Today we’d like to introduce you to Isabella Pulido.
Hi Isabella, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
The journey that brought me to dog baking began back home in Mexico. Me and my mom had a small baking business that was helping me save up for college. I moved to LA and began my degree in visual arts at Santa Monica College, which then led me to UCSD. I adopted Legolas back in LA at NKLA and he immediately became the most important thing in my life. I try to make his birthdays special every time and since his favorite things to do are sunbathe, nap, and eat I would get him a cake for his birthday every year at the farmer’s market and we’d spend the day by the sun eating cake. When we moved to San Diego, I was having a hard time finding something similar for him. I figured my baking knowledge could come in handy, so I began working on my dog cake recipes. At the time I was working designer retail, so when the pandemic started, I was stuck at home with too much free time and anxiety. I decided to start taking baking classes online to keep my creativity flowing during this time. Little did I know that would create a whole new path for mine and Legolas’ life. Covid really highlighted what made me happy even in the midst of chaos, so I kept baking. I know I am extremely privileged to have had the opportunity to take such a horrible time in history and try to create something meaningful from it, so I never want to take it for granted. Once I had experimented more with human baked goods and all the decoration processes something clicked in my mind. If I could find a way to create equally fun and beautiful treats for dogs, I could make their special days even more exciting. I really wanted to highlight that our pets are our family, and they, too, deserve to be celebrated big. I decided to open an Instagram page to post all my baking, and that’s where Ciera Chang from Puppy Picnic Co found my dog cakes. She has been the biggest support I could’ve asked for. She makes beautiful dog-friendly picnics, and she started offering my dog cakes for anybody celebrating a birthday for their pups. Everything took off after that. I kept creating and having fun with different treats, and now we have pup macarons, donuts, personalized cookies, pupsicles, pies, cakes, you name it.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not, what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
The biggest struggle since I started was juggling my full-time job with my baking business. It’s hard to be so passionate about a project but being restricted with how many hours you’re able to put into it. On the other hand, this whole journey has been the most beautiful and fulfilling thing for my soul. The amount of support from friends, family, and colleges has been overwhelming in the best way possible. Most of my friends don’t even have dogs, yet they’re there every single time to help me out with all my pop-ups and big orders. Even though my family is away, they always find a way to support and encourage me to keep going. Not to mention all the fellow creatives and entrepreneurs I’ve met along the way. They push me to show up as a better version of myself every single time, and seeing them grow makes me so excited for all of us.
Thanks – so, what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I grew up in a family of painters. My mom particularly was a renowned impressionist painter in Mexico. So, I grew up watching her work with thick brush strokes and palette knives. When I started the small baking business back home, I realized I could use the frosting and palette knives to imitate painting. That definitely transitioned to my artistic career. Most of my works had heavy, smooth strokes all over, and not long after that, I was carving wood like I would a cake. I now often find myself finding pieces of those skills in my baking. I treat every treat as an individual work of art, no matter how big or tiny. Everything I create is in a way an extension of me, so I really want everybody to feel special when purchasing their Azúcar & Spices treats. I think what I’m most proud of is how people and dogs that have had my treats before still recognize them every time. Which to me is an indication they enjoyed them and that’s all that matters.
Is there any advice you’d like to share with our readers who might just be starting out?
If you can’t stop thinking about it, do it. Don’t forget to rest and set realistic boundaries but keep going. It definitely takes time, but I truly believe if you do anything with genuine passion, people will notice, and you’ll find support and community in that. There will always be ups and downs, but the ups are worth everything. And if it doesn’t work out, trust that it might be a blissful lesson that will help immensely on your next endeavor.
Contact Info:
Image Credits
Erin Wiese
Briana Lee
