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Check out Danielle Lechuga’s Artwork

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Today we’d like to introduce you to Danielle Lechuga.

Danielle, we’d love to hear your story and how you got to where you are today both personally and as an artist.
I have always enjoyed art. Since I was 16 I had a reputation in my family for great desserts and would occasionally jazz up my cakes by decorating them with a bit of piped buttercream or small fondant flowers, I didn’t know anything about baking cakes from scratch or tier support at this point however when I was asked by a cousin to make a large bridal shower cake in 2010 I did some research to make sure I did it correctly. I made a 3-tier cake with purple fondant flowers, silver dragees and ribbon and It turned out pretty good! This is when my love for cake art began, I got lots of requests from people who had attended the party. With each cake I made my craft was becoming better in both taste and design, I found myself busy every weekend with 3 to 5 cakes, at this point I decided it was time to charge for my cakes and opened my home based custom cake business Cup’N Cake. I found that I had a knack for sculpting fondant figurines and realized that I could expand my business by selling fondant cake toppers on Etsy.com. Since then I have shipped toppers across the U.S. and all over the world to places like Tokyo, Australia and Canada. I realized that cake can be almost anything, it truly is art and can even inspire others, I discovered a world of creativity and enjoyed creating designs I could call my own. My work has been featured on the covers of Cake Masters and Cake Central magazine, and in Cake Decoration and Sugar craft Magazine, as well as talked about in popular cake blogs such as American Cake Decorating, Satin Ice and more.

In 2016 I was selected to be on Food networks Cake Wars. I also recently won first place at the San Diego cake show in the expert category. and recently I had the wonderful opportunity to travel to Scotland to film cake tutorials for Paul Bradford’s online Sugar craft school which was a wonderful experience! Cake art has become my passion, and I love the challenge of making something new, trying new techniques and also sharing them with others by teaching classes, selling online tutorials as well as inspiring other bakers through my YouTube channel. I feel so blessed that though this gift I have met so many amazing artists, traveled and was even able to compete on television, I am a natural introvert but have grown so much though cake art! Who knew this art could open so many possibilities!

We’d love to hear more about your art. What do you do you do and why and what do you hope others will take away from your work?
My art is edible but that is what makes it special, it can be enjoyed in more than seeing, it can be tasted! Cakes are made for celebrations and I love that the cake is part of how special that occasion is! There’s nothing wrong with a store-bought cake but a custom cake is more than just a cake, it’s a delicious dessert, a centerpiece and something to be talked about at the party/event, when it’s personalized it brings people to tears, laughter and excitement! What I do makes it possible to have your art and eat it too!

Artists face many challenges, but what do you feel is the most pressing among them?
One of the biggest challenges for cake artists is being paid for their work. Many potential clients don’t realize the time and money it takes to create a custom cake, there are many hours spent buying supplies usually from 3 or 4 places, custom coloring, hand sculpting and cutting, of course baking and even the clean-up. On average for even a small 6-inch cake it takes a minimum of 5 to 7 hours to make. Lots of cake artists don’t add up the cost of ingredients or time it takes to make a custom cake when first starting out. Just about everyone makes that mistake and after a year or two they either need to drastically raise prices or they quit because it’s so time consuming and there is no income to support that. There are tons of artists who do beautiful work and don’t charge correctly, its usually because they love creating but it becomes a very expensive hobby.

I hope to inspire other cake artist who have their own business to figure out their pricing, when people think a two-tier custom cake should be one or even two hundred dollars they do not know that it probably took around 8 to 14 hours to make and cost $40.00 to $80.00 in ingredients for a home-based business. It’s true we may not have as much overhead as a bakery but we do have costs such as higher electricity, cake supplies and tools, insurance, licensing and wear and tear on their vehicles. The problem with the customers who want custom cakes so inexpensive is that they have been taught that by our mistakes and cake makers who are okay with making less than a minimum wage for their work with no profit to ever expand their business. I hope that we can make customers aware of the time and cost and that more would appreciate the skill and time it takes. This business has too many starving artists but my hope is to help that change.

Do you have any events or exhibitions coming up? Where would one go to see more of your work? How can people support you and your artwork?
My work can be seen on my Facebook page at www.facebook.com/cupncake1, instagram.com/cupncake1, etsy.com/shop/cupncake1, www.youtube.com/c/CupNCakeOfficial, and on my website www.cupncakedesigns.com. If you’re interested in learning cake art you can purchase my detailed tutorials on https://gumroad.com/cupncake/follow My work can be supported by ordering a custom cake or topper, sharing my work on social media and even by subscribing, liking or commenting on my YouTube channel.

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Danielle Lechuga

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