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
How Disaster Fueled Authenticity: A Conversation with Haley of Cakes by Cenza
What happens when your lifelong calling meets unexpected disaster? Haley of By Cenza Cake Studio shares her extraordinary journey from childhood chocolate-making sessions to professional cake artistry, revealing how authenticity became her secret ingredient for success.
Unlike many who stumble into baking mid-career, Haley knew from age five that creating beautiful, delicious treats was her destiny. "I found meaning in bringing something to life and then bringing it to somebody else," she explains, describing the dual satisfaction that has fueled her passion for over two decades. Even while pursuing a business degree, she remained steadfast: "It doesn't matter if I'm good at accounting, because I'm going to be a baker."
Just as she prepared to launch her Cleveland-based cake studio in 2020, disaster struck twice – a global pandemic halted weddings, and a basement fire destroyed all her equipment and supplies. For nearly a year, her dream was forced into limbo. Yet this unexpected pause became transformative, giving her space to discover her authentic artistic voice. "I stopped playing pretend to what I thought a cake artist should be and started being who I want to wake up every day and feel like," Haley reflects, explaining how this self-discovery fundamentally shaped her distinctive style.
Haley's approach to cake design balances technical precision with bold creativity, particularly in her innovative use of sugar flowers. Rather than simply covering cakes with blooms, she creates unexpected movement and visual impact that demands attention. This intentional artistry elevates wedding cakes from mere checklist items to emotional centerpieces that evoke genuine reactions.
For aspiring cake artists, Haley offers wisdom earned through fire (literally): "Nothing's going to be more important than staying true to yourself, knowing who you are, and feeling like what you're doing is right." Now entering her third wedding season with plans to launch innovative "flash cake" concepts inspired by tattoo artists, Haley proves that authenticity isn't just personally fulfilling – it's the foundation for creating truly unforgettable cake designs.
Visit @bycenza on Instagram to witness how passion, resilience, and unwavering self-belief can transform sugar, flour, and butter into edible art that speaks volumes.
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Welcome to the Cake Therapy Podcast a slice of joy and healing, with your host, dr Altricia Foster. This is a heartwarming and uplifting space that celebrates the transformative power of baking therapy. The conversations will be a delightful blend of inspirational stories, expert insights and practical baking tips. Each episode will take listeners on a journey of self-discovery, emotional healing and connection through the therapeutic art of baking. There's something here for everyone, so lock in and let's get into it.
Speaker 2:Hi everyone, welcome back to the Cake Therapy Podcast with me, your host, dr Altricia Foster. And today we're in for another exciting episode and, yeah, we were talking before Haley, you know, started our conversation. Haley thinks she doesn't belong here, but you're going to hear why she belongs and you're going to hear why we invited her on, because we need to hear from like-minded individuals, but we need to hear voices like Haley's in the space. So we are going to dive into the world of cake artistry and continue to share incredible stories of talented individuals like Haley, who bring so much joy and sweetness to everyone every day. So welcome, haley. She is the owner of Cakes by Chenza.
Speaker 3:Welcome, thank you for having me how are you doing?
Speaker 3:I'm good. I'm in the middle of another busy season, so it actually I when I was thinking about this whole podcast. I think it's like a perfect time, but it's also midway through and it's also this is I'm just starting my third year doing this, so I'm still pretty new. It's like a really good time, I think, for some reflection too. So I think that's all going to come out here. There might even be some things that, like I haven't, that I didn't realize were deep down kind of pushing me, and so I think it's always time to kind of reevaluate how your year has been going, how you want the rest of the year to go, and you're always looking really far, really far into the future. So it's always good to be able to take a pause and make sure that you're you're on the track that you want to be on.
Speaker 2:So yeah, I know I, we met last year. Was it last year that we met and we met in Canada?
Speaker 2:yep yeah, we met one winter in Canada. We decided to be in Canada for a cake class and I thought you were really intriguing and I was telling you that I didn't get enough time to talk to you because we were so busy making these cakes and trying to learn as much of the technique as possible. But what I'm hoping for today is to actually hear about your journey. I want to know what inspires you and I would like to know what is your take, what inspires you to create these amazing cakes that you create? And just to hear from you right. First, I want to hear about your cake journey. Where are you? Tell our listeners where you are and how you became. Cakes by Chenda.
Speaker 3:So I'm in Cleveland, ohio, and this is I actually grew up here, so this is not my home base. But all this journey started I. If I had to tell you, the first time I baked something I probably was very young and I remember going to my grandmother's house and we had so much fun making these little chocolate suckers that I remember her and I sat down with paint, enjoyed sitting and doing that thing and having this product in my hands at the end that I created and that I was part of just making pretty. So then that kind of started that journey. And then the other part of it was then when I went to school the next day and brought those things for people and seeing their reaction and how much that meant to me to have this thing that I'm giving people, that they're excited about, that they're in disbelief, that I found of that, of how I felt I found meaning in bringing something to life. And then the secondary part of it, which is that I found meaning in bringing that to somebody else and to give it to somebody else. So that was when, I mean, I was probably fifth or sixth grade, so that was young, and then I just always loved baking.
