Success is a Piece of Cake
Published:Saturday | November 19, 2011 | 12:00 AM
Sheena Gayle, Gleaner Writer
WESTERN BUREAU:
From her home kitchen, Alesia Bowen-Mighty, a Montego Bay-based culinary entrepreneur, is preparing a variety of pastries to fulfil the demand for sweet novelties.
Bowen-Mighty owns and operates a small pastry business, Piece of Cake - A Mighty Fine Thing - and has obviously figured out how to continue pleasing the taste buds of pastry lovers who keep her busy with each order.
"The idea is that I want to provide my clients with a unique and satisfying cake," a humble Bowen-Mighty said.
"I love the way my cakes taste, and apparently, so do my clients. I've spent a lot of time working and reworking my recipes until I get them the way I want."
Piece of Cake was founded in 1999 and was born out of Bowen-Mighty's love of the kitchen, her sweet tooth, and the encouragement of family and friends.
Just looking at the sweet treats done by Piece of Cake is enough to make one salivate and relish the idea of digging in.
"If food looks good, you are going to want to eat it. The appearance also contributes to the overall enjoyment while eating. So I go the distance to appeal to that desire in us to be visually enticed by what we eat," Bowen-Mighty explained.
She expressed pride in the progress Piece of Cake has made over the years and attributes it to her unyielding efforts to be a successful pastry-maker extraordinaire.
"'Profits are better than wages' (Jim Rohn). I don't remember where I read this, but it brought home to me that entrepreneurship is the way to financial freedom," she said.
Labour intensive
"Of course, this is a very labour-intensive business, and if I'm the sole labourer, then it's still wages. So this drives me to grow my demand to the point where I have to employ others. Demand is growing and should continue to do so as the marketing plans unfold. In essence, they are going as fast as I can bake them, sometimes faster," she said.
Other team members of Piece of Cake are Charmaine Barnett-Richards and Bridget Taylor-Spence. Additionally, there is a cadre of family and close friends who have appointed themselves as members of quality control, marketing, sales, and finance departments.
As for her vision for Piece of Cake, Bowen-Mighty said: "In the next five years, Piece of Cake should have well-established cake shops in both Montego Bay and Kingston, Jamaica. We should be the purveyor of first choice when people want special cakes for their occasions."