Hidden Gems: Meet Lara Arnold of Lara’s Cakes and Bakes

Today we’d like to introduce you to Lara Arnold

Hi Lara, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
I have been baking since I was a kid. I grew up with my mom making almost everything from scratch, so I learned from a young age how to bake and cook. I loved baking treats for my loved ones, and I found joy in seeing their smiles when they’d receive the treats. Then in high school and into college, I worked at a local frozen custard shop. I made many items there, but one of my favorite tasks was decorating their ice cream cakes. I had a lot of fun doing that.

Then while at college, I kept feeling the pull to attend culinary school. My junior year I did some interviews with a culinary school in New York. I was scared of dropping out halfway through college, and of having to start over. I ended up deciding to just stick it out with the traditional university, but my love for baking only continued to grow.

Over the years I continued to bake for my coworkers, friends, and family. I loved to try new recipes and learn new techniques. When the pandemic happened and we all had to stay at home and not go into the office, I really missed baking for my coworkers. I wanted to find a way to lift their spirits and to connect. So I baked various treats and did porch drop offs all over the KC metro area. A few of my coworkers were vegan, and I didn’t want them to feel left out. This is what began my venture into vegan baking.

I tested a few vegan recipes out, and the chocolate chip cookies that I gave my coworkers are now one of my staple vegan items over four years later. Along with finding substitutions for vegan baking, I started to explore gluten-free baking. I have Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, and I researched different diets to help with my symptoms. There are mixed reports on whether removing gluten will help people with Hashimoto’s, but I wanted to try it and see it it helped.

I found that when I ate less gluten, I felt better. I already knew this about dairy too. So I ventured into gluten-friendly baked goods. Then I started to combine both vegan and gluten-free baked items.

I started my baking business as a cottage baker and then made it an official business in 2023. I joined the Blue Springs Farmers Market in the fall of 2023, and I was there almost every single weekend for the 2024 season. 2024 has been a big year for my baking business. We moved into a commercial kitchen space at the beginning of the year, and leaned more into gluten-friendly baking as I found more and more customers searching for delicious gluten-free baked goods. It is now the basis of my business. This summer I began to provide gluten-free baked goods to two local cafes, The Bean Counter Cafe in Blue Springs and The Fillmore Cafe in Unity Village. Next year we will continue to be in these cafes, and I will be in two new play cafes that are opening in the area. I am hoping to have some limited store hours starting in the new year, and will be offering baking classes and other exciting new ventures.

I began my business with the focus on custom cakes and desserts for parties and weddings. Making custom decorations with modeling chocolate, fondant, and buttercream. Watching cake decorating shows has always been one of my favorite past times, and I was so excited to turn that dream into a reality. I still make custom cakes and goodies, and have had the pleasure of making the cakes for many weddings this year. However I was pleasantly surprised with how my wholesale business has blossomed this year. It grew in a way that I wasn’t anticipating, and I am excited to see it grow. I have really enjoyed meeting so many people at vendor events and at the farmers market. It’s so great meeting people and seeing the smiles on their faces when they enjoy your baked goods. Hearing someone say, “You would never know this was gluten-free” is one of my favorite things to hear.

I am so grateful for my customers and support system. I would not have been able to grow my business so quickly without all of the support I have at home and at events. This entire time I have still had my other full-time job as a web designer, and I have officially made the leap and my last day at my “normal 9-5” will be the end of this year. I will be all in on my baking business come January. So here is to hopefully getting more than three hours of sleep, and to baking during the day and not until 2 in the morning.

One of my goals is to have a storefront or a space where anyone can come to enjoy my baked goods and to relax and feel safe and at home.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Time has been one of the biggest challenges. I have still had my full-time job while putting in full-time hours at night with my baking business, and then also having a spouse and a toddler. Finding time for everything has been very difficult and it has come to a head. Which is why I am stepping away from my web designer job at the end of the year, and focusing fully on my baking business and my family.

My son also had some health challenges this year which had us in and out of the hospital often for treatments for him. He is thankfully all better, but it was a scary four months. Trying to keep up with both jobs (web design and baking), while also being a mom to a sick kid was challenging.

There were growing pains with moving into a kitchen space that wasn’t at home. I found it hard to be away from my family for so many hours at a time. Especially since my child would be at daycare during the day while my spouse and I both worked our other jobs, and then I would go to the kitchen at night to bake. My family have been real troopers this year as we have figured this all out.

Also using a commercial oven vs a regular oven at home had a learning curve too. It ran much hotter, and I had to adjust baking times and temps for all of my recipes.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
One of my top sellers at the local cafes and at my vendor events are my gluten-free vegan oatmeal raisin cream pie sandwiches. I make my own vegan buttercream and the cookies are from a recipe I developed. The cookies have a slight chew when cold and just melt in your mouth when they’re room temperature. They’re allergen friendly and so indulgent. I try and keep one at home in the fridge during the week for my weekly treat to snack on.

I make everything from scratch. My pop-tarts are also a recipe that I developed this year. I went through various recipe tests until I came up with the pastry dough for my pop-tarts. They are a big seller at my events and at the cafes. I currently offer these flavors: Brown Sugar Cinnamon, Hazelnut Spread (Nutella), Chocolate Fudge, Mixed Berry, Strawberry, and Pumpkin Pie.

My double crumble coffee cake and large macarons are also some of my more popular items. I get a kick out of when people see the size of my macarons for the first time. They’re always so surprised with how large they are. I like to make them larger so that you can share them more easily, and they’re just fun when they’re big. I do offer them in other sizes too. I make a variety of macaron flavors: Pistachio Raspberry, Raspberry Lemonade, Red Velvet, Strawberry, Blueberry Lemon, Vanilla with Chocolate, Coffee, Caramel Cinnamon Dolce, Vanilla Cheesecake, Strawberry Cheesecake, Coconut Caramel, PB&J, and other seasonal flavors like Pumpkin Spice Latte.

In terms of your work and the industry, what are some of the changes you are expecting to see over the next five to ten years?
I think that more people will be going into allergy friendly baking and all natural baking. I have a few clients who have ordered all natural food coloring birthday cakes from me the last two years. I have more and more customers requesting alternatives for their baked goods. Like for sugar free items and for vegan items. I do think that there will be more people venturing into baking that is considered more niche right now.

Pricing:

• $5.50 each gluten-free pop-tart
• $4 each large macaron
• $7 each gluten-free vegan oatmeal raisin cream pie sandwich

Contact Info:

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