Speaker 3:I'm pretty lucky that my baking journey really started when blogs started to really become a thing, so it was just like endless content available. Cupcakes were huge at the time, so there was just always something to be experimenting with, to be trying, and there was always a mouth of somebody that was excited to get that thing. So then the cake thing I actually made, my was thinking about this. I made my older sister's 18th birthday cake, so then I know now that that was 16 years ago for me. So that's how. That's how long the cake thing has been a part of my life, and I knew that that's what I enjoyed doing and how old were you, I was 16.
Speaker 3:Okay.
Speaker 2:Yeah, oh, okay.
Speaker 3:So after that kind of, I always knew I liked it. But I came from a background, both in the school and with my family, who are very supportive, but academia was the most important thing. So you know they were very happy to support me in any way. But like it's just a world where your test scores, you're studying, that's what was more important. But I always had this little thing in my brain that was like but I like doing this, but I like baking. So I almost I always held that true. So then after that, when I went to college, I got a business degree and even the whole time I was there I don't even know if it was a defiance or if it was just me being really passionate, but I was like no, it doesn't matter if I'm good at accounting, because I'm going to be a baker. So I just always kept. I always had that and I always had that on my horizon as something.
Speaker 2:I was working towards.
Speaker 3:I took jobs at pastry shops, I took jobs at huge bakeries, I took jobs at restaurants, I did whatever that just fed that experience and knowledge for me. And once I finished college I went to pastry school. So again a very intentional choice that I wanted to study pastry arts. So then I did that. And then it wasn't really until I was in pastry school that they made us do a two week unit on sugar flowers that something clicked. And that's when I was like, oh, this is a very cool medium. I had never heard of it before, I had never had any experience with it before and we were really fortunate that Nicholas Lodge was one of the teachers at the academy. So I rolled from that directly into a cake art program that was just about learning how to make cakes and doubling down on the sugar flours and it's just kind of gone from there. And then from there I knew I wanted to work in the highly decorated cake industry.
Speaker 3:My whole path had this idea of my own studio where I was low volume but high touch cakes that were very much centered on my vision. But then also that second part that could never be ignored, which is what it brings to somebody else when the wedding world comes in, because that is very special to me. I think that the cake is such a crucial part of that moment. I think the couple are so crucial and it's really really cool that every cake, no matter what, is going to have meaning, because you're injecting meaning into it. So that is kind of how I've gotten here. I officially launched the business full-time in 2022. So 2022 was my first full wedding season. So, yeah, this is my third full wedding season and it has been a wild journey.
Speaker 3:It really has gone zero to 100. So very grateful.
Speaker 2:I know. So tell me our listeners. They might be wondering how did that cake at 16? How did that turn out?
Speaker 3:you know what I thought? It turned out pretty well all things considered. It was my first time working with fondant. I think I just went to Michael's and bought like a package of a couple packages of fondant and it was nightmare.
Speaker 3:Before Christmas themed don't't sue me Disney and, and I think I was like making the figurines and I was making those things to put on the cake. And that's when something I think also started to click toward for me that I enjoyed working in like a 3d scale. I've always wished I was a great painter or drawer, but at a certain point you just kind of are like it's OK that this is the thing I'm good at and it's OK to acknowledge I'm a 3D person. So, yeah, so that was fun, and then it was just kind of a lot of just doing whatever I could get my hands on. Luckily, I have a lot of siblings I'm one of five, so there's always a birthday and so there's always a lot of time to get practice and it's all just kind of snowballed from there. So everyone is in Cleveland, all of your family members. I have a sister in Chicago, a brother in Raleigh and then three of us are in Cleveland. Still Good.
Speaker 2:I lived in Cleveland for like four years. My husband was a resident. Yes, at Case, Okay yeah. My first child was born at the University Hospital there. Okay, Okay yeah.
Speaker 3:My city is very close to Case, so I'm sure you're very familiar with that area.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, pretty, because I lived downtown while I was there. Was it 9th Street? Yeah, that's cool.
Speaker 3:Small world yeah.
Speaker 2:That was a long time ago. You know what's interesting as I listen to you to speak just now right, haley, is a lot of us, a lot of the guests on the show they typically start. They've always had like different career fields. You know, I'm a vaccine scientist. I did something. I do something different. I'm from the world of public health, but for you, you've always known that this was your thing, that you were going to bake. In fact, as we were preparing for this interview, I was reading in Voyage where you said baking was actually your calling and I was like what, how profound is this? Because a lot of us stumble into baking, but you feel like you were actually chosen or called for this. What is it about baking that actually solidified this for you? And you've had this in your soul that this was your thing. How was this fulfilling for you?
Speaker 3:I think for me it was. I always say this the way that my brain works is that I really truly can't understand something until there's this one point where it just clicks and you never know what's going to make it click, or I never know what that, but I feel it and it clicks and it feels right and I can just move on with it. So that's how I think this happened to me. I think, you know, I did something and it was like this click moment in my brain, both based on how I felt and then also in terms of my skillset. So, as someone who loves trying a bunch of different things, who laments when I'm not good enough at something that I want to be good at, it was like it was so nice to have that click and to feel like this is right and I I'm enjoying this. It hit all of the right notes of what you need to love doing something, and for me, so much of my joy comes from what I can provide to somebody else, and for me it was something that was always lacking in other jobs that I could even begin to imagine. Is that direct to a person feeling connection? That happens when you're creating something for somebody else, for something they're celebrating or just to make them happy or just for something to them for them to enjoy, and I think so, yeah, I mean, I just think it was probably just a really good click and I really feel grateful that I found that thing.
