Small Business Spotlight: Cakewalk Chicago Helps Bakers Turn Their Skills into Income

For many people who walk into Cakewalk Chicago, a cake is more than something to bring to a party. It is an order to fill, a customer to keep, and income to support their family.

That is what Lori Parrett sees from behind the counter of the Beverly baking supply store she has spent 24 years building.

“At its core, Cakewalk is essential supplies for the modern baker,” said Parrett. “But in practice, it’s a small business incubator. Most of our customers have customers. They’re taking butter, sugar, flour, and eggs and turning them into something they can sell.”

Cakewalk Chicago supplies the tools, ingredients, and guidance those bakers need to build their businesses. Its customers include home bakers making treats for friends and family, entrepreneurs developing businesses from their kitchens, and commercial bakeries looking for specialized supplies.

That role grew naturally from the work that brought her into business in the first place: teaching.

A pastry chef by training, Parrett taught the Wilton Method of cake decorating at retailers including Michaels, Sur La Table, and JCPenney. The classes introduced students to decorating techniques and the tools needed to practice them. But some students wanted to keep learning beyond what the courses offered.

“My students wanted to learn more than what I was teaching in those classes,” Parrett said. “I asked them, ‘If I open a store, would you come?’ They said yes, and I’ve been doing it ever since.”

She began teaching from her home before moving into a retail space. Her husband found a candy store on 95th Street in Beverly with an opportunity to share the space, giving Cakewalk its first storefront. As the business evolved, Parrett eventually moved to its longtime home near 99th and Wood streets.

For much of that time, she was also working a full-time job and raising her children.

“The store was a hobby,” she said. “I had my full-time job for 18 years, until the pandemic. The store had part-time hours, and sometimes I would put a note on the door because I had to pick up my children from school. My children grew up in it.”

But the shelves gradually became a reflection of what the neighborhood’s bakers needed.

“I would stock what I thought people needed, and then people would come in and ask for something,” Parrett said. “I would tell them, ‘We just ran out, but I’ll have some tomorrow.’ Then I would go buy what they needed and put it on the shelves. The store was built partly from what I knew and partly from what people requested.”

Her experience at Williams Sonoma and Sur La Table helped shape the approach. Alongside familiar decorating supplies, she brought in professional equipment and the product knowledge that could help customers choose the right tool for the job.

Today, even a question about a pastry tip can tell Parrett something about a customer’s background. Different brands and numbering systems offer clues about whether someone learned in culinary school, through decorating classes, or online.

That understanding helps her meet bakers wherever they are starting.

Some arrive after years of making cakes for family parties, encouraged by friends to begin charging for their work. Others already run commercial operations and need a specialty item, supplies in larger quantities, or help training employees.

Parrett also connects people looking for cakes with bakers in her customer network. Although she still makes cakes herself occasionally, she often refers orders to others who can take on the work.

“If someone asks me for a cake, I can refer them to one of the hundreds of bakers in our system,” she said. “I can help them create something, make some money, and then they buy the supplies they need from me. We are a business that takes care of people.”

As Cakewalk became a business that other entrepreneurs relied on, Parrett also needed support with its own operations. Over the years, she connected with the Polsky Exchange for financial training, prototyping opportunities, and marketing help.

One of the most important experiences was the Small Business Financial Fundamentals program, which helps business owners strengthen financial reporting, understand access to capital, and manage their finances.

“Understanding my finances was super critical,” Parrett said. “I didn’t start out saying, ‘I’m going to build a business, and here is my plan.’ I was learning as I went. Financial Fundamentals helped me understand what I needed, find a good accountant, and be better prepared for different opportunities.”

Student support helped turn those lessons into changes inside the store.

When Parrett entered the program, she had been using a basic cash register purchased at Sam’s Club. She was beginning to transition to a point-of-sale system, but her products had not yet been entered into it.

“With the old register, I put in a dollar amount and it spit out a receipt,” Parrett said. “One of the students came into the store and helped me enter all my products and inventory them. From there, I could generate reports and connect the system to accounting software. Before that, I didn’t understand how important that information was.”

Those experiences, along with the network of entrepreneurs she connected with through the programs, gave her a community she could return to as new questions arose.

“All of those opportunities have been helpful because I have a community I can tap into,” she said. “Sometimes I have to take a break  because running the business can be overwhelming, but I always stay connected. I open every email.”

Now, Parrett is thinking about how to make Cakewalk less dependent on her while preserving the personal guidance that customers value.

“Over the next year, I want to hire competent people, pay them well, and improve the business so it can last,” she said.

Doing that will require Cakewalk to find new ways to generate revenue without losing the personal service that differentiates it from a general online retailer.

“In person, face to face is important for what we do,” Parrett said. “I don’t need Cakewalk to become just another online store — anyone can do that. I’m figuring out how the business can make money without turning into an online shopping experience.”

Bakery packaging is currently Cakewalk’s strongest product category, with boxes and boards helping customers present their work professionally. Edible images — photographs and designs created with edible materials — are another popular offering. Parrett also sees opportunities in custom cake toppers and wants to bring back more classes that give people a chance to learn and create together.

Alongside those business plans, she is working to bring greater recognition to the artistry behind cake decorating.

Cakewalk Chicago was recently awarded an Illinois Arts Council-funded creative grant for Piped, Pressed and Practiced, a project exploring cake decorating techniques through sculptural and nonedible materials.

For Parrett, this accomplishment helps make visible a part of her work that can be overlooked when Cakewalk is viewed simply as a retail store. The same is true of its role in helping customers support themselves and their families.

The income from a cake order might help pay for a child’s sports program or contribute to the care of a parent. Parrett wants more people to understand that connection — and why sustaining Cakewalk matters to the businesses that have grown around it.

“On paper, I’m just a retail store,” she said. “But we give people skills and help them make money. If they make money, they can send their kids to a sports program or help take care of their parents.”

Follow Cakewalk Chicago on Instagram @cakewalkchicago.

The Small Business Spotlight series highlights South and West Side businesses that have participated in Polsky Exchange programs. Learn more about these exceptional businesses.