Life & Work with Jasmin Gonzalez

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jasmin Gonzalez.

Jasmin, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?

Hi! Thanks so much for having me! In all honesty, the reason I got into baking was from watching the show, Cake Boss! I always made fun of the fact that I based my career choice on a tv show.

I had never baked before watching, but something about it fascinated me. I looked into culinary schools while in high school and afterward decided to attend The Art Institute leading me to graduate in 2015. After culinary school, I worked in various pastry chef positions in the expanding Nashville culinary scene. For years, I thought I wanted to be the “it” pastry chef of a fine dining restaurant but then I realized like many, I wanted something of my own.

I began working from home in 2018 making custom cakes and grew my clientele very quickly. I wasn’t ready for this exponential growth and while working full-time jobs and making cakes at home, I burned myself out. That led me to pause the cake-making.

Fast forward to 2021, I became a first-time mom and wanted to dedicate myself as a stay-at-home mom, but with the growing inflation, we needed a second income. The only option I considered was to restart my custom cake business. Luckily, over the years, I would have random sales so I was able to keep my clientele and for them, I am extremely grateful they have stuck with me throughout so many years. With this, I was able to stay at home with my son while bringing in a second income and doing what I love to do most.

In January 2023, we welcomed my second son, so I took another brief pause while pregnant with him in 2022 but still had occasional sales to keep my clientele. In April, I decided to open back up my home business and thanks to God, my husband, and my family, I have continued to receive immense support. I truly cannot wait to see what is in store for Viva La Fresa!

Can you talk to us about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back, would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Like any other business, there were struggles along the way. When I began in 2018, I then lived with my parents and worked 3 jobs at one point. When I would get home from work, I would then start all the cake-making. You can imagine how tired I constantly was that I just yearned to watch TV for once or something. I was constantly working at all times of the day and one weekend I had so many cake orders that I finally reached my limit, burned myself out and stopped the business.

Coming from a Mexican background, I am a first-generation Mexican-American, and my parents came here to provide a better future for their families as well as themselves. Due to their struggles and hard work to get to where they are today, I always felt that I had no other choice but to be successful. I never wanted to disappoint them and have all their hard work go in vain. I didn’t know what I wanted to do after stopping my business, but I knew I did not want to make cakes whatsoever. However, I still wanted to continue in pastry and not let them down.

I went through different pastry chef positions in fine dining restaurants in Nashville to chocolate-making shops to increase my knowledge. I thought I wanted to become a popular pastry chef in one of these fancy fine-dining restaurants. I was looking into starting a new pastry chef position in a large volume environment in March 2020. I had a first interview and that same weekend, Covid hit, shutting everything down and there went my next job opportunity.

That same year, I was getting married in September and I wanted to start a family right after so when I had my first son, my whole outlook on what I wanted to do professionally changed. I wanted to still do something with my diploma while being able to tend to my son at home and not miss out on any milestones. Thankfully, as I mentioned earlier, I was able to keep the business going at home, and to this day, we are growing. I would like to hopefully expand and one day have a storefront!

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
When I first began in 2018, I specialized in fondant cakes. They were mainly birthday cakes, graduation cakes, that sort of nature. Fondant was very “in” back then but when I resumed the business back in 2021, fondant cakes weren’t in as much anymore. That led me to drift into buttercream cakes which I love so much more!

I always like to be unique (just like everyone says) but I truly like to try out new trends. Thanks to Instagram, you’re always able to see what’s “in” all around the world. I get all my inspiration from there, so that has led me to follow certain trends that not so many locals in Nashville are doing.

I’ve always done custom cakes and decorated sugar cookies, but I also wanted to expand my menu. There was a time that custom-shaped macarons became popular on Instagram so I began to do those which became a big hit. I also geared towards tall modern cakes as my new aesthetic which I love so much more. Also, about a year ago, I decided to offer the popular, Korean bento-style lunchbox cakes.

I saw no one locally doing them and they quickly became a GREAT hit! These are personalized mini cakes meant to serve 1-2 people and are packaged in a small takeaway box with a candle and spoon. People loved these immediately!

We are going into a more self-love, self-care era where people love to gift these to themselves for successes along the way, or just to brighten up someone’s day as opposed to buying a card or something. Since I’ve been back this April, I also have fallen in love with those heart vintage retro cakes that you see all over social media. These are my favorite as of right now and I want to say currently, bento & heart vintage cakes are my top sellers!

In the fall, I’m also known for my mini pumpkin muffins. They are filled with cream cheese and topped with pepita seed praline. My husband personally doesn’t love pumpkin-flavored anything since I am that i-want-pumpkin-spice-year-round kind of girl, but even he eats them! I am truly thankful these have become such a fan favorite!

I’m most proud of my personal growth! We all start from somewhere but we are always our worst critic. For example, in the beginning, I could never get smooth buttercream sides so I chose to do fondant cakes because (shh.. don’t tell anyone) fondant hides many imperfections ha! But fast forward to today, my skills have gotten so much better with practice, and I owe it all to my clientele and myself for pushing through all these years!

I think what sets me apart from others is that due to my Mexican background and culinary experience, I’m able to fuse those roots while still adding an elevated culinary touch. Not many in our Mexican culture do custom designs since they focus more so on just flavor, so I take pride in my presentation and packaging. I always strive to provide unique designs while maintaining a made-from-scratch essence using quality ingredients. Furthermore, finishing it off with beautiful packaging that evokes a gift-giving experience is so important to me because it’s the little things in life!

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vivalafresa/

Image Credits
Karla Derry Photography