Speaker 3:I know a lot of people have to do a lot of searching to find that thing, so it was really nice for me to have that beacon that always guided me, and it's funny because when I look at it sometimes I'm like, oh shoot, all these people come into this cake industry with these architecture backgrounds. We've heard it all, I'm sure you've heard it all. Architecture backgrounds. We've heard it all, I'm sure you've heard it all.
Speaker 3:Architecture, graphic design, lawyers. But a lot of them are art focused, and so I always feel like I'm less than because I came from a baking focus that turned into the artistry. But I'm sure that there's other people out there that are looking at my story that are thinking, wow, she has so many more years under her belt because she knew what she wanted. It didn't happen after she was X years old, how? So it's kind of funny to hear it from some, from somebody else, just like how, what I look at as in my journey, maybe being an unexciting part or something that kind of sets me a step below someone else. It's probably like that's totally self-inflicted.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. You know, like even in other conversations that I've had with people before, it's like we all come from these households that prioritize education right, and it's the traditional form of success that our parents view and don't usually focus on the art history, the art side of education, and it's really never encouraged. So we may well not me. Some of our guests were artists prior to engineering degrees but because of the direction that their parents propelled them into, they did those degrees and they came back into art. What do you say to the listener? Or to the girls, because you know this is an extension of the Cake Therapy Foundation for Girls and I want them to hear you and it's nice to hear from Ron Ben Israel and Marina Machado and Lima Cakes. But Haley Haley knew that she was a baker since she was five and she worked towards it. Talk to that girl who's listening, who already knows what she is called to be.
Speaker 3:I would say to that person that feeling like yourself in whatever space you take up, is the most important thing that you could probably ever do. Not staying true to yourself and prioritizing the things that spark joy in you, regardless of what that is on paper, is how you make the relationships around you and how you make the world around you a better place, by making sure you know we all lose track of ourselves a little bit to what the world is like and paying too close attention to what everyone else is doing. But if you feel right in what you're doing, there's in my mind there can be nothing wrong from that. That comes from that and it's only going to, it's only going to spin this web that just creates more and more of that for the world around you and for the, for the people around you.
Speaker 2:So share with them also. You know what is your peace of mind for having stuck to your belief that that you were called to bake. What is it for you? Where are you now?
Speaker 3:I think that I would like to think that it means I'm very secure in this path. The fact that I got to see it from first thought of just dreaming about opening a cupcake shop when I'm 14 to where I am now. I should feel very, very proud of that and I should feel very secure that I had a path that I followed and, as windy as it was, I followed it and what it led me to is here. But imposter syndrome is hard, even if you're like how am I an imposter? This is what I've been dreaming of for 16 years but, it's so hard to.
Speaker 3:It's so hard to not still pretend like it's not. You're not doing what you should be doing, you're not doing all that you should be doing, you're not doing as well as you should be doing. So I guess I probably should look at it in a very positive light. This was a thing that who else spends this? What else in my life have I spent this many years trying to work towards? And maybe it's because it was so far on my horizon for so long that it's hard to just enjoy then that I reached that finish line. I just keep moving, moving the finish line, but it would probably, it probably would be very helpful to take a second and reflect on hitting that yeah, yeah, you know, um, that's what I often think about, man.
Speaker 2:you know, we move through through this world gracefully or not so graceful, right, and we're often thinking about the career paths we chose, and we ended up in baking, and I'm, you know, hearing you say you started, you had this passion since you were five, this passion since you were five. Do you think, then, that it's possible that we're all born with some inner creative?
Speaker 3:or inner artistry inside of us. What are your thoughts? I have to think so. I think that what I consider to be why I my artistry, or what made me feel like an artist, is that I look at the world and I look at what's going on and I think like, well, what am I bringing to it? And that's what I think artists have in common, and that is a curiosity that I think you're inherently born with, because, making this art, you're thinking I'm bringing something into the world that didn't exist before. Whether it's a cake, whether it's a sculpture, you feel like that's an important thing that you need to do. You need other people to know about this thing that only exists in your brain.
Speaker 1:So I feel like.
Speaker 3:That's kind of something that really is what distinguishes an artist. It's that drive that you need. You can't rest, you will not settle until this thing that you're thinking and feeling is out into the world. And for some artists it's probably very much about how it is looked at by the consumer, and for some artists it's probably just more about the emotion of getting it outside. And I think that that's also an interesting difference between artists and their work and, at the end of the day, cake artists specifically. This is a hard, hard job.
Speaker 3:There's nothing that you can do that if there's not that little piece in you that has been inherent in one way or another. Maybe it took you a long time to find it, but if you think about it, we are tasking ourselves with making something that needs to be delicious, it needs to be beautiful, it needs to hold its shape when you drive it somewhere. It needs to not be in the heat, it needs to not get too humid, everything needs to be edible. That is a task that is not for the faint of heart, so I do think that there's got to be something in all of us that is inherent. You can't learn that. You can't learn to want to put so many challenges on your back to achieve this thing If you don't have a part of you.
