Meet Annie Matlick of Tucson, Arizona

Today we’d like to introduce you to Annie Matlick.

Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
(This isn’t brief in the slightest, and I so deeply apologize… but it’s a good story.)

My sister planned her wedding for May 4, 2013; she and I decided that I would be her baker. I would make her a giant cupcake and 200 gourmet cupcakes for her wedding, and then I found out I was expecting my first child, due 6/15/2013. Britta arrived on May 28, but there I was 30 something weeks pregnant and baking feverishly for my sister’s wedding. Her guests and our family LOVED the cupcakes – and I HATED my current job (pharmaceuticals…) – so I made the decision to take maternity leave and never go back. I was going to learn how to start a cupcake business. Only cupcakes though – didn’t want to bite off more than I could chew…

First I “doctored” cake mixes, trying out dozens and dozens of cupcake recipes whilst having friends come over to watch the baby while I baked; their reward for babysitting was a delicious fresh batch of cupcakes. I loved it.

It was 2014 when I started “Sweet Bean Cupcakery”; I thought I’d try to expand the business by learning how to advertise, so I reached out to a gal through Tucson Bride and Groom Magazine. I sat down with her to learn more about what it meant to advertise (I was such a baby business), and unbeknownst to me, this woman was very good friends with the owner of Ambrosia of Tucson. She told me to reach out to Jaynie Rossi to pick her brain. I did as I was told, and Jaynie and I chatted for upwards of 3 hours. At the time, my daughter was now 12-15 months old and I had just recently gotten myself a job at our brand new Whole Foods here in Tucson. I was somewhat star-struck by Jaynie and her massive, legendary cake business: *Ambrosia*. But this woman must have seen something in me and she asked me to come work with her in her little condo off of Oracle. Oh – “…and bring your daughter…” I started working mornings with Jaynie, bringing my toddler and caring for her while baking Jaynie’s cakes and mixing giant batches of buttercream, from 8am-1pm, to then finish off my day by taking Britta to a babysitter while I worked 2pm-11pm at the Whole Foods bakery. “Hustling,” if you will.

Jaynie and I were the definition of kismet. She took my little baby baker self and turned me into a deeply determined baker, all while sharing with me her epic wisdom of caking. I owe her so much, it’s ridiculous.

I worked with Jaynie from October 2014 until sometime in the fall of 2015, when I was 7-8 months pregnant with my son, due December 23, 2015. At some point that season, Jaynie got the news that her granddaughter was diagnosed with bone cancer, and she immediately dropped Ambrosia into my hands. She needed to go be grandma. I remember the day Jaynie told me to come over and fix the business email address so that her personal emails would go to a new, entirely different email address – because I would be taking the business email.

Harrison arrived December 11, 2015, about five or so days later.

The next week Jaynie met with us (my husband Scott, one-week-old Harrison, and little 2.5 year-old Britta) at a Verizon to transfer her phone number to me… which was also her personal phone number. Jaynie got herself a new phone number and I then adopted Ambrosia Cakery of Tucson. It was now a giant wedding cake business in my super new but highly capable hands.

Christmastime, Chanukah, end of the year, so many holidays, and probably 20-30 phone calls and voicemails a day. For Ambrosia, as well as for Jaynie. With a newborn and a 2.5 year old. I had no other choice but to jump straight in. Ready or not, right? Luckily, for Tucson, it wasn’t exactly “wedding season” just yet.

In April 2016, the same woman who connected me to Jaynie told me to seek out the yard sale of Marcos Bakery; they had to close down their cake shop and of course sell all of their equipment. “Great — I need equipment, and now I’m going to fill my 1400 sqft house with a giant Hobart mixer and speed rack, sheet trays, etc.”

Owner Jim said to me, “Oh, you’re a baker?” I told him I just took over Ambrosia and the look on his face was relief. He opened his book of future clients who needed cakes and asked for help. I took his clients, I met with them, I consulted with them, I gave them tastings, and I started making wedding cakes literally that weekend. I felt like I had no idea what I was doing; like a brand new teacher, I was trained well but had never stepped foot in the ring.

Jaynie’s voice in my head was always, “Don’t ever say no. You can do anything.”

Six weeks later, the woman who owned Sonia’s Brown Sugar Bakery called me crying and needing help; she needed to get out of town immediately but she had just opened up her 2000 square foot bakery. I couldn’t take the lease on her shop, but I could help take care of her clients in need of cakes. I also purchased major equipment from her; that whole story is for another day 😉

I ended up making a few wedding cakes for her clients for free.

Of course, there were some venues in town who I learned were using these bakeries as their “in house baker.” My motto growing up was “Timing is EVERYTHING.” I adopted Ambrosia at a time where two additional bakeries were going under, all within six months, with a newborn and a toddler, at 28 years old (… with a bachelor’s degree in elementary education from the University of Arizona…).

To say I work my ass off would be an understatement.

I had to learn boundaries between work and personal life.
2020, I pivoted to dessert boxes for pick-up and micro-wedding cakes.
The ebb and flow of business is not lost on me and I hang on for dear life when things get rough; I also consistently send my gratitude to the Universe for the gift of general “job security.”

I LOVE meeting people and joining their journey towards marriage and a lifetime of fun with the loves of their lives. I like to tell my clients I have a really cool job.

