Today we’d like to introduce you to Zhi-Ning Liang.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Zhi-Ning. So, let’s start at the beginning, and we can move on from there.
I got the first taste of cake decorating when I took a class by Wilton over ten years ago. Back then it was just a hobby, to satisfy both my desire to bake and to “make art.”
Then I got completely hooked in 2014 when I made my first four tier wedding cake for one of my best friends. It involved so much more work and planning than anything I’d done before that.
I’ve since grown this “hobby” into a small business operating from my home kitchen, making custom cakes for all celebration occasions.
Has it been a smooth road?
Definitely not. I struggled a lot finding my own style that makes my work different. You start out taking any order you can get, with whatever the client wants. But you end up being all over the place as a cake designer. I’ve gotten much better, but I still have a lot of work on that – always trying to improve my skills and fine tune what I do best.
Plus, I still work full time during the week as a software engineer, and I’m also a mom to a 3-year-old girl. So the number of orders I can take in any given month is very limited. I do all my cake work after 8:30 pm, and it can be quite daunting to do a massive pile of dishes at 1 o’clock in the morning!
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Lalaland Cakes story. Tell us more about the business.
My business provides custom celebration cakes for all occasions. I specialize in minimalistic, delicate hand painted designs using edible paint. I’d like to think that my cakes are delicious edible works of art.
How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
I think the cake industry is always evolving, like any other industry. Cake trends (especially wedding cakes) are always changing, and the expectations are getting higher.
Instagram and Pinterest now serve as an infinite catalog of products for people, as opposed to, say, flipping through a portfolio book at a local bakery. It’s exciting because this helps elevate everyone’s game – now you can get inspired by and learn from any cake artist in the world!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://lalalandcakes.com
- Email: zhining@lalalandcakes.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lalalandcakes.sd/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lalalandcakes.sd/
Image Credit:
Chris Wojdak Photography
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