Speaker 3:That's a that's that's got the drive, that's got the push and that's got the passion. That's not something that just happens.
Speaker 2:That's, that's deep yeah, and I think that's what a lot of the world misses, right, they don't. They don't see the burden that we're walking around with trying to get these cakes from point a to point b. I'm just making sure that they're stable, like you mentioned. And we we talk about your that we are walking around with trying to get these cakes from point A to point B. I'm just making sure that they're stable, like you mentioned. And we talk about your passion.
Speaker 2:I love cake, I love baking. It's done so much for me mentally and I wrote a book I'm not sure if you heard it's called Cake Therapy how Baking Changed my Life. I laid out, you know, the steps that baking, the steps I took in to get into baking, but how it has centered me and it's afforded me to be able to have conversations like this and I'm hearing your passion. But I remember having a conversation with Jasmine Ray a couple weeks ago and she said this baking could be a doubleged sword. And you know I reflected on that and it was really deep and profound, because it really can be. Because here's this we talk about your passion and how you love baking and how it's been your call. It is your calling, but there's a double-edged sword component to us right, To it right. Once we become, it becomes our livelihood, right the demands of entrepreneurship. Has this creative outlet of baking over the years provided any therapeutic value to you?
Speaker 3:I do think, if I'm looking at my entire process of the cake journey, from baking to the sugar flours to the execution, I do think the baking part now is something that I look forward to as that centering moment.
Speaker 3:It's very militant and scheduled and I come from this brain where I both crave a schedule and I crave some structure and I hate it and I fight structure and I fight anything that feels like it's boxing me in this wedding cake.
Speaker 3:I'm looking at it and I'm like it's kind of funny because I've almost found this thing not intentionally that has a little bit of both things, because if you don't have that structure at the beginning of the week where you're working on your prep list and you're making sure you're making enough batter and there's math involved, that's that militant.
Speaker 3:But I only have to do that once or at the beginning of the week, and then we transfer over to the sugar artistry part where I get to go a little bit wild. So definitely now when I look at my week and I look at my stress and I look at my even anything that I feel about making this hobby into a business, all of the stress of being a business owner, all of the stress of feeling like an imposter, all of the stress of feeling like I'm not good enough or what I'm creating isn't good enough, or the stress of that we're always trying to please somebody. That all can't exist in the brain space where you're faking, because all you know mix, you got to measure, you got to get the cake in the oven and that's that.
Speaker 3:And it's also nice, when I get caught up in the chaos of owning a wedding cake business, of being a new wedding cake business post-COVID, to go back to the baking, because that's what got me here.
Speaker 3:So, no matter what, it's like okay, and you can't do anything else till you do the baking. So it kind of forces you to take that moment and be like don't worry about what's going to happen on Friday, let's worry about what we're doing today. Let's worry about what we're doing today, let's figure out what we're baking today, let's get our ingredients out, and it's just going through the motions. So there is something very therapeutic about that that I get to look forward to at the beginning of every day before it turns into something else. But then you know you just do it again the next day. Something else, but then you know you just do it again the next day. Yeah, so it's like that's, to me, is the double-edged sword of all of this is that we've created this business that our identity becomes tied to, but there's so much passion involved. But you're constantly searching, you're constantly.
Speaker 3:There's so much information out there but yeah so to be able to kind of walk it back and be like there's none of that. That exists when I'm mixing chocolate cake. It doesn't matter that I don't think my cake will ever look as beautiful as Jasmine's cake, because right now I'm just mixing chocolate cake and I have to pay attention to mixing chocolate cake, so it just forces you to slow down, I think.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I love where you said that it's a business that our identities are tied to. But then we have these personalities right when, man, we don't like the rigidity or the structure here, but then here we're in the business of people pleasing like it's. How do we merge these personalities that exist right?
Speaker 3:yeah, that's what I mean, for the faint of heart, if you literally lay out every single thing that owning a cake business is.
Speaker 1:They are opposites you're supposed to be passionate.
Speaker 3:You're supposed to be an artist, that really this craft is everything, but you're still answering to a bride that it's the most important day of her life and she might want it to look a certain way. Or you're answering to a couple that's celebrating something special and they want, and you know, there's a thing like so it's both of those things that are at odds with each other and it's yeah, you know, and like it's up to us to figure out how we work within those things, and so it's like just a constant battle.
Speaker 2:I I think, yeah, it definitely is. So when do you find you know, time for yourself to prioritize your own creative nourishment? Because I tell people all the time, if it doesn't feed my soul I'm not taking the order. Like Haley, people can say I'm bougie or whatever, but if the cake isn't going to feed my soul, I'm not doing it. Where do you find time for your nourishment?
Speaker 3:So I'm still very much learning how to do that.
Speaker 3:I think that I'm starting to feel a little bit confident in my place here and in what I've created to say like, oh, it's okay for me to prioritize my wants and needs. It's going to be okay, because it's so funny Cause I was just giving the friend the advice the other day, like you know, when your cup is full. That's how, when you and she said to me well, why don't you take your own advice? You know what I mean, like so much of me right now is this business and I feel like I feel like my worth is based on what I can do for other people. Yeah, and I'm just slowly starting to unpack that and just slowly starting to realize it. That can't be as far as much as I'm worth. That can't be, you know. But making cakes for other people, I love doing it, but it's for other people at the end of the day as much joy as I can get from it.
