Photos courtesy of From Scratch Cupcakes
Riley Harris began baking when she was just 13 years old. Her mom was a great cook in the kitchen and Harris adored spending hours watching and learning from her. When she was assigned a science project in school, she decided to take a sweet approach and bake cupcakes.
Instantly she fell in love.
"It was so great to see the joy I could bring to people with something so simple as a cupcake," Harris says.
She began From Scratch Cupcakes in 2012, right out of her parent's kitchen. While her first love was cupcakes, her portfolio of sugary treats has expanded to cakes, brownies, donuts, macarons and more!
In 2017 she traveled to London to study at the Peggy Porschen Academy and earned five diplomas in areas such as decorating, baking, layering and icing. She also sharpened her skills within tiered wedding cake design, producing delicate, beautiful cakes for happy clients.
"The most important thing I gained from my experience in London was confidence," Harris says. "It seems strange, but I came back more confident in the uniqueness of my work!"
The young entrepreneur and pastry chef has worked hard to make sure that everything baked out of From Scratch Bakery is - well, exactly that. From scratch. Start to finish, she never takes any short cuts.
Not only do her products taste heavenly, but her designs are beautiful - almost too pretty to eat! It's clear just by drooling over her baked treats that Harris is inspired by art and tries to implement creativity with intricate sugary designs.
"We work a lot with edible glitter, flowers and gold," Harris says. "I love taking inspiration from nature or a fun color pallet."
Her all-time favorite dessert to make are macrons. Although the most difficult to bake, these sweets are a delicious meringue-based confection made with main components like egg white, icing sugar and bright food coloring.
"It took me a LONG time to achieve a successful macaron," Harris says, joking. "but I'm so happy I did!"
Hungry yet? To purchase sweet treats from Scratch, you just place a pre-order. Once your goods are ready, you'll be given an estimated pick-up time and confirmation. Because of demand, Harris suggests you book three weeks in advance.
The options for cake flavors appear to be endless. From Scratch offers the basics, chocolate, vanilla, lemon and red velvet, but also include s'mores, birthday oreo, rainbow layer, fruity pebble, mint chocolate chip and more. For a full list, click here!
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With all of Harris's success, she offers up some sweet advice to other small business owners who are looking to grow their passions.
"Make sure you love what you do, because that's the most important part!" Harris says. "It's not always easy, but it's always worth it in the end!"
Mallory Arnold is an assistant editor. Feedback welcome at marnold@cityscenemediagroup.com.
