Today we’d like to introduce you to Nicole Reynolds.
Hi Nicole, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
I have been a professional cake decorator for over 26 years. I first learned to decorate a cake when I was 18years old at a local grocery store bakery. I have always had a passion for creativity and decorating cakes and decided to enroll in a culinary institute in 2019. After graduation I decided I wanted to teach entry level cake decorating since I noticed there was a need but not a lot of affordable options for this specific trade. I was offered an opportunity to teach this course at my local YMCA at the end of 2019 and then Covid hit early 2020 causing my plans to be put on hold. During this time I was also the head cake decorator at a local naval base in San Diego where I worked for 6 years before and after Covid. Once Covid seem to pass in 2023 I decided to try again at my cake decorating teaching idea. Only this time my son suggested to add a a fun twist of a “Cake & Sip” type class similar to a paint and sip experience. So I opened “Cake & Sip San Diego” in June of 2023. We teach cake decorating like a paint and sip experience only our guest learn to decorate a cake instead of a painting. Fast forward 2 years later to 2025 and we are still going strong. I have a wonder team that work with us to assist with teaching classes and assisting with events. We also allow youth and students to intern with us for work experience and to shocase their own talents. We have a huge target audience and have hosted hundreds of events each year included private classes, large corporate team building events, holiday parties, kids parties, school classes, and mobile events of various themes. We are located in Mission Valley but we also host mobile events as well.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Its definitely been a learning experience along the way. I’m thankful that we have grown in many ways over the past couple of years and have many ways of expanding in the future. We do have certain time of year that a much busier than other such as the holiday times so we have found creative ways to keep business flowing in the slower months by offering customs cake orders, renting out our party equipment such as our dessert carts and slushie machines.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I am so proud that I was able to take a dream vision and bring to life. It makes me so happy to see our guests having so much fun at our events and also learning a new skill that they can use. Our experience is so unique where our guests can come and we do all the work so they can sit a relax and have a good time with their friends , family or coworkers. We are the only business in San Diego to exclusively offer this experience. We also giveback through out the year to various locations such as the Ronald McDonald House and local schools by offering free classes and holiday events.
What are your plans for the future?
Our future plans would include owning our own brick and motar location where we can have a bakery and event space.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.CakeandSipSanDiego.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cakeandsipsd/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100090863576064#
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/cake-and-sip-san-diego-san-diego