Speaker 3:I do, and I have the greatest clients. It's always for somebody else, and everything I'm creating in the world right now is for judgment from other people.
Speaker 3:Yeah, absolutely the world right now is for judgment from other people. Yeah, absolutely Starting to realize how important it is that I'm taking the time to make sure that I'm doing it for myself, that the end result is only for me to decide how I feel about it and how I did so. But being you know that grind of first opening a business where you're like that's it, I'm going to go under, because I didn't stay up until midnight making 100 cakes, because I said no to somebody. I wouldn't even consider myself a people pleaser, but I realized that it's because I think if you asked me for something, I'm going to say yes, even if it puts me out.
Speaker 3:And I'm starting to learn that I will be more proud of my work. I will be more happy with what I create. I will feel more proud of my work. I will be more happy with what I create. I will feel more fulfilled by what I create if I make sure that I'm taking care of myself first. But I am no expert on the matter yet, I am just. It's very new.
Speaker 2:So for me, when I bake, I'm seeking for fulfillment and that's why I do it, and I look for inspiration like all over anywhere I can find it. So I remember I did a class with Lima and she mentioned she's like you know what? Maybe stop following bakers, follow other artists, get your inspiration from them, and I thought that was kind of profound. Where do you get your inspiration from? Who do you join?
Speaker 3:I definitely. I have heard that advice for sure from all the greats. I feel like I always recommend that to you. My first class that really struck me was with Maggie Austin, and she had very similar things. She said you know what? I didn't pay attention to what other people were doing? Struck me was with Maggie Austin and she had very similar things. She said you know what? I didn't pay attention to what other people were doing, and so I've always really taken that to heart, that I really try to keep my head down and just be proud of what I'm creating. But I would say most of my inspiration is definitely in the art world, but I love, so I'll never get tired of seeing florists, seeing florists do new things.
Speaker 1:Um.
Speaker 3:I also, just in general, have such a love for party planning in general and the details that go into it. So there's every client I see I'm oh, we got to talk about your invites. I'll be happy to hear what fork you're using. That, to me, is so fun. All of that is so fun.
Speaker 3:So a lot of my inspiration comes from just hearing about what people are excited about, what people's personal styles that's like. When I'm creating for a client, I would say I draw the most inspiration. I always ask them you know, like, what kind of furniture do you pick out for your house? What kind of clothes do you pick out for yourself? So I do love learning about people. I've always joked that the reason why I got into this is because I love a party and I'm really nosy. So this way I get to hear all about your wedding. You're a stranger to me and I'm so excited to hear everything about it.
Speaker 3:But in terms of my own personal finding of inspiration, I love probably like sculptures and ceramics the most. I really love anything abstract, anything funky. I love anything that makes you feel a little bit uncomfortable because it's not quite a natural beauty. I love that. It's like, oh wow, that's maybe take to look at. I think that's what I find to be very fun. That just causes you to take a second look. And there's so many talented artists out there and it's really fun and it's really cool, being in the cake world, that we actually aren't limited to one type of art form to draw inspiration from either it could be absolutely. You could go from architecture all the way down to the teeny, tiniest thing and it's it's really cool, but then also very overwhelming, cause obviously sometimes too much inspiration can be very hard and I always kind of am a little bit struggling with figuring out like, well, is this our? Do my cakes feel like they're? Do I have a soul? Does it matter to have a style?
Speaker 3:And then part of me is like well, if I'm making it, it must be my style. So then, you know, sometimes there's because, like, I feel like, even too, in the cake world. Well, in art there's sculptors, there's painters, there's different types of painters, and they have names for all of that, but in cake it's just cake, and so it's always really a struggle of mine to define, well, like no, it's not the kind of cake that you think, this kind of cake artistry. You know what I mean.
Speaker 3:We almost need different styles of cake art that we can start pinpointing, because I think the cake art thing is so broad now but, like and as someone, I'm sure now if you see a cake you're going to know if it's a Lima cake, you're going to know if it's a Jasmine Ray cake, because we recognize that, but the verbiage doesn't exist for it yet, and so it always kind of makes me I'm just chewing my head and I have too many thoughts and I'm always scrambling and it's hard to kind of pull it one and I was just kind of like. So then I tried to really come up with a way to define what cake art meant to me, because then that could be my beacon in all of the world. I can find inspiration and be like objectively, that's beautiful art. But that's not me, that's not inspiration I'm going to take to my cake, but it's definitely with just the internet. Gosh, you really got to be confident in yourself.
Speaker 2:You really have to be confident. So tell me a little bit about you. Talk about things that inspire you, right? How do you balance the technical aspects of chanza, your cake decorating style, with the creative freedom to experiment and try new things with your clients?
