good and all this, so I just I just go off what people say. They'd be like you're the goat down here and I'm like okay, but I, I see plenty of people down here better than me, but I'm just like okay.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's good to receive that from from you know, from your, your clientele and stuff. And you, you do talk about god a lot and, um, I, I can acknowledge that in this space. So I wanted to find out, like doing your own personal, like your baking process, right, share with our listeners how baking impacts your own personal mental health, your emotional and your spiritual well-being, because you reference, reference God a lot. So I would like to know, like, what does cake do for your mental health and your spiritual connection?
Speaker 4:I don't equate cake with my mental. Cake stresses me out, yeah, um and and spiritually I just feel like the talent God has given me. It just, it just allows things to be produced that. It's nothing. But God you know cause I don't draw nothing out. I I've never drawn out a cake, I've never. I just as I'm doing it, it just comes.
Speaker 2:I can't even describe it, wow wow, so you don't sketch at all.
Speaker 4:I call it like cake freestyling oh okay well, that's good.
Speaker 2:So you did say that cake stresses you out what? What do you use to cope? What is your coping mechanism?
Speaker 4:uh, when I'm stressed out, I like to scroll on tiktok to get some laughs in, because laughing, just you know, takes away the stress. Good for the body, I believe. And uh, I like gospel music.
Speaker 2:That's very calming for me yeah, yeah, I use gospel music as a calm, as a calming mechanism as well. I don't do tiktok much, but I can enjoy. I love sending memes. How about you? Do you share memes or that kind of stuff?
Speaker 4:Not much Like I send my son the funny TikToks and he'd be like mom you're always sending me.
Speaker 2:TikToks, mm-hmm. So before we started talking, we were talking about foundations and how to help impact and change the lives of girls. Since you yourself have been, I would say, rehabilitated, you know, having been exposed to the vocational aspect of baking, talk about what. Do you see? What is it that is so impactful in prisons when people achieve a vocational skill? Do you think that baking does work for boys and girls, or do you think it will be more specific and helpful to girls?
Speaker 4:Okay, so in it with all women, um, and 95 percent of my customers are women. Okay, um. But I think men also can, and I have customers say baking is therapeutic for them. They love to bake. I don't love to bake, I love to, to use my creativity, I love to decorate. Okay so it's not therapeutic. The baking part is not therapeutic for me.
Speaker 4:But I hear so many people say it is for them. When you go into a vocational program, you get a skill that you didn't have. It teaches you things you didn't, you didn't know before, uh, teaches you ethic things that you didn't you know so and skills and so you're able. And then when they sometimes they help you when you get out to get a placement in that field. But it is so much. It gives you something, as opposed to if you don't take a vocational skill while you're in there. You're in there not doing it, you're not growing, you're not learning anything, you're not picking up any skill. So you're going to go back and do more of the same thing because you didn't learn anything. And I watched the same people come in and out, in and out. We used to call them weekend warriors. I've never seen people come in and out so many times.
Speaker 4:And a lot of the women, I can say a lot of the ones I was locked up with, even the girl that taught me to draw the portrait that was in my bunkie next to me they have overdosed. They're no longer alive so many of them. One used to come in sick on dope all the time and I would help her. They like candy to come off. It helps them with their sickness and I used to always give her candy and stuff. And she had a little baby girl, just so precious, and she ended up going in and out and when I was upstate she ended up coming upstate. She ended up coming in the culinary program. So, uh, she ended up going home. I watched her go home, I went home and after being home a couple months I heard that she overdosed and that really hurt. I still wonder to this day where's her little girl.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So would you say then that baking actually changed your life, or baking saved you from you know?
Speaker 4:It definitely saved my life. Say yeah, definitely. Uh, just being baking saved my life and being arrested period saved my life. Yeah, this that last time that I was on that run I I had gotten big, so there was a lot of robbery attempts. There was a lot of attempts, so I had gotten to the point where I was paranoid and I would sit up at night and watch shadows through the window with a gun and a Bible. So when they came and I got arrested, I never felt such relief. I was just thank you, lord, like thank God, I made it out, you know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so you wow. Well, so you actually thought, getting arrested saved your life at that time as well.
