Tasting Arcadia

Episode 14 - Sweet Nothings Cake Shop

• Karen Mac Nair • Season 2 • Episode 14

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Craving something sweet? You're in luck! On this episode of Tasting Arcadia, Karen Mac Nair is taking you on a sweet journey with Isabel, owner of Sweet Nothings Cake Shop in Duarte. Isabel’s delicious, sweet treats will also be featured at the Taste of Arcadia. 

For more information and tickets to the Taste of Arcadia visit TasteOfArcadia.com.

Follow us on social media. Join us for another episode of Tasting Arcadia.


Intro to Taste of Arcadia Event

John Villa

Welcome to Tasting Arcadia, the official podcast of Taste of Arcadia. Taste of Arcadia is an all-inclusive event featuring food and drinks from the San Gabriel Valley restaurants, all for one price Sample food, wine, beer and spirits. Check out our brand new cars, visit our business showcase booths, smile at our photo booth and shake it on the dance floor with me, john Villa from Dance Syndicate DJ Entertainment. Taste of Arcadia is September 13th at Santa Anita Park. The fun goes from 2 to 6 pm, with special VIP entrance at 1 pm. Don't forget this isa 21 and over event. Get your tickets today at tasteofarcadiacom. Now let's hear it for our host, karen McNair.

Karen Mac Nair

Hello everyone, welcome to Tasting Arcadia, our wonderful podcast. I am Karen McNair, the CEO at the Arcadia Chamber of Commerce. I'm so excited to be here today because we get to taste some more wonderful things that are just in our area. I can't believe all these great restaurants and different shops. Today we get to hear from Sweet Nothings Cake Shop. Isabel is the owner. She's here with us, welcome.

Isabel Moreno

Hi, thank you.

Karen Mac Nair

I'm so excited to one. I love sweets, so it's exciting to hear about them. So why don't you start off? Tell us a little bit about your business okay, um, so we're sweet.

Isabel Moreno

Nothing's cake shop located in duarte um 1849 huntington drive. Uh, the easiest way to say it is right across the street from cabrera's, the mexican restaurant because we're kind of tucked away in a little plaza. There'll be a taste of arcadia also great yeah they're a great neighbor of ours.

Isabel Moreno

We're open Tuesday through Thursday, 10 to 6 pm, friday 10 to 4 pm right now for the summer hours, and then Saturday 10 to 3. And then we're closed Sundays and Mondays and we specialize in custom cakes. You can just walk in and purchase cupcakes, cookies, cake pops, brookies, macaroons, but our cakes are by custom order. So every so often, like during the holidays, we do have ready-made cakes, but for the most part we ask for a week's notice for our orders.

Karen Mac Nair

Okay, great to know. I have to say, I have had your cake pops at different parties. They are delicious. It is just like a little sugary goodness. Thank you, thank you. And you can't just have one. Yeah, that's the other thing. It's like once you have one, you're like oh no, I need three. So is there any history behind your business? How did you get started in?

From Fashion Industry to Bakery

Isabel Moreno

this, so I actually used to be in the fashion industry. I was born and raised in Duarte but, I, did study fashion and I kind of went that route for a little while, opening retail stores traveling the world. It was a great time, I really enjoyed it, but it was just. I kind of ended up on the construction aspect of it versus like the more creative product development side.

Isabel Moreno

And I don't know, I just got tired of traveling and I decided that like I wanted to do something a little bit more creative, so I chose my other passion, which was culinary. So I went to culinary school. And where else better to open it than in my hometown. So I decided to open here in Duarte.

Karen Mac Nair

I do love that. That when you're born and raised someone, it gives back to the community to be part of the business committee. Were you always a baker?

Isabel Moreno

Yeah, ever since I would say junior high to high school, I always loved baking. It was just something.

John Villa

I liked so.

Isabel Moreno

I would do it for my family.

Karen Mac Nair

And, uh, when I graduated high school I was just kind of between the two majors and I just went the fashion route first and yeah, yeah, I'm sure, and I'm assuming because I don't know how to bake or design, but it would feel like the two talents could also merge together because it's so creative. I mean, so many things that come out of your shop, just they have that touch to them.

