Cakes Reanimated working on a brick-and-mortar location

Her sun-washed kitchen evokes an ice-cream parlor with its white walls and black-and-white checkerboard floor, but the rolling tool chest and stainless-steel industrial cart start to tell more of Becky Brown�s Cakes Reanimated story.

Brown has worked as a professional in-home baker of special-occasion cakes for six years, and along the way, she�s accumulated clients � and a lot of specialty equipment.

She goes for a bit of a midcentury retro feel with industrial touches, �kind of rockabilly,� she said, aimed squarely at her demographic: brides and �cool moms.�

Brown purchased the brick-and-mortar location for Cakes Reanimated at 720 Themis St. in Cape Girardeau last year, and she�s spent several months securing permits and getting the house situated so she can open up � she hopes within six months.

That depends on funding.

She�s working on a crowd-funded capital campaign, and held an open house Friday evening to give people a taste of what she�s planning.

Brown�s interest in cake decorating stems from her time working at Dairy Queen as a teenager, and her supervisor suggested she take a Wilton-method cake-decorating class.

She did her first wedding cake at age 19 or 20, she said, and studied oil painting at Southeast Missouri State University.

�I discovered cakes before I graduated,� she said.

And ever since, she�s been working from her home, baking and decorating Thursday and Friday, then delivering to events Saturday or Sunday.

Brown said once the bakery at 720 Themis opens, she�ll have two other workers with her, Amanda Rhodes and Autumn Abernathy, and keep her operating hours set at about three or four days a week.

Brown said she does everything from scratch.

�My cakes are really dense,� she said. �All quality ingredients, buttercream frosting � when I carry them, my cakes make my arms shake.�

Buttercream flowers are her specialty, she said, and she loves to use hand-painting techniques.

�Oil painting is my medium,� she said.

Her cake stands run the gamut from small, short pieces designed to elevate cupcakes, to a square stand bedecked with chandelier crystals, to a stand with an elephant for a base.

The house is already zoned commercial, Brown said, but there are some upgrades that need to happen before the kitchen will pass inspection.

Bigger sinks, a proper mop sink, plumbing work and better flooring are among the changes needed, Brown said.

She already has a security system in place, she said.

She�ll likely be selling the trailer she bought before the house became available, thinking she�d have a food truck.

�I didn�t think having a brick and mortar would happen this fast,� she said.

In April 2016, Brown graduated from the LaunchU program at the Economic and Business Engagement Center at the university.

It was the same week as Cape Comic Con, she said, where she always has a booth, and she was stressed out about the pitch competition.

Which she won.

Her prize included legal advice, some cash, a marketing package � all of which helped her feel like a legitimate business, she said.

She�s crowdfunding the capital to get her business up and running because she�s trying to avoid having to take out loans, she said, and in the meantime, she�s still taking custom orders for events.

Brown said she loves the business community in Cape Girardeau � �small businesses feeding each other,� as she put it.

She gets occasional referrals from other bakers, she said, and believes in the importance of being friendly with others in her field.

�There is plenty of business for all of us,� she added.

She gestures to the two full-size refrigerators in the kitchen, and mentions the other refrigerator and deep-freeze.

�It�s still not enough room,� she said.

�I�ve invested quite a lot,� she said. �The first four or five years, I was pouring my profit back into buying supplies.�

She�s making a living wage now, she said, but by far her favorite part of what she does is, yes, the creative freedom, but more than that, �it�s the ability to be unapologetically me.�

Yes, her logo is her depicted as a zombie baker, but, she said, aside from the more gory overtones, reanimation is about renewal and rebirth � something she�s thrilled to bring her clients in cake form.

mniederkorn@semissourian.com

(573) 388-3630