'The Cake Girl' shares parts of her culture, honors family through her business

TAMPA, Fla. - In a busy kitchen on North Dale Mabry Highway, Kristina Lavallee is preparing a simple, layered cake.

"We put these cakes up front, sometimes we have last-minute customers," she explained.

Lavallee is affectionately known as "The Cake Girl", which is also the name of her business. They specialize in cakes for all occasions. 

Its walk-in freezer features a Tampa Bay Rays cake with a baseball on top, an ice cream-themed cake and a cake that looks like a Chinese-noodle takeout container. The bakery even created an 8-foot tiered cake for a wedding covered in sugar flowers.

Lavallee makes custom cakes.

"Every week you see a different theme, or a different wedding or a different event, so I think the design part is the favorite thing," she said.

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No matter what Lavallee is working on, she thinks about the many times she was in the kitchen with her family when she was younger. Her mother Margarita ran a catering business and taught cooking classes in Puerto Rico.

Lavallee said her business was inspired by her mother.

"We were the ones with the chef hat, all that kind of stuff. We were always there with her, always helping," she recalled. "She would always put us to help with whatever it was, because she did a lot of hors d'oeuvres."

Seeing her mother succeed in a male-dominated business planted the seeds for Lavallee to start her own. She first sold cakes to family and friends, then at festivals, then with a food truck.

The Cake Girl storefront opened a little more than five years ago. Most of their business is custom-ordered cakes, but they also sell cupcakes and ice cream. Lavallee loves sharing the unique flavors she grew up with, like guava, almond and tres leches cakes.

"Them being curious and trying it and saying, ‘Oh my God this is so good, I’ve never had this’, it’s very special to me," she said.

Sharing those parts of her culture also help honor her family and her upbringing.

The Cake Girl storefront opened five years ago.

"She [mom] inspired me to do a lot of things with love, whether it was baking or cooking for family," Lavallee said. "Just whatever you do, just do it with love, make it like you were making it for yourself. She inspired me to do really great things."

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Among those great things are creating cakes for some high-profile names, like Tom Brady and Shark Tank’s Daymond John. Those cakes gather views on social media, further growing the business and the brand, which Lavallee is set to start franchising.

"We’re very blessed. We’re truly, truly very busy, which I’m very thankful for," she said. 

For more information about "The Cake Girl", click here.