Speaker 3:then, that's definitely a struggle. I find that one thing about me is I'm always going to want to try to be better. I'm always going to want to try to keep learning and there is so much to learn and so much to get better at. So for me, with technique, it was a little bit of a harder journey to feel confident in my technical skills because those are a little bit more tangible to see if you weren't on par with where you'd like to be your first time covering a cake with fondant and you see all the air bubbles and you're upset with yourself. But it's really been cool for me, the more that I do it, to see how those things are getting better and better and how I'm getting smoother and understanding what works for me.
Speaker 3:Um so for me, I feel like the technical part and the artistry part. I actually enjoy both of them because one of them has a tangible, measurable kind of way. I can see that I'm getting a little bit better at making a rose. Each time I make a rose, but at the end of the day every rose looks different, so there's no such thing as the perfect rose. So that's the artistry versus the tech, the technical part of it, and to me both of those things will always go hand in hand on every single cake that I make, hand on every single cake that I make.
Speaker 3:And I feel like one of the things that I really enjoy about doing this is actually finding that balance of where those two things meet in the middle and seeing what it creates, because, like kind of like with my baking schedule, it combines that militant structure that I crave with that freedom, artistry, and that's what makes the cake, I think, is those two things combined. So I feel like I just tried. I feel like it's a pretty good balance that I've created, but there's always going to be something I want to work on. But it's cool because it gives you something to kind of keep as a goal.
Speaker 2:Mm-hmm, you know you mentioned flowers and making sugar flowers and how the artistry itself is what solidified everything for you in college. I don't like making flowers Me. I don't love it. I was with her last summer and she just came Patricia, you have to make flowers and I'm like, no, I don't. So I don't love it, but I do it when I have to or when I need to and I think it really. You know you talk about. You know you were like do I have a style? Yeah, you do. It's very distinctive. I know your cakes. Now if I see it in my for you page, I know it's you. So you do have a distinctive style. But how would you describe your signature approach to cake designs? Lots of flowers, I know your cakes.
Speaker 3:I definitely love flowers. One thing that I really love doing with flowers is using them in a really unique and impactful way. I think one of the things and maybe is this what you hate about sugar flowers they take a very long time. It takes forever to make sugar flowers and I always joke that to put myself in a position where I am trying to recreate something that occurs in nature and occurs pretty beautifully in nature. I'm trying to make that and I'm trying to make a replica of that that people believe is not a replica. What a fool's errand that I've set myself up for.
Speaker 3:But you know what? The challenge part of me can't let it go so, since sugar flowers are so expensive and cost so much and, you know, take so much time. So then there's a higher price point for that cake. I really enjoy using sugar flowers in an impactful way. That isn't just about covering the cake and sugar flowers, because obviously a cake covered is going to be beautiful. Cake covered in flowers is going to be beautiful, but it's also going to be very expensive and I think it's really fun to find a way to utilize those flowers and make a cake that has a punch by using things in interesting by using interesting movement, by being like oh, that flower is just hanging off.
Speaker 3:It looks like it's about to fall off, by being like, oh, that flower is just hanging off. It looks like it's about to fall off. Oh, there's draping movement. So that's. I think that I enjoy a really unusual approach to styling and that might be what I would like people to see when they look at my stuff. I think that they would think like oh, she's not just putting flowers on the cake, she's thinking about where the flower is being placed on the cake.
Speaker 2:There it goes.
Speaker 3:So definitely that and I would hope that people feel like a little bit of a boldness in the cakes that I create because I think that so much of my journey in this kind of like, with my whole background of this being very intentional, when you go to open a business, typically if I were opening like a different type of business, I would look at the market, I would look at what the market is lacking, I would look at what the problems my industry faces and I would figure out how I am a solution to that problem.
Speaker 3:So that is one of the huge things about cakes that I looked forward to kind of changing the tone of. I didn't want it just to be a negative thing that someone's checking off their list. I wanted it to be an intentional expression. I wanted it to be something that made people be like whoa expression. I wanted it to be something that made people be like whoa when they walk into the room. So I hope that my style shows that intentionality while also showing that you know there can be fun to be had with it, and there can be. It can be conservative, it can be wild, it can be conservative, it can be wild, it can be whatever, but it's going to express something and it's going to evoke something. It's not you want it to be there and it's going to demand you to look at it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I think that that's with me now. I haven't gotten to a place where I know exactly where to put that flower, and me I feel like, if I'm going to sit here and struggle over these sugar flours.
Speaker 3:I'm putting all of you on this cake. If you turn around and you see that there was a rose that you spent 30 minutes on that you're not using, I'm sure that does make you heartbreak a little bit, yeah, but you know, yeah, it's part of it. It's part of that intentionality that you're like yeah, you exist, but you're not meant to exist on this cake, so I'll find another beautiful home for you. Yeah, that's definitely tough, it's really hard.
Speaker 2:Yeah, imagine making all those flowers and realizing, like man, I only needed one and some leaves, for sure or one and some petals.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it makes sense, go ahead. No, it's fine, go ahead.
Speaker 2:So we talk about the purposeful side and the art and the passion of what drove you, chenzile, but we know that what people see on Instagram these gorgeous cakes that we make it's not all. That's there, right, it's not a representation of what we're experienced on the back end of our business. Entrepreneurship does have a lot of challenges, but we choose not to to show them on Instagram. Right, we go to bed at 2, 2 am, 4 am on the state. We're wake up nights trying to figure this thing out, and my producer had mentioned to me that in 2000, in 2020, um, you started your business during COVID. What a curve ball that was. Tell us a little bit more about that and how did you manage to kind of turn it all around? I know that you had to move back home, yet to go in the basement, right?
