We had the good fortune of connecting with Stephanie Padilla and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Stephanie, what role has risk played in your life or career?
Growing up I was a very safe kid, never got in trouble always wanted to be perfect in everyone’s eyes. When I got to high school, I began to bake cookies and I would sell them to my friends. I fell in love with baking and the biggest risk I took was going against what my family thought was the perfect career. I took the risk and applied for culinary school and I moved 4 hours away from my family to follow my dreams. Now I’m a Culinary Institute of America Alumna with my own cake business. 

What should our readers know about your business?
I am the owner of Whisk Taker. I am a Dallas native but I am now based in San Antonio. When I started baking cakes in high school, I told myself one day I would own a cake studio and I would be as talented as everyone on cake boss. During my time in culinary school I created an Instagram page for the purpose of having an online portfolio for internship interviews, etc. I started taking orders when I wasn’t at school or work and began posting them on my Instagram. Being from Dallas did make it a bit hard to gain the trust of the people here so the growth was very slow at first. I graduated from the CIA in 2019 and started at La Cantera Resort & Spa. I worked in one of the outlets where I was able to learn more about the culinary side of my career and I was still able to create desserts for dinners and events. During my time here, I constantly worked on cake orders during my free time trying to grow my Instagram page. I created my own website, started working on marketing myself by creating flyers, my business card, stickers and labels for my product boxes and also creating a Facebook page for my business. I did this less than a year ago and I have now quit my full time job to dedicate myself completely to creating beautiful cakes for all occasions. The hardest part throughout this journey was staying motivated to keep creating even with a full time job. Baking and decorating cakes, even after 5 years of doing it, is still something that brings me peace and it let’s be creative. I’m super excited about the future and being able to fully dedicate my time to doing what I love. I have some future collaborations coming up in 2021 that I’m super excited about as well. I named my brand Whisk Taker because I want to be someone who takes risks and is not afraid. Taking risks are the best way to grow as a person and as scary as it is, risks help your business grow too.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
I am based in San Antonio and if my best friend was coming to visit I know exactly where we would go. We would be at Nola’s or Snooze for brunch most days because their food is amazing. The San Antonio river walk is a must for sure, it’s beautiful and so much fun to just walk and relax. There’s so many restaurants and museums along the way to stop at. One of my favorite places in San Antonio is The Pearl. The Pearl is perfect for pictures and grabbing sweets at bakery Lorraine or Lick Honest Ice Cream. Totally Instagram worthy! San Antonio is definitely becoming a foodie place so the amount of restaurants we can go to are infinite. The restaurants that are a must is Playland, Dough, Glorias, Fletchers at the Pearl, and definitely Primero Cantina at the La Canter Resort & spa.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I want to give a shout out to my family for allowing me follow my dreams and helping me when times got tough. I’m thankful for the chefs at the Culinary Institute of America for pushing me to be better and they taught me to be confident in my craft. I also want to shoutOut bittersweet bakery in waxahachie, tx. The owner, Angel, taught me how to perfect my skills when decorating cakes and she gave me the freedom to be me. The team I worked with there was amazing and I wouldn’t have grown as fast as I did as a cake decorator if it wasn’t for them.

Website: http://www.stephpadilla2016.wixsite.com/whisktaker
Instagram: @b.a.whisk_taker
Facebook: @bwhisktakers

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