Rose basketball highlights
FRI.| 4-12-24 | ENTERTAINMENT
Mitchum whips up cakes in her free time
WED. | 04-06-22 | FEATURES
Having a small business can consume many hours in the day. However, when it comes to Rose junior Emily Mitchum, she tackles her small cake business while also being a full-time student.
Cakes have been her main focus since she started baking when she was younger. Other than baking, Mitchum takes on other hobbies such as sewing and painting. She has found that out of all of her other hobbies, baking comes easiest and is much more important to her.
“You can do so much more with cakes; there are so many different flavors and ways to customize them for whoever is specifically putting an order in,” Mitchum said. “I had been making cakes since I was very young, but about three years ago, I started baking more intricate cakes.”
Mitchum's inspiration for baking, in general, came from her grandmother. She believes that her grandmother's support, as well as the support of her family and friends, has really boosted the small business she has today with how many orders she is receiving and cakes she is baking now.
“I grew up with my grandma who was baking
Photo contributed by Emily Mitchum
cakes all the time; she has given me almost all the supplies that I have to make cakes,” Mitchum says. “My family and friends also have supported me the most, such as when it comes to birthday parties, they will call me for cake orders.”
Mitchum’s school year has definitely put somewhat of a hold on the flow of consistent baking during the week, compared to the number of cakes she was making during the summer. As a captain of the Rose tennis team in the fall and managing extracurriculars throughout the year, she usually doesn’t have as much time to bake.
“This semester I bake my cakes during Refresh because I don't have a third period at Rose, and I end up decorating the cake after school,” Mitchum says. “Even with that schedule, I have to cut back on the number of cakes I make because I end up not having as much time.”
With Mitchum's cake business solely at her home, she finds that social media is a great way to advertise her business. Mitchum runs her Sweets By Emily account on Instagram, which displays the cakes she makes, making it easy and accessible for people to put orders in.
“Advertising as much as I can is the best way to put my cakes out there,” Mitchum says. “The term ‘eating with your eyes’ shows how the cake looks; if a person sees the cake first, they may decide to buy one based on how it is presented.”
Mitchum has recently started a new initiative of doing staff of the month cakes. There are 25 Rose juniors who vote on a staff member of the month by submitting their votes to Mitchum directly. With two staff of the month cakes delivered so far, Mitchum feels that her efforts have been important to Rose.
“I felt that I needed to make a contribution to the school this year and grow my business at the same time,” Mitchum said. “I was talking to my college advisor and came up with the idea of making staff of the month cakes to show teacher appreciation.”
With plans to major in the medical field, Mitchum knows that her time will be minimal when it comes to baking, therefore she is not making it her full-time passion. Mitchum does plan to continue baking as a hobby in the future.
“If I ever had the chance, I really want to go to culinary school.” Mitchum says. “I want to incorporate my baking into a year abroad, possibly in Europe.”