Speaker 4:Yes, indeed, definitely it saved my life. I mean, there was an attempt, like two days prior to me getting arrested, I had to get my window fixed.
Speaker 2:Wow, like you did all of this, you did your time, you learned to bake. Now you're out, you're Sue Berry Cakes. Now you're also elevated the Cake Supply Boutique in New Orleans. So that's where I got the plug, that's where I got the shout out that Sue Berry is here. Sue Berry is here. Sue Berry has a cake supply store. Now I was like what? I've been following, sue Berry, for a while. I learned that from my friend, blanche that you now operate a cake supply store.
Speaker 4:Right Now crazy thing is, you would think being in prison was the lowest part of my life, but it really wasn't. Shortly after I came home, I hooked up with somebody that I ran with back in my teenage years and I thought this was it, you know. And this started what? Six months after I came home, so within my first year of baking, I then got with him and fell in love. Never been in no real relationship, falling in love type of stuff, none of this. But yeah, he had me going. I ain't going to lie.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 4:So that led to toxic and it got real abusive after one of his kids' mothers died from cancer. I feel like he had a lot of anger he took out on me so it got real bad. So, like I'm going through this toxic drama the whole time I'm making cakes I'm crying. I learned how to cry and still make a cake Because I used to have to stop and go cry and I'm getting behind on my cakes but I was able to cry and still make them Like that's how much. Yeah, behind on my cakes, but I was able to cry and still make them like that's how much.
Speaker 4:Yeah, uh, and I had bought a house and he left and I was still taking care of his kids while he was with someone else. And, um, I'm sitting in his house taking care of his kids all these years, like three years, by myself, and I'm just like this, ain't it something? Gotta shake he. He don't help financially. You know, like I've got to do something. Yeah, uh, physically, I had back while I was making cakes. I had back surgery. I broke a foot. I made, I made cake two weeks after my back surgery. I made eight cakes the day after I broke my foot, like I never stopped. So physically, I'm getting tore down at the same time. So I'm to the point where, okay, I can't keep doing 10, 12, 15 cakes a week, I have to come up with something else. What can I do? I started doing acrylic toppers for my house.
Speaker 4:But that wasn't. It wasn't cutting it, it wasn't cake money it was you know I'm like, no, this, I gotta come up with something else.
Speaker 4:so now I'm thinking about products. I was thinking about a dust line, I'm starting doing research and uh, I asked, uh, one of my friends he was a lifetime friend and he had became a realtor and I asked him to come over my house for something. And at the time I wasn't thinking about selling it, I think I was thinking about renovation or something, something I don't know why I had him come over there that first time. But he ended up saying why don't you open a supply shop? Yeah? And I was like, no, I don't want to do that. That was my immediate response.
Speaker 2:And.
Speaker 4:I just shut that down and went about my day, so a couple of weeks later. By now it's mid-December 2021. I'm asleep.
Speaker 1:I am awoken out of my sleep.
Speaker 4:I don't normally have dreams. I'm not normally woken out of my sleep. I am awoken out of my sleep. I don't normally have dreams, I'm not normally woken out of my sleep. This was the weirdest thing. At like 3 am, it's like I heard something say sell the house, open the shop. Something said do it. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 4:It's not my God. I'm like, okay, god just spoke to me at 3 in the morning, like straight up out of my sleep. So when I got up that morning I called that same guy that told me to do a supply shop weeks earlier and I told him I want to sell my house. Yeah, so immediately, like it was no hesitation, I literally woke up and called him and said I want to sell my house and so I didn't have the money for renovation. He ended up helping me with that, thank god and um, I was able to renovate, sell and I used that money to open this shop yeah, how is the shop doing the shop?
