Video Transcript:

“People ask me why I got started? I started a long time ago.  My grandma and I… we used to do a weekly baking. Lots of cookies, cakes, rolls, etc. – for the traditional Swedish ‘fika.’  When I met my husband in ‘89, it was a blind date on Valentines. We met over in Yugoslavia and a couple of years later, we got married in his home town in Minnesota. One of his family friends made our wedding cake and that’s when I really kind of got the bug and wanted to learn how to do this.”

“About a year or so later, we moved to Germany and that’s when I had the first opportunity to actually try the cake decorating. Our son wanted a Ninja Turtle birthday cake but there were no American style bakeries to be found in Germany. So, I bought a cake decorating magazine and all the equipment that was needed and I read that magazine from cover to cover probably 3-4 times. I made the cake for him and it was such a success at the party that all the other parents were asking to see other photos, that they wanted to order cakes of their own. So, I started a small business over there to serve the military community”.

“Later, when we returned state side, which was in Atlanta, I had the opportunity to work for several great bakeries of mom and pops and some retail bakeries. A year later, we moved to Jacksonville, NC and I came to find out that there were no commercial bakeries, so I decided to start my own”.

“The importance of American Dream cakes came literally by looking through a dictionary. I knew I wanted the name cakes in there and I started from the beginning and when I came across the word American I said, well, I’m making American cakes. Specifically, American style cakes. I kept on looking and I came to the word Dream. And I said yes, I want to make people’s Dream cakes and I want to live the American Dream. American Dream Cakes, because I love making life delicious”.

“Being a business owner, I am able to give back. Our community has been so good to us over the years. Not only has it given me the opportunity to be a rotarian and support local, regional, and even international charities and give back but it has also given me the opportunity to take on culinary students, have them do their internship. I have had interns from Connecticut, New York, I have one from Montana, I have even mentored a wounded warrior in his process of leaving the Marine Corps so that he could go back home and start his own bakery. It also gives me the opportunity to support local and national charities, not just through Rotary, but through the bakery itself. We try to support as many people as we possibly can by making their Dream Cakes and support their functions.

All of this is possible because I was able to create the American Dream Cakes company. I am very proud of our team, proud of our work. Our mission is to make life delicious. To me, doing this, is living the American Dream. “