Occupation: Baker, co-owner of Taste of Love Bakery (870 Dodd Road, West St. Paul; 651-321-8844; tasteoflovebakery.com)

Age: 30

What is your background in the food business? I was in charge of the kitchen at the Boys and Girls Club for five years. When I started to get serious about opening my own bakery, I got a job at Target as a bakery manager. At home, I made one cake a week for friends and family. When I put photos of my cakes on Facebook, and I got so much traffic I started a page, Marie's Cakes. Then, I had to convert the page to a business.

Tell me about the name, Taste of Love. Where did that come from? For more than a year, I made cakes for free. It was my goal to learn as much as possible about every person who ordered a cake. I tried to make something that would surprise them, to incorporate things people love. Some people know exactly what they want on their cake, but for most people, I ask them for a list of things they love.

How did you learn to make cakes? I'm self-taught. I spent hours and hours researching online, going over blogs. Our pantry used to be filled with food, but eventually the cake stuff took over.

What's your favorite sweet treat at the bakery? In the morning, I like the caramel pecan rolls. We've worked hard on that recipe and on the cinnamon rolls. In the afternoon, I'm into making the best cake-pop flavors. My favorites are caramel crunch and carrot cake. We have four or five standards, and we have a new flavor of the week. We have an overwhelming variety.

What's the craziest cake you've ever made? We made a toilet cake. That was really interesting. The client's family had an inside joke about a toilet. We rarely make the same cake more than once.

How did you and your business partner, Leann Larson, meet? She was my day care provider, and she was amazing, but she didn't want to do that forever. She saw me making cakes and decided to join me.

What's the most challenging thing about running a bakery? Timing. Baking is like chemistry: Everything has its own little finicky details. Two people can bake the same dough and the cookies will taste totally different. You have to make sure everything is consistent.

What time do you get up in the morning? The baker gets here at 3 to 4 a.m. Leann and I get in at 4 to 5 a.m. We often work 18 hours a day. Our husbands have been super helpful. My husband does marketing; Leann's husband does finances and payroll.

What special skills does it take to be a baker? You need to be good at math. We never make just one batch; we double or triple everything. You also have to know all the conversions. So you need to be a chemist and a mathematician and also an artist.

What's something few people know about you? I've been to Tanzania twice. They say, "Americans have watches, but we have time." I want to be intentional about time. I want to sit down and talk to people when they come in and make them feel special. In Tanzania, life stops and you can be there for people. The people who eat the bread are more important than the bread. For me, it's really about the customers.

What's something in your career you wish you had done differently? I wish I had gotten more business training. We're constantly learning here, tackling new recipes. But then I had to teach myself business and finance. There have been a lot of weeks when I hardly sleep at all because there's so much to tackle.

What's next? I wrote a business plan three years ago, but we don't have the space to accommodate all the things I want to do. Soon, we're going to do cake-decorating classes and theme parties and birthday parties, either in homes or here in the store. We also want to make our own bread and soups. Those are big things for us.

FYI: Taste of Love Bakery is celebrating its grand opening Friday and Saturday, Jan. 25 and 26. The store will have entertainment, free samples and prizes.

-- Jess Fleming