Isabel Moreno

It's not just regular, oh for sure. And then definitely the retail aspect of it, like building my store my. My background helped with that as well.

Karen Mac Nair

Yeah, the shop, and it is a brick and mortar business which I love. Walk in that, pick things up, order it. I love that. It it's so great. Is there any upcoming events that you're going to be at? Have that you want to share.

Isabel Moreno

We're going to be doing the Taste of Old Town Monrovia, so that'll be coming up in September. And then we do also want to mention if you follow us on Instagram, you'll see that on holidays like Halloween, christmas, valentine's Day, we do little holiday packs that people are always interested in when they walk in on the actual holiday, right, but we do pre-order those. So we do recommend, if people are interested in things like that, to follow us or get on our email subscription so that we can send those out to the information to them.

Karen Mac Nair

Love that Well, and I just thought school starts in a couple of weeks. It's already time to Think about school classrooms, your teachers, stuff to pick up. So, out of all the things you bake, you design, you deliver, what are your favorite dishes pieces?

Isabel Moreno

My favorite thing to eat is a warm cookie right out of the oven, which was happening on the daily, so we had to cut that out a little bit. But the Oreo cheesecake cupcake is my favorite of the cupcakes and then, as far as physically working on is the cakes, just because I do get to be more creative and um, be more artistic and I love that, yeah so when you eat your favorite cookie that comes out of the oven, which kind is it?

Isabel Moreno

it's just the classic chocolate chip, okay, yeah it does feel like a hug doesn't it totally with some coffee? Yeah, it's amazing, see we'll have to.

Karen Mac Nair

I'll visit, then we'll take a run around the block, have another cookie Exactly On the block. What is most popular on your menu? People order.

Isabel Moreno

I would say lately, honestly, is the cookies that is lately what we've been selling out of. It takes rotations, but at the moment it's between our chocolate chip walnut cookies and our chocolate chip cookies. Our brookies are always really popular too. Those are like a half cookie, half brownie bar. Ooh, those are really popular.

Karen Mac Nair

That's nice. Yeah, ok, who thought to put that together? And what were you doing that night where you're like this would be a good one, that's great. Yeah, inspiration when do you find your inspiration as you? Is it clients that are bringing things to you? Is it your menu? Where do you feel like the inspiration for you comes from?

Isabel Moreno

I think it's a variety of things. Sometimes clients request things. Sometimes you know just through social media and like inspirations that I see following other people, or just my personal taste. You know sometimes when I'm craving something and I haven't seen it out and about. I'm like oh, I should try making that, so something like that. Or you know, sometimes I try something and I'm like I could do that better, so I try it as well.

Karen Mac Nair

I do love that little challenge you mentioned. You have an Instagram. I do. Do you post different pictures of creative things? You do your regular orders.

Isabel Moreno

Yeah, we tend to post mostly our cake orders and you know, once they're completed or sometimes we'll post, you know, things in action. But for the most part it's kind of a gallery of all our cakes so people can see what we're capable of doing. But definitely we post, we advertise, you know when we have upcoming events or change of hours or holidays, things like that.

Business Growth and Community Connections

Karen Mac Nair

Thank you for keeping us informed. That is so helpful to be able to know one place to go to, so follow them on Instagram. That us informed that is so helpful to be able to know one place to go to, so follow them on instagram. That's the one takeaway. Um, what's something in your business?

Isabel Moreno

you're most proud of you just is exciting to be able to share with everyone, I think, the longevity of it so far we've been open for 13 years but also that, um we're a very much of a referral business, so um we do get a lot of referrals from different clients.

John Villa

There's clients that.

Isabel Moreno

I've done their cakes from their wedding all the way to their third baby. We're doing their birthday cake. So it's really nice to see the growth and to be a part of the community in that way. And just you know that it is my hometown, so fortunately there's a lot of people I still know from high school and junior high and things like that that come in and it's great it's great.

Karen Mac Nair

It's kind of like a mini reunion all the time. I love that. That's really nice. I feel like a round of applause 13 years that is Going on 14.

Isabel Moreno

Yeah, that's amazing. I'm proud of that.

