Kahlúa Cakes Galore!

Some of you might be wondering how this whole Kahlúa cake thing started. Well, you know how they say “necessity is the mother of invention”, here goes. A few years ago, we moved from Miami to St. Simons Island, Georgia. While living in Miami, my husband owned a restaurant and I was a full-time teacher. When we relocated to Georgia, to open another restaurant, the idea was that I would not have a full time job, at least not at first. We moved here with our two children and wanted to make the transition as easy as possible for them. Having left many family members and friends behind in Miami, we both loved the idea of me being a stay at home mom. Opening a new restaurant takes a lot of time, dedication, and many long nights. So having me at home as a constant for them was our decision.

Come our first holiday season here in Georgia and we wanted to give gifts to teachers, friends, clients, etc., as we had always done. However, we were now a one income family with a new business starting out…money for gifts was a little non-existent. So, I decided to bake cakes as gifts. I had made Kahlúa cakes back in Miami when we had friends over and were entertaining, they were always a big hit. They’re delicious and something a little different so I thought that would be a good thing to bake. When people received it, they would tell me how delicious they were. Although I appreciated the compliments, I didn’t know if they were just being polite.

After a couple of weeks, the people I had gifted them to reached out and started asking if they could have more. They were having friends over, is there anyway I could whip up a cake? They were visiting family that weekend, could I make another? They had gifts to give, could I please make a couple of cakes? I started to quickly realize that the compliments were truthful, not just being polite because they continued to ask for cakes over and over. It became a joke that the cakes were like crack – people were getting addicted to them. That was almost five years ago. Since then, every holiday season the amount of cakes I’ve baked has doubled every year. This past year a company reached out asking if I could bake and ship them as corporate gifts. What once started out as an affordable way to give gifts to friends has turned into a legit side hustle. The holidays are definitely my busiest time of the year, but on average I still make a couple of cakes for people monthly. I’ve become known locally as the cake lady and I’m fine with that. Actually more than fine, I own it!