Speaker 4:has been holding steady. My biggest problem has been website. I feel like with my social media presence, if I had a website, I could get a lot of this stuff faster. But I paid three different people to do a website. It's not right. I don't have what I paid for. So I actually have somebody coming in today at one. I'll be redoing this all over for me, so I have hope maybe this one will will be the one and then, yeah, I can start getting some sponsored online. You know, get traffic to the website and start promoting yeah the store.
Speaker 4:The foot traffic from the store is what's holding it steady. But you know, get above that. That absolutely yeah, I.
Speaker 2:I think like in our industry right now, a lot of things are kind of slowing down and with the hope that they Like economically, like everybody's saying, like nobody has money, yeah, yeah absolutely so. What are so you? You took a risk on yourself, you sold your home and you opened this cake supply boutique. What are some tips would you? Would you share with our listeners? You know, two entrepreneurial tips with our audience, two entrepreneurial tips.
Speaker 4:I had no idea what I was going doing when I started this. I just I just knew I might have enough money, because it was at the height of the housing crisis too, where the houses were top dollar. So, yeah, I was like I'm gonna be able to walk away with enough to do whatever it is I need to do. I had no idea what it would entail. Um, I was calculating expenses like inventory and equipment and building out and all that. I didn't calculate in stuff like shelving and packaging. Those were two big chunks of the budget I did not plan for. They have a lot of people you can pay to get like permits and stuff. They do all this stuff for you.
Speaker 4:But I ended up giving a deposit to somebody over a thousand dollars and I they ghosted me, so I ended up just calling the department of health, calling and fire marshal and just doing the stuff myself. And so, thankfully, like at the department of health, somebody she, she helped me. They weren oh, you don't have this, I'm not telling you what to do or not Like she was being helpful, since she knew I didn't know what was going on. So she helped me with that and I finally got open.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 4:So I've had a problem with like marketing Okay, marketing okay. Um, there there's a cake store that's been here, where it's a party supply store that carries cake decorating stuff also. It's been here for 40 years. It's, it's old, they have old stuff, but they have boxes and boards and people know I can go here and get this box and board and I could order everything else off amazon.
Speaker 4:They don't they're not looking, saying maybe there's something new around here. You know what I'm saying, so that's that's where I also that plateau come from not being able to reach the people that don't even know I'm here, right here, so for someone, so it talked to me.
Speaker 2:They. I come to you and I want to start a cake supply boutique. What advice would you give me, jesus?
Speaker 4:I've had people ask me and they ask me about the money aspect. They think I went through a bank. But I didn't go through a bank, I just sold my house, the vendors. You have to contact all these different companies to get all these different items and I didn't know that they give small businesses higher prices than Walmart Hobby Lobby. You know they buy a way huger quantity. They get a way cheaper price. It's way harder for us to compete with that. I'm in here selling things for higher than what you can get at Walmart, but that's the deal they give us, which that kind of sucks. I feel like we should be able to get the same deal as them. Help us out. We're the small business. I was just getting all your permits, your EIN, your LLC. I did an EIN, an LLC. Then you got to get your fire marshal inspection, health inspection and then they give you the occupational license and you get cleared to open.
Speaker 2:Okay, so what's next for Suleberry? We have Suleberry cakes, making all these glorious cakes. We have the cake boutique. Elevate the cake supply boutique in new orleans. What's new? What's on the horizon for you? What's next?
Speaker 4:what I want to do. My number one goal is to write a book. I feel like I have a story that needs to be told. I don't know where to start with that, though you've written a book. Maybe you can help oh, for sure, for sure yeah and then, um, really my goal is to get that website, uh, get more e-commerce going, get my presence there. Um, as far as cakes, I mean, I still do them. They're kind of like a little side hobby, maybe a few a week. Okay, a supplement my shop and everything.