Karen Mac Nair

Yeah.

Isabel Moreno

Especially well, there was a splash me. It actually doubled my business at the time because we're kind of tucked away in that little shopping center with DoorDash and Grubhub and all those apps. People started ordering through there during the pandemic that afterwards they kept coming after they found us on the app. Oh, that's great news. So yeah, that came in handy for me actually.

Karen Mac Nair

Well, I guess we all needed a hug with a cookie. It just seemed like the appropriate thing at the right time and a good glass of milk. I feel like you've participated in Taste of Arcadia before right. I have. I've done it many years. Okay, yay, we're so excited You're coming to Taste this year. So that's right, everybody, you go to tasteofarcadiacom to buy your tickets, because I know you want to hear what's next. What are you planning to bring to taste?

Isabel Moreno

I'm bringing mini cupcakes, mini cake pops and brookies, ooh okay.

Karen Mac Nair

I'm so excited. Would you like to open up what you have?

Sampling Sweet Nothings' Delicious Treats

Isabel Moreno

to share yeah. I can show you. So cake pops I think we haven't done those in a while, so we decided to bring those this time around.

Karen Mac Nair

Okay, I'm super excited because that.

Isabel Moreno

These are just a sample of some of our flavors that we'll be bringing. I have our vanilla cheesecake, our birthday cake, our Oreo cheesecake and our red velvet. Okay, and then I have some of our mini cake pops that we'll be doing.

Karen Mac Nair

Okay. So the mini cake pops are what's the cake on the inside? Um, these are vanilla. Okay, it's vanilla with vanilla.

Isabel Moreno

White chocolate yeah, white chocolate, and then sprinkled, and the rainbows okay and then those might be an assortment of different flavors, but for okay purposes of this, I brought our vanilla and then our bricky bites, so it's just like our half chocolate chip cookie with our brownie okay, I am going to begin tasting and then help describe to everybody.

Karen Mac Nair

If you're watching on youtube, hopefully you could see some of this, but otherwise I'm gonna reach over and we're gonna start with the cupcakes. Okay, I'm not gonna try all the cupcakes because it feels like it is a lot. I don't, we don't have a fork either. So super sorry, cupcakes, because it feels like it is a lot. I don't, we don't have a fork either, so super sorry, just going to try it.

Isabel Moreno

So this is a red velvet yeah, it's our red velvet cake with our cream cheese frosting, which we make from scratch. Um, all of our ingredients and everything are from natural ingredients. We don't use any like crisco or anything like that. Everything's real butter. Um.

Karen Mac Nair

You can tell it's real butter.

Isabel Moreno

Yeah, delicious Gooeyness and I do try to not make things super sweet too, so it's not overpowerful or too rich when you eat it.

Karen Mac Nair

Thank you, and I just dropped red velvet cake on the keyboard. Okay, that is delicious, the cream cheese topping. Yeah, almost as like cheesecake. So we call it our cheesecake. Yeah, that is delicious, the cream cheese topping.

Isabel Moreno

Yeah, it almost looks like cheesecake, so we call it our cheesecake.

Karen Mac Nair

Yeah, that is delicious, thank you. Oh my gosh, there is a chocolate one also.

Isabel Moreno

And what's this one? That's our vanilla cheesecake. So that's a vanilla cupcake cream cheese frosting, our graham cracker crumble which we do it just as you would for a cheesecake, Okay, and our raspberry drizzle.

Karen Mac Nair

Oh, Oops, and I just stuck my finger in it. Uh-oh, got to lick the icing off, okay, and then this one looks like a little birthday cake.

Isabel Moreno

Yeah, so that's our birthday cake cupcake with our vanilla buttercream, and then rainbow sprinkles on top.

Karen Mac Nair

Okay, Love that. Can you go to your store and?

Isabel Moreno

buy an assortment like this oh, definitely, yeah, we sell mini cupcakes and regular-sized cupcakes, and then something we also have that you don't find much in this area is macaroons, so we sell macaroons as well.

Karen Mac Nair

So, yeah, I love that. Okay, may I try a cake pop? Yeah, definitely. We're in the studio of pure media marketing and I feel like I should clean after I've just dropped icing. Okay, so this is a cake pop, and I do love a good white chocolate.