Speaker 1:And there was a basement fire.
Speaker 2:Talk to us, talk to me about that girl, because I was looking at Stephanie I was like what? And she's like yeah.
Speaker 3:She was like yeah, launching the business in 2019 was just as comical as you think it would be. None of us knew what was going to happen. I was so ready I was two years out of pastry school had worked at jobs that I. I worked a job where all I did was frost cakes all day long, because I was like I'm gonna get good at this one thing.
Speaker 3:so I I was ready. Then covid happened. Yeah, then one month into covid, we had a fire at our house in the basement which is where I stored all of my cake spots. So all of my dummies from classes with Lima, from classes with Maggie Austin done ruined. And it wasn't the fire, everyone was safe. It did ruin structure. So we actually did have to move out and my entire family had to, during COVID, then go live somewhere else for six months, but it was an electrical fire. So because of that, everything edible has to be thrown away, anything that can be cleaned has to be thrown away.
Speaker 3:Um, everything that wasn't ruined by ash. Someone comes into your house after a fire. I didn't know this because, luckily, this was the first time I experienced a fire. They come in and they take everything, they take stock of every single thing, put every single thing in a box and take it away to either be cleaned or whatever else. So that happened with every single thing that I owned, that I baked, with all of my clothes. It happened, they, everything, everything in that house was taken out. And this was during COVID. So hotels weren't really up and running, real, there wasn't really. You know, there was no escape. Even you couldn't even pretend like you were going to go on a little vacation somewhere, because what was the?
Speaker 3:world, like you didn't even go to the store anymore. So that was really hard, because what was one of the main benefits of what the COVID experience was that maybe you had time to work on something that you would never give yourself time to work on.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:And the one thing that I would have worked on did not own one tool. After they took everything away, um, it was just kind of there was no promises of when it would be returned, there was no promises of what would be returned. So it was just a lot of a holding pattern. And for someone like me, who always needs that next thing that I'm working towards or needs that thing that I'm focusing on and working towards, I have to feel like I'm moving. And that was a very, very hard time for me to feel like I was standing still and to feel like not only was I standing still, but I actually had no control over anything I didn't get to. You know, it didn't matter how badly I wanted it, the world was not, it was not the time. So that was tough.
Speaker 3:I would love to say that I used that time to maybe find something else, find a hobby, find anything. I didn't. I think I probably just let myself be mad and crazy, um, and then I got all of my stuff back in February of the following year, so that's from April of 2020 to February of 2021, nothing, and that's that felt really good to have that stuff back, and during that time I was still, I guess, a little bit behind the scenes was able to work on the build out of my studio space. Um, so, as terrible as that time was and as hard as it was to feel stuck, yeah, when it was like I mean, I'm years into this journey, years into dreaming of what this thing is and so close, and to have to put it on pause was tough. And it was also tough then when I got my stuff back. My studio wasn't ready yet. That build out had been going on for years but because of COVID.
Speaker 3:So thankfully, I didn't move into my space until January of 2022. So that was a long time for that journey to feel like I wasn't moving forward.
Speaker 3:I will say that during that time, I was so grateful for every person that decided to create an online course to do in-person classes. I mean, I was constantly going to classes, finding artists, learning as much as I could, even if I didn't have the things to work on on my own to do these things, and I do. A lot of people in Cleveland are like, wow, you really just came out of nowhere. And I'm like, no, this has been a journey and I'm actually now, in hindsight, grateful for that time when I had to pause, because if you would have asked me in 2019, what my business looked like, it does not look like what it is today. I feel 2019.
Speaker 3:And in 2020, when I was building a website or working towards my ideal business or my brand or anything, I was doing what I thought a cake, a wedding cake artist, would look like. My website was very about very pretty and very um, bright and whatever else. And and I didn't have enough of the experience under my belt to know how important it was for it to still feel like me I was looking at people. I was looking at, you know, maggie Austin, who is one of my favorite people to go to class. Love, she is so cool, she is so kind. I have so much love for her. But I was looking at her as this, as this person, that's who a wedding cake artist is. So I need to figure out how to be her, and it wasn't until I realized I need to figure out how to be myself, and that's how this cake will look like something that I created. So that was a very important part of my journey. That didn't happen until the last two years, and that's why, it kind of seems like a switch went off.
Speaker 3:It's almost like I stopped playing pretend to what I thought a cake artist should be and I started being like you know what? I'm 30. It's time for me to be who I want, to wake up every day and feel like me, and feel like I am who I want to be, and it's a little bit different than your average person that you would see in the wedding industry.
