For Kristina Lavallee, life keeps getting sweeter. Founder and namesake of local dessert company, The Cake Girl, Lavallee’s rise to success is already a sweet tale.
Well-known, around the Tampa Bay area, for her award-winning cake designs (like her infamous “GOAT” cake for Tom Brady’s “100th” birthday), she and Kirby, her husband and business partner, continue to layer in sumptuous accolades like Best of the Bay to Sweetest Bakery in America. Their next step? To franchise The Cake Girl’s delectable combination of craftsmanship, work ethic and plain deliciousness across the state and nationwide.
Lavallee’s seasonal pop-up locations led to the launch of The Cake Girl dessert truck, in 2016, and her first brick-and-mortar store, in 2019, makes her a local story of grass-roots triumph.
Lavallee will rely on the same recipe for success as The Cake Girl goes national: hard work and creativity. As she explains, “We’re looking for someone who has the same kind of vision that we do, the same kind of passion for business; sweets artisans doing the same kind of thing that we’re doing right now.”
Official applications open January 2024, but they’re already being inundated with interest from nearly every state and across Florida, Lavallee says.
“It’s so exciting to see interest from like-minded people outside of our bubble, in Florida, people who see our products, and concept, love it and want to open their own shop somewhere else,” she says.
Even as The Cake Girl moves to the franchise stage, it seems that Lavallee will keep this same family-oriented focus that has proven to be, with all the other ingredients, a recipe for long-lasting and far-reaching success.
“You only live once so, I always say, if you don’t take that risk, you’ll never know what the outcomes will be. Obviously, it is a scary thing for anyone to take that leap of faith,” Lavallee says. “But if I would never have tried, I would never have known that we could be successful.”
Read the full feature on The Cake Girl in the December issue of Tampa Bay Business and Wealth Magazine.