Isabel Moreno

Okay, oh, my goodness, this is a perfect bite too, yeah, so I thought it'd be good with you. Know people walk around, oh my gosh, so good.

Karen Mac Nair

everyone out there, you need to buy your tickets because you need to taste these, so so good. Okay, I have another little bite. All right, and those you can find in shop too as well, but it's best if you order them, if you have a large party right. Correct yeah, okay, can you? If you order them, pre-order them, you can pick which types you want.

Isabel Moreno

Oh, definitely you could pick the flavors, the color, if you have a particular theme. We do more custom desserts as well, okay, it just would. Pricing would vary depending on the amount of detail in it. Okay, and you can either place your orders online on our order form, off our website, to get a quote, or you can come in. So either way. So what is your website address then? It's SweetNothings, with an S Cakeshop at Yahoo. I'm sorry, sweetnothingscakeshopcom.

Karen Mac Nair

And our email is SweetNothingsCakeshop at Yahoocom. So if you email them, they'll just direct you back to the website.

Isabel Moreno

For the most part only because there's quite a few questions we need in order to quote you. So it just makes it easier where we don't have to back and forth so much. Smart yeah.

Karen Mac Nair

Okay, great, and the last one.

Isabel Moreno

This is our burpee, which is our half chocolate chip cookie brownie bar.

Karen Mac Nair

Oh, my goodness, okay, my daughter would love this. She talks about these all the time. So good, such big chocolate chips. Yeah, and they're soft, it's not a hard cookie. Yeah, yeah, we like to make most of our cookies like chewy chewy center crisp little outside okay, I can imagine this right out of the oven. You could probably heat, reheat this a little bit.

Isabel Moreno

Yeah, oh definitely. It tastes really good warm, and then also, if you crumble it on top of ice cream, is really great too. Okay, now you're talking.

Karen Mac Nair

That is delicious. Wow, I could see how it would be a challenge to work there yeah, people walk in.

Isabel Moreno

Sometimes I'm like how are you not 500 pounds? But after a while you smell it daily that you don't crave it as often it's true.

Supporting Small Businesses and Closing

Karen Mac Nair

You probably should switch with someone at a florist so that they could come have your smells and you could go enjoy their smells, and it could go back and forth so these items, you'll bring some of them to taste, so everyone will be able to have the experience. Is there anything else you'd like to share about the business, about orders?

Isabel Moreno

um, just, you know, support your small businesses. Um, especially in this time. Uh, it's great to to support us so that we can stick around.

Karen Mac Nair

I think that is speaking now instead of the interviewer, the host of the podcast. I think as a chamber, we really agree with that 100%. There's nothing better than supporting small businesses and really making sure that they're all still around, and it starts with us before it's too late. So start buying now so you never have to worry about where you're buying your wonderful cookies, cupcakes and cakes.

Isabel Moreno

Yeah, and I appreciate all our clientele that have supported us up to this point, so thank you for that.

Karen Mac Nair

Yay, well, good shout out for them. Thank you, isabel, for being here. Thank you so excited to see you. Reminding everyone, you go to tasteofarcadiacom to buy your tickets today. Taste of Arcadia is September 13th at the wonderful Santa Anita Park. It begins at 1 pm for VIP entrance, 2 pm for general tickets, and tickets are on sale today, so make sure you go get your tickets and listen to the next episode. And listen to the next episode. You can find us on YouTube, spotify, apple Podcasts, iheartradio and Amazon, so make sure that you listen to the rest of the episodes, where we'll hear more about what we're finding at Tasting Arcadia. So we will talk to you soon and everyone. Have a great afternoon. Make sure you go grab a cookie. See you soon. Bye, thank you, karen, for another great afternoon.

John Villa

Make sure you go grab a cookie. See you soon. Bye, Thank you, Karen, for another great episode. You can hear us on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music and iHeart Radio. Don't forget, join us on September 13th at Santa Anita Park for Taste of Arcadia. You can get your tickets now at tasteofarcadiacom. Thanks again for joining us for Tasting Arcadia. We'll see you at the Taste.