I am a true artist at the heart of everything I do – and food is my love language – so the ‘marriage’ of delicious, decadent treats and artistic creation is the most stunning and breathtaking gift of a career I could have ever received. Received yes, but also worked my tail off for.

I finally hired my most amazing assistant, Laura, in 2022. Running a relatively massive wedding cake business alone was one thing, but now having the opportunity to work with someone who works JUST as hard as I do is truly next level.

Twelve years later, here we are. All I want now is a little bakeshop so I can finally get out of the home studio. Dreams shall come true. 🙂

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Do you want the story of how I found Laura, too? … (just in case… here it is… it’s also really fun.)…

In 2016, Arizona Daily Star was doing a Wedding Expo and wanted to do a “Cake Dive Competition!” …for prizes! You would be selected as a couple after getting enough “votes” on your engagement photo on Facebook.

I made the 4-tiered buttercream wedding cake with actual prizes inside, and the winners of said competition had to dig for those prizes with their mouths… hands. behind. your. back.

Laura loved the cake, we met, she loved me (I loved them), the rest is history…

Just kidding. I made their wedding cake in October 2017, and we continued to follow each other on social media.

She lost her management job at Sweet Tomatoes due to COVID, just six months after her daughter was born.

I had some morbid thoughts whilst driving on the I-10 one day and thought, “Oh shit, who would take Ambrosia if I died?”
And for some strange reason, simply because she liked baking and had a really great aura, I thought of Laura.

In March 2022, we met for lunch, she asked if I wanted her resume (I said no), and she started working with me.
Hands down one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. She and I are two peas in a pod, inseparable; we operate like a fine-tuned machine and we wouldn’t have it any other way.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Oh gosh… it’s definitely been a road!

I think as a business owner you have to be prepared for anything, and you have to be willing to do a LOT: take risks, pivot, question everything, set boundaries, learn new things.

I was basically handed an already very well-established business on a silver platter, so I was very blessed to not have to struggle to find clients. I know starting a business from the ground up is an entirely different beast, and I do feel immense gratitude that I was given the chance to pick up where Jaynie left off and make Ambrosia my own.

Most struggles over the last twelve years of baking really stem from my own personal health and growth.

The struggles of work-life balance… making sure that I spend that true, quality time with my family. Because work is at home right now, it’s easy to get caught up in it as it never really goes away. I’ve enjoyed working on the balance and I think we’re doing ok.

As for the future, my challenge is to find the perfect tiny shop in the perfect location where I can hire a team and share more love and joy through delicious cakes and treats to even more of the Tucson community.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I started off thinking gourmet cupcakes were the bees knees (and they were at the time, it was all the rage)… and then I fell in love with wedding cakes.

I specialize in custom wedding cakes: hand mixed, baked from scratch, from the tried and true recipes passed on to me by my incredible predecessor, Jaynie Rossi. She was always determined to sell large tiered cakes to clients that would feed their entire guest count, because “everyone deserves to have the same delicious slice of cake.” I’ve played around with those recipes a tiny bit, but for the most part, things have remained the same. Ambrosia was born 30+ years ago, and what a joy it is to honor it today.

The difference between 2014 and 2025 is how much has changed in the wedding cake and dessert world. Most couples now more than ever are more eager to serve a variety of treats to their loved ones on their special day, so Ambrosia has become masterful in producing gorgeous, abundant dessert tables. They’re typically full of fun bites such as salted chocolate chip cookies, chocolate berry cups filled with Swiss meringue buttercream and fresh berries, fresh churros, and any flavor of macaron you can think of, just to name a few. I’m extraordinarily happy to even make desserts for you that I’ve never made before.

I would hope that I am known for how much I love baking and creating for people. Most people know that baking truly is therapeutic. It really is funny, but baking was never a hobby. I just jumped straight into it as a job, then a full-time career. But most people don’t get to LOVE their career. I get to make beautiful art out of food; what a dream job. I am supremely blessed.

But what I do think I am truly known for right now is those buttercream cactus+succulent cupcakes that you see all over the social medias… I made them once and now I make them every weekend. They are often regarded as “too pretty to eat,” and I honestly love making them. They are incredibly time intensive, but they are worth it.

I am most proud of my commitment to Ambrosia and how far I have come in terms of talent, knowledge, and expertise. I think the thing that sets me apart from others is actually just me. When taking care of my clients, it is very personal to me that my clients have a positive and memorable experience with me, and that they truly enjoy the final product that we have designed and created together.

We love surprises, fun facts and unexpected stories. Is there something you can share that might surprise us?
I am an enormous band nerd. I started playing the flute in 4th grade and then switched to playing the oboe in 6th. Because you can’t march the oboe in the marching band, I added the sousaphone to my list in the 9th grade. In high school, I marched the sousaphone for three years and led the band as their drum major for my senior year. When I got to the University of Arizona, it was a no-brainer to join the epic Pride of Arizona. I marched four years on sousaphone and one year on trombone, and then eventually I ended up marrying the Graduate Teaching Assistant. So nerdy, but literally the most important years of my young adult life. I learned everything I needed to know about time management and work ethic from marching band.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://ambrosiacakestucson.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ambrosiacakestucson/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ambrosiacakestucson

Image Credits
Meredith Amadee
Maggie Brenek
Julie Cate Christman
Steven Hernandez
David Orr
Kristin Bendigo