Speaker 4:I still do acrylic Now. That's really picked up. I do a lot of acrylic now, Cake-wise, though in the future I don't know. I'm still trying to figure that out myself, because I reached that point of burnout and plateau. There's so many things I want to do, but then there's a physical aspect and it's just I don't know yeah.
Speaker 2:So do you think um that you you'd shift completely from cakes and just do the cake supply store, or is that your hope?
Speaker 4:I would want the supply store to be able to do what I needed to do without having to ever make a cake again. But at the same time I'm going to have a creative spark that I'm going to want to get something out at some point. I don't think I could ever fully leave cake alone.
Speaker 2:Are you actively taking cake orders now?
Speaker 4:I have to go deliver one right after this.
Speaker 4:Tell our listeners where they could find you online tell our listeners where they could find you online, online. So we have instagram. My cake page is the original suberry. My store page is elevated the cake supply boutique. Uh, I have a website elevated the cake supply boutique. There are items on there that you can purchase not the whole store a lot of the molds. The molds aren't on there, but, um, I'm getting that reworked so we will be with a whole new, fully functioning website, hopefully within two weeks. Yeah, okay, yes, um, where else am I? I have elevated the cake supply boutique and and, uh, sue berry on facebook yeah and I have the sueberry llcnet website for cakes okay, perfect.
Speaker 2:So, guys, um take that down. I follow um sueberry cakes, the original sueberry, um original two berries. Did you know?
Speaker 4:Sue Berry the original Sue Berry's cake and I had Sue.
Speaker 2:Sue Berry. Yeah, I, you know she makes awesome cakes. Sue's story inspires me. It inspires me that at how Sue was able to learn this skill while incarcerated and turns it into two different businesses. She makes awesome cakes. I love how she expresses herself through her art and I'm excited for the listeners to hear your story. I'm also looking forward to that book that you just placed into the ether. You talk about it, so I would love to help you bring it to fruition. Yes, I have to get it out. Yes, yep, you get it out. Yes, yep, you also talked about a foundation, and we're hoping that you can actually bring that to light as well. So thank you so much for joining us today. This conversation has been awesome, and I look forward to having more meaningful, more fruitful conversations with you in the future.
Speaker 2:Forward to having more meaningful more fruitful conversations with you in the future one when you drop that book and maybe two when we we work through how to get this foundation. You have a lot to offer this community. They're women who actually look up to you. They see what you've done with what you've learned and how you are manifesting that right now as the entrepreneur that you are.
Speaker 4:I don't know how to take that, because I told my testimony at the Brown Sugar Cake Retreat and so many women. I got a standing ovation. Everybody was crying and everybody came up hugging me after telling me you know, and I don't know how to take that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know what Imposter syndrome follows us, but I'm telling you that I invited you because I know that your story reaches women and girls. You are a model and I want you to receive that. You really are. You are a model of how people can definitely change their life, and you have used cake to do that. People can definitely change their life and you have used cake to do that and I want you to continue to lean into that because you are. You are that girl. You are that girl, right.
Speaker 2:So thank you so much for coming. There are girls who are listening, so who are going through the same things that you've been through and they're getting ready to walk into Into a prison or a jail, but I, your story, will tell him that there is hope after they come out. So thank you so much for joining us. I love you, I love you, I love your work, I love you, I love your story and I love what I love you. I love you for who you are and what you're doing for others. So thank you for joining us.
Speaker 1:Thank you for tuning in to the Cake Therapy podcast. Your support means the world to us. Let us know what you thought about today's episode in the comments section. Remember to subscribe wherever you get your podcast and if you found the conversation helpful, please share it with a friend. Also, follow sugar spoon desserts on all social media platforms. We invite you to support cake therapy and the work we do with our foundation by clicking on the buy me a coffee link in the description or by visiting the kick therapy website and making a donation. All your support will go towards the kick therapy foundation and the work we are doing to help women and girls. Thanks again for tuning in and we'll catch you on the next episode.