Speaker 3:But so much of this was about me finding that person and me being confident that I'm better when I'm being true to that person and I'm creating better art when I'm being true to that person. So that pause was hard, but I do think it's what made me have a business that's about me, because there was so much more time for self-reflection and so much more time of just spending time by myself and not just it being about the cakes but learning about who I am, and so that I do think that the business that you see today exists because of that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I love when you you just mentioning that that the business and your cakes had to be about you. And it has to be about you, because I it was recently that I found myself too. I always dressed in like these bold, vibrant colors, and the moment I decided I was going to translate this to my website it's not going to be all cakey, it's going to be me showcasing me, and then I'm like I'm at peace, I'm okay. So, no, I absolutely get it. And I was here just nodding my head because I just got to that place where color it is for me. You know, people shy away from color and I'm like, oh, I love bright, white and colors. I think that's going to be me and my cakes.
Speaker 3:So I absolutely, and that's the downsides, I think, of the wedding world in general, the wedding industry. It's great and there's nothing wrong with it, but every website is, you know, pretty soft and white and romantic and for a long time I beat myself up for not being like that, instead of realizing what I had to offer by just being myself, and I think that that's. I think that that's like a huge part of people's journeys.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know you talk about envisioning this thing for yourself for 20 years, and I'm passionate about this cake therapy foundation because I really want girls to hear from women like you that baking doesn't have to be a hobby. It can be a skill that ultimately changes the outcome, the directions of their lives. But what advice would you give to them? You now own a business, operate, and you've been to the top and you've gone to the valley. You've had a fire destroying your business, but you've risen up and you've propelled yourself to becoming not just Haley but Cakes by Chinza. Talk to that girl, you know. Or even the young woman who wants to establish herself in the cake industry. Tell her about some of the challenges to expect in the skate industry.
Speaker 3:Tell her about some of the challenges to expect.
Speaker 3:I think there's going to be a lot of external challenges along the way, but I think there is with everything you do.
Speaker 3:This world it's tough, and it's tough for women, and it's tough for a lot of reasons, but I think that something that maybe you can never fully prepare yourself for is the challenges that you give yourself by having you know, all of the negative self-talk, all of the doubt and all of those things are things that are ingrained in us from the outside world, and so I think that what I would point out as being the most important thing about feeling confident in your journey, or feeling confident that this thing can be real, is going to be about doing that internalizing and doing that for yourself and turning off the noise from the outside world, and so it's going to be.
Speaker 3:It's so much more internal work than I ever imagined it being, and that's the wisdom that I would want to impart on somebody else's. Yeah, you're gonna have things that you put out in the world, and there's a lot of external things that matter. It matters that people want what you're creating, and that's always going to matter, but nothing's going to be more important than you staying true to yourself, you knowing who you are and you feeling like what you're doing is right, and and you have a right to be doing it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, like nothing matters, you know, unless you stay true to who you are and believe that you have a right to do it. This is amazing. I've enjoyed this conversation and, before you go, I want you to share with our listeners one where they can find you, and to share with them your new project or collaborations that you have on the horizon.
Speaker 3:I am in Cleveland, ohio. It is called by Chenza cake studio. I um my website is by Chenzacom and my Instagram is at by chenza, and that's C E N ZA actually didn't share the story, but it's because my name is Haley Vincenza Safara, so Vincenza is the namesake of my great grandfather, whose name was Vincenzo, who came over here from Italy. So it was kind of kind of like how I had my baking experience with my grandma.
Speaker 3:Like you know, that heritage is ingrained in all of this and has built all of this and I feel like that stamp on my business name is all of is a nod to all the women that came before me who loved baking and who taught baking and cooking to all their kids. That led us to this point.
Speaker 3:So that's an important note I forgot about. One thing I am very excited about for the future is I actually just started doing a kind of flash cake. So a lot of my inspiration comes from the tattoo community for one reason or another. And one thing that's really big in the tattoo community is artists will draw things that they want to do. So you don't have to come up with an idea and you don't have to get something custom. You can just flip through their book and pick something out.
Speaker 3:So I'm trying to bring a little bit of that into the cake world. So this isn't like your little book that you used to get at the grocery store, that you're going to pick a baseball cake or something. I have pre-designed some cakes that I think I would love to get out in the world that maybe your average client wouldn't think to do for their event, and offering them to clients as like it's just a more accessible way to get a really really cool, thoughtful cake, and so I'm really looking forward to seeing how that turns into and how that kind of makes my cakes um just more accessible to people or maybe helps people think a little bit outside the box about what it can be so yeah, I love that.
Speaker 2:I love that idea. I'm wishing you a lot of success on this. It aligns with your personality and I really enjoyed talking to you and I'm like I told you. I met you in this class and I knew that there was something I knew I missed out on that conversation and it's because we were in that learning environment. So I'm really excited that you said yes to coming on here with us and having this conversation and I'm happy that you pulled your chair up to inspire our listeners and I want to thank you. Our listener, please subscribe if you haven't subscribed yet. Thank you for joining the Cake Therapy Podcast. I hope that you've been fed and Haley has given you a lot of information to take home. Walk away with Um and again, if you haven't followed her yet, go and find her on Instagram. Tell us again, haley, what's your Instagram handle?
Speaker 3:By Chenza. So that's B Y C E N Z A.
Speaker 2:B Y C E N Z A. Thank you so much, Haley, for joining us. This has been your cake therapy podcast E-N-Z-A. Thank you so much, Hayley, for joining us.
Speaker 1:This has been your Cake Therapy Podcast. 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 comment 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 Cake Therapy website and making a donation. All your support will go towards the Cake 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.