The holidays are near and it’s time to decide what to bring to potlucks and family dinners, it can be a stressful season. If you’re tasked with bringing the dessert, consider Cake My Day. Katherine Castillo is a self-taught cake decorator baking out of her home in South Bossier. She has been baking cakes for around 10 years. 

“I grew up in the kitchen with my mom,” she explained. “I grew up in a Mexican household so we all cooked together. It was great.” 

Castillo’s original plan was to enroll in school to learn the business operations side of things as well as cooking tips to open her own food truck. When she moved to Bossier Parish for a fresh start she enrolled in Bossier Parish Community College’s Culinary Arts program and discovered that she enjoyed the pastry side of the program more than she anticipated. 

“One week I was in charge of decorating cupcakes. I was having so much fun decorating,” she said. “It was relaxing and not stressful and it felt like, ‘Oh this is me. This makes sense to me.’” 

After graduation, she moved to her first pastry venture at Nothing Bundt Cakes where she was a baker for three years. Once she left there, she moved to the Whole Foods Bakery where she made many different pastry options but more memorably, an abundance of Chantilly Cakes. So many that you won’t find them on her menu. 

“I made a billion of them during the holidays,” she laughed. “It was a good experience, though. I got a lot of management experience there and time management and for the holidays I knew how to organize stuff. Now, with holidays at my business, I do very well. I know how to organize.” 

When Castillo left the big chain bakery, everyone was in the middle of the COVID pandemic. She began receiving messages on her bakery Facebook page from people asking her to make their children’s birthday cakes. With Cake My Day being a home bakery following Louisiana’s cottage food laws, she was able to provide that service when many places were shut down. 

“We put stipulations in place like meeting up with a mask on but since no one was getting cakes at grocery stores my business started booming,” she said. 

Aside from her baking business, she is also the wife of a retired airman who was stationed at Barksdale and a mother with two little ones at home. Though some would think working from home with your kids might be a challenge, she is grateful for this phase of life.

“I love it. I usually wake up before my kids wake up and bake and get it out of the way and then when they take their naps, I decorate,” Castillo said. “To me, it just makes sense to do it at home.”

Outside of being able to bake at any time and not worry about going into an office or store, she loves the freedom that comes with owning your own business. 

“I’m my own boss and I can do my own schedule and make a slow week,” she said. “It’s just relaxing and my happy place. I just belong in the kitchen.”

This sense of belonging has allowed her craft to be perfected and given her the opportunity to go full time from home, as well as the chance to adjust her business model to fit her workload and best pricing. 

“I was so cheap when I started out, like $10 for a dozen cupcakes but when you first start you just want to get your name out there,” she said. 

Since then, thanks to her own hard work and help from others sharing her business on Facebook, her page has now grown to over 2,600 likes. She has also created a VIP group full of 882 members where she sells surprise treats and drops her seasonal menu and special pastry boxes. 

One major difference that sets Cake My Day apart from other bakeries is that although her cakes are extremely detailed and decorated, she only uses buttercream icing to create them. 

“The thing with me is that I don’t work with fondant,” she said. “Very rarely I’ll have like a small piece here and there if they want it but I won’t ever cover a full cake in fondant. That’s just not how I decorate so it’s mostly full buttercream.” 

This sets the challenge for her to create not only great tasting cakes but also carefully crafted and planned creations. It’s hard for her to pick a favorite but she’s created a few recently that she has loved.

“I made a cake that looked like a stack of pancakes,” she said. “I was looking at TikTok and they were all fondant cakes and I was trying to figure out how I could make them without using fondant. I was painting on the icing and I was like, ‘This is going to be so bad,’ and I just kept telling myself to trust the process and when I put the syrup on it I was like, ‘This is amazing. This is the best cake I’ve made.’” 

That challenge may have taken the cake but being a cake baker there are occasions that cause a little more stress than others. 

“I feel like wedding cakes are always going to be the most challenging,” she said. “Birthdays are important but wedding cakes you have hundreds of people that will see them. I look back five, seven years ago when I started doing wedding cakes and I was so stressed but now I’m like, ‘Oh I have a wedding cake this weekend,’ I’m more comfortable doing it. I’m so much more confident, thank goodness.” 

If you’re interested in having her create a cake for a special occasion or the holidays, be sure to visit her Facebook page where you can reach out via messenger. From there, she’ll be able to give you her full flavor menu and discuss serving size and details of decorating. 

Currently, she offers around eight flavors and simple filling options. She does offer seasonal flavors for the holidays but she tries to keep the options straightforward. 

“I keep things pretty simple because it makes things easier on everybody,” she said. “If you’re good at the simple stuff, that works for me. People don’t get overwhelmed with a menu of 20 flavors and fillings.” 

Outside of the cakes, her favorite thing to bake is the treats for her treat boxes. This gives her a break and allows her the opportunity to try a new recipe. One of the most common things people will reach out to order are her Gooey Butter Bars. 

“I’ve had that recipe forever, I don’t even need the recipe anymore. I know it like the back of my hand,” she laughed. “I feel like baking the treats and all the desserts is my favorite so I can switch it up.” 

The people of Bossier have supported her business throughout the years and during all seasons and for that she’s grateful.

“People can choose to go anywhere and they choose to come to me,” she said. “I love it.” 

The long term goal for Castillo would be to have her own bakery. Depending on the location and phase of life for her children, she’d like to have one in the next five to 10 years. 

Her piece of advice for those that are wanting to make a career out of their passion is to never give up.

“Don’t get discouraged. Keep tagging yourself or have people tag you, it’ll happen. If you can find one thing to set you apart, and find something that you love and stick it out, it’ll happen,” she said. “I didn’t think I was ever going to do this full time.” 

Support local during the holiday season and let Cake My Day make your day!