This Valentine’s Day, here’s a heart you won’t feel bad breaking: The Cake Girl has crafted molded chocolate breakable hearts filled with a sweet treat. Give it a good crack to reveal your choice of strawberries or candy… breaking a heart (or giving a heart to someone else to break) has never felt so good.
The Cake Girl is constantly coming up with creative, delicious ways to make people smile. It all began back in 2009 when Owner Kristina Lavallee followed her heart and started the biz.
Born in Puerto Rico, Lavallee has always had a passion for sweets. She remembers begging her mother, a chef and caterer herself, to take her to the grocery store just so she could lay eyes on all of the cakes and baked goods.
“My mother taught me how to cook with love and always used the highest quality ingredients,” she recalled. “But probably the best lesson I learned from her, was to always do the right thing, give A+ customer service, and treat people like family.”That’s the focus behind the culture at The Cake Girl, which Lavallee baked into fruition after college and countless baking and pastry positions. Once settling down in Tampa with her husband, Kirby, the two worked to make Kristina’s dream become a reality. They began attending farmers markets, special events, and corporate parties—all of which featured her delectable goodies.
“The support from the community has been remarkable,” she said.
With the addition of a dessert truck, The Cake Girl took their business on the road. Thousands of miles and cupcakes later, she followed her ultimate passion and opened her first brick and mortar location in Tampa. Her Carrollwood bakery now features 10 daily flavors of freshmade mini cupcakes—all made from scratch with love.
Lavallee says her motivation is—and always has been—to make people smile, caring about so much more than just about making dough; pun intended.
“When people try our delicious sweets, they’re happy, and the memories they create are meaningful. That is why we exist,” she said. “As our business grows, we always remember the people who helped and supported us along the way, as well as our amazing team members that help us achieve our mission each and every day.”
With community top of mind, the Lavallees have teamed up with two Tampa Bay area black-owned candle businesses, Jennstone Candle Co. and Madam Oshun's Candles, transforming The Cake Girl’s magic into candle form by collabing on two hard-to-resist options: Vanilla Buttercream and Strawberry Champagne, a heart-shaped candle perfect for Valentine’s Day. Both candles are soy and vegan, so everyone can feel good about getting a little taste of The Cake Girl (figuratively, of course, please don’t eat the candles!).
The Lavallees love the Tampa Bay community to its core and get great pride out of seeing the area flourish. They’re over the moon that the Bucs have made it to the Super Bowl—that’s why they’re baking up a variety of sweets perfect for celebrating. Enjoy big game-themed cupcakes, cakes, and more as we lead up to Super Bowl Sunday, or place a preorder for the big game to stress eat with family and friends as you root on Brady and Co.
Plus, The Cake Girl is making it easy to send a smile and safely gift their goodies to loved ones, featuring individually-wrapped COVID-friendly items.
Whatever your reason for celebrating, there’s plenty of locally-made treats to choose from.
For more information on The Cake Girl, including online ordering, Super Bowl specials, and Valentine’s Day preorders, visit thecakegirl.com
