Natty Cakes – Natalie Brown

#035 – Today we are speaking with Natalie Brown from Natty Cakes – a locally sourced bakery. Natalie specializes in buttercream cakes perfect for all milestone events. Weddings are her entry point, but then she becomes entrenched in her clients’ lives.

“So it’s amazing. I get to be a part of people’s lives, usually starting at the wedding, which is so cool and so grand. And typically there’s a bond that’s formed over that. And then I get to celebrate when it’s their partner’s birthday, when they have a baby. And so it’s definitely a lot more personal than I would’ve ever imagined running a business would be”.

Natalie always wanted to be a baker – her first job was at a bakery. Instead of going to culinary school, she studied business at SF State and baked wedding cakes on the side. She started Natty Cakes fresh out of college 10 years ago though she did not envision what it would become.

She thought she wanted a regular local corporate clientele and she was on her way to doing just that, but then the pandemic hit. She was pregnant and she needed to scale back a little bit and she started to see a different vision for the business. Now, she runs the business out of a live/work space in Emeryville with a certified kitchen. Her husband works a 9-5, but dives into the business on nights and weekends.

“…so moving the business into my home kind of changed a lot. It really allowed me to focus back on the aspects that I have a lot of passion for.”

“There is something really special about re-centering myself around the business and making sure that it’s headed in the direction that I want versus a direction that it’s just being pulled.”

Be sure to listen to the whole interview to hear about Natalie’s appearance on a TV baking competition show.