When sisters, Tori Fabregas and Mia Laboo, decided to open the doors to the Cake Makin Sisters Bakery in Harrisburg, NC, about 3 years ago, it was nothing short of a dream that came to pass. Although owning a storefront for their scrumptious specialty cakes was something that the ladies always wanted to do, it’s been rough for the business and sales was not as good as they hoped that it would be.
Although the shop came fully equipped with supplies when they arrived, the machines were old and used… “However by the grace of God,” said Fabregas. “Everything has been able to hold up, and if we needed repairs, family has come in and helped with that,” she spoke assuredly. “As far as being in the shop, the hours that it takes to bake, and not having the sufficient space or another oven is most challenging,” said Laboo.
“If we relocated, we would need new ovens, freezer space, and we would need more refrigeration. Upgrading means that you have to upgrade on everything. The space, now, is not even conducive for a bakery at all, but we make it work."
The siblings prayed over their situation, while expecting a resolve. As fate would have it, a friend of the family reached out to a few talk shows including Steve Harvey, with hopes of getting the ladies some exposure for their store.
A representative from the Steve Harvey show contacted the women 30 days later with good news.
Both sisters appeared on the daytime show with their most creative recipes for showcase on April 15, 2016. Since their appearance, business increased tremendously at the bakery. During the first week of airing, the girls went from serving 40 cupcakes at their esteemed bakeshop to preparing about 300 orders daily.
They thought that the excitement would wear off and things would return to normal, however, Cake Makin Sisters are still receiving emails and orders from around the world. “After the show, you really don’t know what to expect as far as an increase and demand,” said Fabregas. “It’s still very hype—it’s just like we’re local celebrities which has been fun.
The orders are still coming in. We handled over 500 request on our website and email—now the requests are coming in through Instagram and Facebook. “Our aunt did some marketing and changed our website to accommodate those request,” she said.
“We had to wing it last Saturday, but this Saturday we got prepared and we called everyone. Mia stayed up Wednesday evening and she baked 1500 cupcakes, and we had a nice system that was going. This weekend, we ran smoothly and we did better than we did last weekend. We made sure that everyone was taken care of in a timelier manner.
Fabregas said that they have many types of frosting, and as far as what goes on the cake, it depends on what kind of cake you’re getting. They have buttered vanilla and butter cream icing, chocolate-butter-cream icing and the original cream cheese icing. The Cake Makin Sisters offer 21 different cupcake flavors, that their signature flavor is the banana pudding cupcake.
Fabregas worked full-time at Wells Fargo and Mia labored at Plaza Baptist Children’s Center prior to owning the patisserie. However they both encompassed a passion for baking cakes. With Laboo’s appreciation for distinctive foods, and Fabregas inventiveness, the joint business was bound to become unequivocally successful. The siblings have been in the occupation approximately 10 years. In the beginning, they worked during the day, and baked from their homes at night.
Although neither women entered into culinary schools, they educate themselves by watching tutorial videos, researching online, as well as seeing what their competitors are doing in the areas and surrounding. Both women confirm that they travel to local shops and see what everyone is doing—they sample the products, observe the customer service, and check pricing. They constantly access the markets for pricing…
“Sometimes we just hang around while watching, and then let people know who we are. Often times we get tips from people that have been in business for a while. We’re able to network. But we stay consistent and I think it’s because we stay grounded in our faith. The consistency is all on us because we are still to this. Every step of the way, it’s still new and we are still figuring it out as we go on.
I want to add that our motto “Dream a cake into reality” is true. That’s not something we came up with because when someone asks for a cake and we have no idea of how to get started, we’ll both go to sleep and dream about it, and then we’ll wake up and share the dreams. We get those answers in our dreams,” said Fabregas
The sisters have Cake Makin Sisters t-shirts available for purchase, and they are working on the shipping facet for their delicacies. The siblings feel that the shipping will generate more revenue than the local aspect of the store. They also plan to create The Cake Makin Sisters Popup shops in other states so that people can get the authentic sensation of being in an actual shop.
Cake Makin Sisters provides deserts to Merts Heart and Soul Restaurant located in Charlotte —they are currently in negotiations with many corporations that want to partner with the sibs. Warner Brothers contacted the bakery recently, and although the large company is showing interest, this is all that we know right now.
Frabregas and Laboo give glory to God and they talk fevernanly about their spiritual connections with Him as well as how He has made everything possible for them. They are church based people whom felt guilty about not being able to attend service within the last few weeks—but they have moved things around in their schedule so that they can go and let everyone know the testimonials they’ve endured while on their recent journey. “We have a great spiritual family there and they keep us prayed up—they help us stay grounded” Fabregas verbalized.
The Cake Makin Sisters provide excellent customer service even under duress. They said that the people are important to them… “You can’t be 100% in everything, but just knowing that in our heart-of-hearts, the people are what’s important. It’s the people. They are at the center of everything, and if you care about the people, then you care about the product that you give out. If you care about the people, then you care about the service you’re providing,” said Frabregas.
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