Meet Samantha Slade of Valhalla Cakes in Berkeley

Today we’d like to introduce you to Samantha Slade.

Samantha, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I grew up in bakeries that my dad owned in Chicago, which is where my love for baking started. I have also always been an artist, as long as I can remember.

I attended the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where I majored in sculpture and illustration, but dropped out because I wasn’t sure what to do with my life.

I had a brief desire to become a pastry chef and was looking into pastry school when a family friend recommended that instead of school, I intern at a bakery to get a feel for it.

At the first bakery I worked at, I had no idea that people were using artistic skills on cakes and I was immediately in love with it. I worked at a few places in Chicago before I moved here in 2011 and worked at Le’ Bakery Sensual for about four years. I finally decided to go my own route and noticed our neighborhood was lacking a custom cake shop. We’ve been here for three years and are busy as ever. I learned from working at multiple bakeries to outsource the baking of the cakes to leave time for the artistic side which is what we do at our location, and The Noshery is in charge of baking all of the delicious cakes and cupcakes.

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Honestly, we have been very lucky in terms of growth. I started selling cookies at farmers markets with books of photos of our cakes. Word of mouth has been huge for us, along with Google and Yelp reviews.

The only struggle we seem to have is that we are off the beaten path of Tennyson St., so you have to know who we are to find us.

Valhalla Cakes – what should we know? What do you do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
Valhalla Cakes is a custom cake shop. We specialize in specialty designed cakes for birthdays, baby showers, weddings, and any other special occasion. I am most proud that our customers come to us because of our artistry and attention to detail. What sets us apart from other cake shops is how custom and original our cakes can be. We work hard to make sure that your cake is a highlight of your party.

What is “success” or “successful” for you?
For me, success is that we are one of the most sought after cake shops in the area. We are a small team of myself and one other cake artist. We are not looking to mass produce. We find joy in every cake we create and have the ability to have our day to day function this way while maintaining success. To have enough time with each cake and also, time for our personal lives outside of our careers, to me feels successful.

Contact Info:

• Address: Valhalla Cakes
  4426 Tennyson St
  Denver, Co 80212
• Website: www.valhallacakeshop.com
• Phone: 303-619-5952
• Email: Valhallacakeshop@gmail.com
• Instagram: @Valhallacakes
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ValhallaCakeShop/
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/valhalla-cakes-denver

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