Sam hard at work in the kitchen. Photo by Joanie Ferguson.
By Chelsea Bass, Joanie Ferguson, Rachel Hill and Britini Shaw
There’s a star on the rise. Young entrepreneurial UT sophomore, Sam Cade, has managed to bake and sell hundreds of cakes out of her high-rise apartment, filling a niche many would not expect from a busy college student.
“I started off making them for my friends and then I was doing it for a bunch of people,” Cade said.
The 20-year-old Business Management major says that she could “live off dessert and breakfast food,” and has had a sweet tooth ever since she could remember, which is what sparked her love of making cakes.
Her love of baking was further solidified when she started working at Tart Bakery in Dallas at 16. During her time at the bakery, she performed small cake decorating tasks and took orders, and from there eventually started making cakes for her friends.
“When I got to college, I never expected it to take off as much as it did,” she said of her business, Cade’s Cakes.
Once she started posting pictures of her homemade cakes on Instagram, her popularity skyrocketed. She went from 400 followers to a little over 2,600 in a matter of a year.
Her prices have gradually increased as well. She went from charging $20 per cake, which didn’t turn a profit, to charging anywhere from $50 to $70 per cake.
She says it’s hard balancing school and baking, and admits that her grades have suffered a bit, but, “It’s what I love to do,” Cade said.
Her daily schedule includes waking up at 7 a.m. and baking cakes until her class at noon. When she gets out of class, she goes back to her apartment to decorate the cakes. Then she uses the little time she has left to study.
“I bake a dozen cakes a week, but I also turn down a dozen,” she said.
She manages to squeeze in a healthy social life, but says she often doesn’t sleep after she comes home from a party and bakes until the morning. She uses her own recipes that she cultivated three years prior while in high school.
“My friends surprised me with a Netflix-themed cake for my birthday,” Kathryn Hanson, UT sophomore said. “I was so surprised that it actually tasted good. It looked too good to eat.”
She has business cards, personalized stickers for her cake boxes, and her own website where customers submit cake orders. She also has a food handler’s permit for legal purposes.
A day in the life of Sam Cade
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- One of Sam’s logos accompanied by cooling chocolate cakes. Photo by JF.
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- A few baking tools needed for the cakes. Photo by JF.
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- Rolling out the fondant. Photo by JF.
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- Icing the fondant before applying to the cake. Photo by BS.
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- Hot and fresh out of the oven! Photo by JF.
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- Cut outs of the edible pictures before they are put on the cake. Photo by JF.
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- Pictures on the cake, ready for decorating. Photo by JF.
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- Sam takes her time adding Beyonce to the cake. Photo by BS.
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- Queen Bey looking fierce on the cake. Photo by BS.
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- Customizable options with pictures and fondant colors. Photo by JF.
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- Finished product! Photo by BS.
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- It’s all in the details… Precision is key. Photo by JF.
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- Sam hard at work in the kitchen. Photo by JF.
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- All boxed up and ready to eat! Photo by BS.
She says she can pretty much make anything, and does, from cakes shaped like liquor bottles for 21st birthdays to fairy castles for a child’s birthday party.
When she graduates, from UT, she plans on attending a 10-month pastry school program at the International Culinary Institute in New York and then opening her own bakery in Dallas. But in the meantime, she seems excited to have expanded her word-of-mouth business.
Though Cade is busier than she might like, those who have seen her cakes probably wouldn’t be surprised to see her with her own show on the Food Network in the coming years.
A sample from Sam Cade’s Instagram
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- A Sam Cade original
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- Donut anyone?
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- Netflix-themed cake
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- Minion love
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- Breaking Bad
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- Fiesta time!
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- Friends
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- Sushi
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- Cheeseburger cupcake
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- Rainbow cake
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- Chocolate overload
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- Rainbow sprinkled macaroons
For more information on Cade’s Cakes click the image below to check out her website.
Imagine you’re out with friends one night and you see someone across the room that catches your eye. Do you walk up to them and strike a conversation? The fear of rejection is a natural instinct humans have and for some, online dating diminishes that fear. “There’s a silent understanding because on OkCupid you list what you want like casual dating or casual sex,” said Hope Peterson, a senior at The University of Texas at Austin. Peterson registered for OkCupid last December after some of her friends started using it. “I thought why don’t I give this a shot?” she said. “I’ve never been good at meeting people randomly. I’m a commuter student. I live in Georgetown with my parents so it’s hard to go out.” OkCupid is one of 2,500 online dating websites in the country and 5,000 in the world, according to online dating magazine. eHarmony is another internet dating site that boasts one of the highest success rates. Bily Estrada, a culinary student at The Art Institute of Austin, uses this service.
“eHarmony helps you start a conversation,” Estrada said. “The lack of my social life, with work and school it’s hard to maintain… I can do [online dating] on my own time. I think I’ve done enough of the fling stuff. I want to find something meaningful.” Clinical psychologist Dr. Neil Clark Warren launched eHarmony as an online tool to match men and women for long-term relationships according to the eHarmony website. “Based on data on 19,131 marriages from 2005 to 2012 by Harris Interactive, couples that met on eHarmony had significantly fewer breakups than couples who met via all other methods combined,” according to an eHarmony press release. Estrada signed up with eHarmony in early August. “I was skeptical at first because you’re paying for this [service] and not guaranteed anything, it’s like a gamble,” Estrada said. Estrada said even though results are unknown, online dating makes talking to people easier. “Going to a bar there’s girls everywhere…you don’t want to go up there and be let down,” Estrada said. He said that after being in a serious relationship for four years, he “felt like the awkward guy, I didn’t know how to act socially.”. OkCupid is a free online dating service that was acquired by Match.com in 2011. Peterson said when she registered with the service, she was skeptical because she’d heard paid services were better. “People are actually serious about it,” Peterson said. “I was kind of skeptical because I heard that with online dating sites you just get messaged by weirdos.” Estrada said he’s been on two dates that were “misses –they made it seem like an interview on the date. There was a lack of interaction. A person I went on a date with, their ex called and she was on the phone with him for 10 minutes. I was like ‘this is really weird’,” Estrada recalled. 71 percent of people who use online dating believe in love at first sight, according to statisticbrain.com. “I’m just trying to find a spark,” Estrada said. “I think there’s someone out there to make you better. That’s where that person comes in.” 
story and graphic by Batli Joselevitz 
by Katey Psencik easel.ly [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1r2FvzzQqQ&w=420&h=315]Video by Joshua Fechter