Rising Stars: Meet Victoria Thompson

Today we’d like to introduce you to Victoria Thompson.

Hi Victoria, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself. 
I started Honeycomb Pastries at the height of COVID-19 when my job at the time didn’t have full hours for me. It started off a little slow – small orders here or there which allowed me to dip my toes into starting my own business (mind you, at the beginning, I was also working two other jobs at the same time).

Not too long after starting Honeycomb, I received an offer to sell pastries out of a newly remodeled Mix Flagstaff (or Mix 2.0, as all of us in the building like to call it). This not only gave me a much more public-facing storefront at the Mix but also gave me access to a commercial kitchen which allowed me to continue growing my custom cake business.

Mix had this awesome concept to showcase local small businesses in Flagstaff, anything from local coffee, tea, handmade soaps, and reusable makeup wipes, along with my pastries. I was extremely intimidated at first as I was new to the small business world and continuously experienced imposter syndrome.

Almost three years from that first conversation about selling pastries at Mix to now, I have grown from having two to three full-time/part-time jobs at any given time to solely focusing on Honeycomb Pastries, bringing on an employee, and continuously having booked-out dates. I’m excited to continue growing and seeing where my custom cakes and pastries take me.

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?
I can’t say that anything about me has ever been smooth, so not exactly. My mother always called me a “diamond in the rough”, and though I’m sure she didn’t know what was in store for my future, it’s been very fitting all the same. In the four years of running Honeycomb Pastries, I’ve experienced a lot of growing pains.

Looking back now they seem minuscule, but I remember some of them being earth-shattering. As I mentioned earlier, there was the juggling of jobs to trying to make a living while also trying to grow a business, and like any business owner can attest, a lot of really long days.

I remember counting how many days I had worked in a row before the stars aligned, and I was able to have a day off that did not involve any other job or emails, and I could disconnect from it all ( I think I got to 63…?). I am continuously working on the ever-elusive “work-life balance” that I hear so many talk about, but I do believe I’m getting closer.

In the past four years, I have experienced a house fire, renovating a new home, engaged life, my old friend “depression” popping in for a visit, relieving a beloved pet of its pain, planning my wedding, pulling myself out of depression, losing a job that was my main source of income, and throwing all of my time, passion and energy into Honeycomb Pastries in the hope that I can make this my only source of income. It has been a bumpy four years, but I’m still here grinding and putting my creative energies into making something that will be treasured by others.

The road may not have been smooth, and there obviously have been some bumps (more like potholes), but there has also been so much growth and beauty. I have had such amazing support to keep cheering me on to continue to do what I love, so I thank those for that and for sticking with me. After all, trees grow strong in contrary winds, and diamonds are made under pressure.

Thanks – so, what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
You can find my daily pastries at Mix Flagstaff, located in Old Town Shops, but my passion is custom cakes. Cakes allow me more creative freedom than a croissant or cinnamon roll that you can find in the Mix case. The majority of my custom cake orders are celebration cakes: birthday, graduation, engagement, 1st birthday smash cakes, gender reveal, etc., but over the last couple of years, I have been getting more into the wedding world.

You can find my information on multiple vendor lists around town. Or sometimes a client really just wants a cake for no reason at all other than to have something beautiful to look at and then eat.

I’d have to say I’m proud of my growth and perseverance. Whether that growth is forced on me (having to learn from a bad client or a mistake I’ve made), or voluntary (learning new techniques or using different tools to reach a desired look). Preferences and trends are always changing, and I will always have to shift what I’m used to or comfortable doing in order to keep up and stay relevant to what is in demand.

Along with my daily pastries and custom cakes, I can also create delicious gluten-free and vegan desserts. I grew up with a gluten allergy, so I know what it feels like having to hunt down a specific product or local shop in town that can accommodate my allergen needs, and I love being able to offer that as an option for clients who need it.

What matters most to you? Why?
I could go on all day about how family is most precious to me and how, at the end of the day, my husband, family, and friends will be the one constant in this ever-changing life, which I fully believe and agree with wholeheartedly, but I’d like to shift this question instead to the relation of my business: I could also go on about how clients matter the most to me and without clients there would be no Honeycomb Pastries.

Again, this is accurate, but at the end of the day, the most important thing to my business is that I am proud of what I’ve created. Maybe I’ve tried a new technique that I was unsure of, but the end result was worth it. Perhaps I have a repeat design that with my growth, the design is leveled up from the last time I created it. I continue to learn from other creatives, take classes to step up piping techniques, or invest in tools that will help me achieve a desired effect.

I cannot reiterate this enough: you never stop learning. Any time I left a job, it was because I felt I could no longer gain anything from it. If you ever believe that you truly have learned it all, then you’re sorely wrong. There is always more to research, more recipe testing, or decorating techniques, and if you’re not learning it all, someone else is.

Pricing:

• 1 dozen cupcakes- base price $50
• 6″ serves 8-12- base price $80
• 8″ serves 16-20- base price $120
• 6″ + 8″ – serves 40- base price $250
• 4″ + 6″ + 8″ serves 46 -base price $276

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.honeycombpastries.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/honeycombpastries/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/honeycombpastriesflg/
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/honeycomb-pastries-flagstaff