Cakes with a Whisk
A recipe for resilience
By Sarah Kittle
When Crystal Delly took over Cakes with a Whisk in 2025, she knew she was stepping into a business that would allow her to express her creativity. What she did not know was that, within a matter of months, she would have to learn how to decorate cakes herself.
“I had not a clue how to decorate a cake,” Delly said. “Fill, frost, decorate. I was always creative and I had an idea, but…”
The previous decorator had planned to stay on and help Delly and her husband learn the business, but personal circumstances prevented her from continuing after just two months. With Christmas approaching and customer orders already on the books, Delly had little choice but to figure it out.
“I was just sitting there like, ‘What did I do to myself? I have no idea how to do it,’” she recalled. But one thing was never in question: She would fulfill her customers’ orders. “I would never not fulfill an order for a customer. That’s not me,” she said.
So she stayed at the bakery, sometimes until midnight, watching YouTube videos and teaching herself the craft. Her employees also helped her navigate the unfamiliar territory. The experience was a baptism by fire, but it ultimately gave Delly something she might not have developed otherwise: confidence.
“Now, if someone calls off, if someone is unable to come in, I just jump right in and I feel very comfortable doing so,” she said. “Had that situation not happened, I probably wouldn’t be so comfortable.”
A Creative Opportunity
Delly’s journey into the baking business was not exactly planned. Her husband, Swain, was friends with the previous owner of Cakes with a Whisk. When the opportunity to purchase the business came up, he asked Delly if she was interested. She was.
Delly had always considered herself a creative person, although baking was not necessarily her passion. “I didn’t necessarily have a love for baking,” she said. “But I do love creating.”
That made the bakery another outlet for her creativity. The business itself had been established around 2022, and Delly and her husband took over in 2025. They remodeled the space while retaining some elements of its previous identity. The new look is distinctly Delly’s: feminine, colorful, and bedecked with flowers.
They also modernized the business, developing a website where customers can submit inquiries and orders. Previously, much of the communication happened through social media or over the phone. “We’ve changed that whole structure of everything so that we’re not missing any orders,” Delly said.
Cakes with a Whisk is not a traditional retail bakery. It operates by appointment, with cakes and desserts made to order. For Delly, that distinction matters. “We make everything fresh,” she said. “We make our frosting and filling fresh. Nothing is pre-ordered or pre-packaged.”
More than Cake
One of the things Delly believes sets Cakes with a Whisk apart is its cake-decorating classes. Customers can learn the process from the beginning—layering, filling, and frosting a cake—and do it alongside friends, family, or even strangers who join the public classes.
“It’s just a very fulfilling job as far as the people that come in and are able to enjoy themselves,” Delly said.
The classes also fit naturally with Delly’s background. Before becoming a business owner, she worked as a mental health counselor and earned a master’s degree in the field. Although she no longer practices, she said the skills she developed have remained valuable in her everyday life.
“I realize that God has a plan,” she said. “Me going into that field led me to know how to approach people, how to communicate with people, how to understand people.”
That perspective has helped her as an employer and business owner, particularly when things do not go according to plan. When the previous decorator was pressed to leave unexpectedly, Delly initially felt frustrated. But she said her counseling background helped her look at the situation from another perspective.
For Delly, the lesson comes down to empathy. “If you can put yourself in somebody else’s shoes, it’s so much easier to communicate with them,” she said.
Perhaps the cake Delly is most proud of is also the one that nearly overwhelmed her. She was without a decorator and had a two-tier cake to make for a baby shower. She had never made one before.
Not for the first time, she stayed at the bakery late into the night. “I just prayed and I sat in the bakery with the rosary in the background,” she said. “And I kept going until it came out right.”
It did. Delly said she was surprised by the outcome. “I was so proud of what I accomplished just because I didn’t think I was able to do it,” she said.
Her husband, she said, never doubted her. “He’s my best supporter,” Delly said. “He’s always like, ‘I knew you could do it.’”
The cake took far longer than it should have, and she joked that she definitely did not make a profit on it. But that was beside the point. She had proven something to herself.
A Family Business
Delly’s life outside the bakery is every bit as busy as her life inside it. She and her husband have five children, ages 10, 9, 8, 4 and 2. She also volunteers at her church and her children’s school.
Running a business on top of family and community commitments has not always been easy. “I honestly didn’t know if I could do it,” she said. Her faith has been a constant source of strength. “I feel like God just led me here and God gives me the strength every day to get up and do what I have to do,” she said. “And I truly love it.”
Her children have also become enthusiastic participants in the business, taking decorating classes when they can.
Cakes with a Whisk also offers children’s camps during school breaks and the summer, where participants can design their own bakery on paper, learn to decorate cakes, and take part in crafts, slime, and other activities.
For Delly, the business has become more than a place where cakes are made. It is a place where people can celebrate.
She enjoys changing the bakery’s decorations with the seasons and holidays, including fall and Halloween. “I can come in here and just change things up and use my creativity to make people feel the love and the holidays and the special moments of life,” she said. “If I could do that, that makes me happy.”
Delly also sees her Chaldean background as an important part of who she is as a business owner. She believes the community’s strong work ethic and entrepreneurial spirit have influenced her approach. “I think being Chaldean, we have a very strong work ethic, and I think that is very valuable in any business,” she said. “I do not stop. I keep going.”
She also sees a connection between her faith and the way she operates her business. “We were raised to be very faithful,” she said. “I think that really helps because that goes hand in hand with our culture.”
Although Cakes with a Whisk does not currently specialize in Chaldean desserts, Delly is open to incorporating flavors and ingredients familiar to the community, such as baklava, dates, and date syrup. She also hopes more members of the community will discover the business and support local entrepreneurs.
“I think it’s definitely something that is very important in our community,” she said. “I think some people don’t know about certain businesses.”
Beyond the Bakery
Delly’s ambitions for Cakes with a Whisk extend beyond custom cakes and classes. She is currently exploring ways to bring the company’s products into grocery stores and gas stations, focusing on dessert cups and smaller treats that travel well.
She is also developing a cake-decorating kit that customers could purchase to take home or give as a gift. The idea grew naturally from watching people leave her classes excited to try what they had learned at home. “They really think, ‘OK, I could do this,’” Delly said.
Her own journey is proof that sometimes confidence comes after the leap, rather than before it. Her advice to aspiring entrepreneurs is simple: Make a plan, but do not let fear prevent you from starting.
“I truly believe that you should think about it and have a plan, but sometimes you just have to jump into something,” she said. “If you have God on your side and you’re passionate about it, it will work out.”
And if it does not? “That’s OK,” she said. “There’s been multiple times where I felt like a door was open and then it didn’t work out and then doors closed, but better things came after it.” Her advice is to jump in and pray.
For Delly, that philosophy has already taken her from a creative mom with no professional cake-decorating experience to a business owner who can step behind the counter and make the cake herself when necessary.
One More Cake
And if she could make one final cake for anyone in the world, she already knows exactly what she would make. A tiramisu cake, for her father, who died nearly 10 years ago and loved tiramisu.
Years ago, Delly attempted to make him a tiramisu cake and, by her own admission, added far too much liquor. Her father and grandfather ate it anyway. “I think no matter what I made him, he would be happy,” she said. “It would make me so happy to be able to enjoy that with him one more time.”
Delly believes her father is still watching over her. “There’s been too many times where things could have gone horribly wrong and they didn’t,” she said. “I feel like it was my dad and God.”
Today, she keeps moving forward—one cake, one class, and one challenge at a time.
Visit cakeswithawhisk.com, where customers can view the company’s work, submit inquiries, and find information about upcoming classes. The bakery also shares its work on social media.