You have just found one of New Orleans’s most creative confectioners, passionate patissiers; a designer of delicate delights, master of meringues, and other delightful sweets and treats! No matter the event you want to make special, I am ready to make it even more memorable.
About
Hi there, I’m Stacey, the owner of Stacey’s Custom Cakes. I have been baking nearly all my life, beginning with my grandmother teaching me to make chocolate chip cookies. With the love and support of many friends, I embarked on turning my passionate hobby into a professional reality in 2016. What a fun time it has been!
I personally want to welcome you to my kitchen, my bakery-laboratory. This is my home, where I can test recipes and discover new flavors to delight my clients. “Wait, clients not customers?” I hear you saying. I view each and every one of my customers as clients because I’m not interested in selling you a confection and hustling you out the door. My wish is that you will be so pleased with my craft, that you become a lifetime customer, perhaps even a multi-generational customer. That, my friend is why I will never consider you a mere customer, but a true client.
My Philosophy on Baking
…excellent pastry could only be done with the best ingredients. Butter, sugar, chocolate, flour, almonds … I have always chosen the ultimate products, without ever making the slightest concession on quality, at a time when we did not hesitate to replace butter with margarine.
—Gaston Lenôtre (source)
My philosophy on baking (ironically) enough resembles a cake. There are three tiers, each building on each other.
The first tier—the foundation—of my philosophy on baking starts with my family. My grandfather taught me the importance of fresh ingredients, my grandmother taught me how to follow my taste buds, and my mother taught me how to decorate cakes. A voracious appetite for cooking and baking shows continued pushing me forward with my craft as loved ones passed on.
The second tier is an absolute dedication to the best quality ingredients as the base of everything I make. I am very proud of the fact that nothing coming from my kitchen is boxed, pre-mixed, or artificially flavored*. My ingredients are organic and fair trade whenever possible.
The third and final tier comes down to the tools I use. I intentionally use a smaller mixer, so cake batters and doughs are prepared immediately before baking. Refrigerating or freezing large batch-made product is simply not an option. I laminate my dough for croissants and puff pastry by hand to ensure they don’t taste machine made. Sure, this means it takes more time, but it also means that each and every product I make proudly bears a label stating, “This handmade treat came from Stacey’s Custom Cakes.”
* Unfortunately, it is a reality that some artificial flavors have to be used. An example is vanillin, a substitute for vanilla extract, is used to ensure pure white buttercreams stay pure white and do not take on a sickly tan shade.