Today we’d like to introduce you to Cara Vasquez.
Cara, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I grew up baking with my mom, she made everything from scratch and baking with her is where my love for baking began. I attended culinary school after high school and shortly after began working at a Dallas restaurant as a baker, eventually becoming bakery manager of multiple locations. The kitchen is my favorite place to be, it’s my happy place and I was hooked from day one.
My dream has always been to open my own bakery so after ten years in the industry I decided it was time! In June of 2011, The Flour Shop Bakery opened in Highland Village, TX.
We were in Highland Village for 6.5 years but it was time for a change and a larger location. We moved to our current location in Flower Mound in Dec. of 2017. Our new larger location has allowed us to add services like Summer Camps, Birthday Parties and lots of other fun events as well as expand our menu a bit.
We are a full-service bakery offering a wide variety of desserts such as cakes, pies, cookies, cheesecakes and cupcakes. We also offer weddings, catering and wholesale. We make everything from scratch and bake fresh daily.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Ha! Absolutely not but anything worth having is worth the struggle, right? 🙂
The biggest obstacle we faced initially is funding, it’s expensive to open a business especially one with lots of equipment and built out expenses. It’s also difficult to get a loan when you’re a small business owner. We went through this twice! Once in the beginning and again when we moved into the new, larger location.
We also have daily challenges we have to face such as, staffing, product quality and keeping up with trends.
We work through challenges as a team which makes it so much easier to get through, we’ve got each other’s backs which is crazy important in order to be successful.
Please tell us about The Flour Shop Bakery.
The Flour Shop might legally just be mine but it has grown because of the countless hours of hard work by so many people. It takes a village to grow a business and we’ve got the best village people a girl could ask for! Along with the staff we’ve hired throughout the years, my family is also very involved and I couldn’t do this without each and every one of them, past and present.
Baking is my specialty, I say it’s who I am, it’s not just my job. I couldn’t and wouldn’t do anything else, I belong in the kitchen and I am fortunate enough that for 19 years I’ve been able to spend my days doing what I love.
I’m proud to say that we have been in our community and growing for almost 9 years!! That’s a long time for a small business, especially a food service business. We’ve made it this long because of hard work, delicious dessert and an incredible community who has been supportive since day one.
I think one thing that sets us apart is that everything is made in house and from scratch… and love, love sets us apart too! 🙂
If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
So many things. LOL! If I had to start over, I would have planned a bit better for some of those obstacles. The obstacles I didn’t know would exist until I was in the thick of it, the ones no one warns you about.
I would have asked for more money, more time and found a business partner so I personally wasn’t trying to do it all in the beginning.
Contact Info:
- Address: 6100 Long Prairie Rd.
Ste. 200
Flower Mound, TX 75028 - Website: https://theflour.shop/
- Phone: 972-355-3600
- Email: orders@ilovetheflourshopbakery.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/flourshoptx/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/flourshoptx/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/flourshoptx
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