Rising Stars: Meet Elana and Adam Drasin

Today we’d like to introduce you to Elana Drasin.

Elana, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
My name is Elana Drasin and I’m the owner of Sugar Magnolia Bakehouse. This all started as a hobby bakery in 2017, and since then has evolved beyond what I could have dreamed. Here is a little bit about myself, my husband, and how the bakery started!​

I attended culinary school right after high school with the intent to major in restaurant management and hospitality, I quickly fell in love with baking and decided I would master that instead. Along with taking baking and decorating classes I took art classes in sculpting and painting. After Culinary School I went on to work in bakeries that specialized in cakes and sugar cookies and learned so much from each. I never knew that I one day would own my own bakery, I just loved working in a kitchen and loved creating.

Sugar Magnolia Bakehouse started back in Los Angeles CA and was originally named Just for you Cakes and Confections… Something about that didn’t seem right and after years of making cakes and cookies for friends, I knew something needed to change… After brainstorming and the genius from my music-loving husband Sugar Magnolia Bakehouse was born and that is definitely when it all changed.

We moved from California to Tennessee in 2016 and after working whatever job I could find and trying to figure out the best place to live in a very unfamiliar state I decided that I wanted to start offering my sweet treats (as a hobby) so I could work at a “regular” job. Well…Thanks to I heart Spring Hill on Facebook, the amazing Spring Hill Community, and amazing customers who constantly support me and my dream I had to quit my full-time job just to keep up with orders! I’m so beyond thankful for the life I have been given, The support of my followers, husband, kids, and family. The bakery wouldn’t be where it is today without any of that.

We are a home-based bakery meaning we work out of our tiny townhouse kitchen and today Sugar Magnolia has grown from a one-person operation to now teaming up with my husband Adam who wants only the best for me and my dream and wants to continue to make SMB as big and amazing as we can dream it to be. He has joined me in continuing to make the bakery even better and now with his help we can take on twice as many orders and recently went from a regular eight to nine orders a week to 15 orders a week!!!

We work side by side every day and I love it. I love spending time, brainstorming, and creating with my best friend. You can find us at Farmers Markets and holiday events. We work not only on custom orders during the week but also enjoy creating pop-up events on our front porch. My favorite part about doing markets is getting the chance to interact with our customers. I have spent many years creating a name for ourselves in the community and love meeting face to face to see all the people who have supported us. We love our community, without them, we wouldn’t be where we are now.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Any small business owner will tell you it’s not always easy. Although starting the bakery here in TN was easy and seemed to be exactly what we were meant to do because getting customers flowed from the start.

However, it’s not always been an easy road, between overworking myself to not-so-nice customers I’ve had my ups and downs. I think I’m the hardest critic and as a creator, you put yourself out there and make yourself vulnerable and it’s scary and stressful and when you are interacting with so many people sometimes you’ll encounter someone who isn’t the nicest or doesn’t like something and it breaks your heart. Then you say I’m going to pack it all in… Shut down the bakery and do something that won’t hurt so much. Then you get the text from a customer that absolutely has the nicest things to say and is sweet and kind and loves everything you do and then you don’t give up and keep going.

We’ve also struggled with time management and when we started the bakery it was just me, starting it as a hobby I worked full time 9-5 and was so exhausted at the end of the day but still had to come home and bake and decorate cakes or cookies and I would be up so late and not spending any time with family. It was hard on the kids, my husband, myself I was at my end. That’s when I quit my “regular job” so I could actually have a life. Once I started working full time in the bakery I put time limits on myself and that changed how smooth and happy we ran the bakery.

Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
We specialize in custom cookies, we occasionally offer custom cakes but currently focusing on custom sugar cookies and sugar cookie bars.

We have focused a lot lately on our gluten-free sugar cookie bars. They are soft sugar cookies with a layer of buttercream on top, we make different flavors and they are delish!!

I’m actually allergic to wheat so can’t eat most of the stuff we create anymore. It’s really unfortunate so we’ve started dabbling in the gluten-free world. Other than that our biggest focus is beautiful custom decorated sugar cookies that we create for any occasion. I have the most fun making these because of the amount of detail but the sugar cookie bars flavor and flavors are blowing me away! I’m patting ourselves on the back for these treats cause they are a chef’s kiss.

How do you define success?
Waking up every morning knowing that I get to do what I love and creating positive and happy moments for people.

Pricing:

• Sugar cookies start at $4 per cookie and can range from there.

Contact Info:

• Email: [email protected]
• Website:  www.sugarmagnoliabakehouse.com
• Instagram: @sugarmagnoliabakeshop
• Facebook: http://Facebook.com/sugarmagnoliabakehouse