She Built It Anyway: Ursula Hatcha of Lush Cakes on Financial Freedom, Resilience, and the Real Cost of Building a Business

Content note: This episode contains candid discussion of domestic violence and assault. If you or someone you know needs support, please reach out to the National Domestic Violence Hotline: 1-800-799-7233 or thehotline.org.

Ursula Hatcha didn't start Lush Cakes because entrepreneurship was her dream. She started it because she needed a way out — and a way forward. Seven years in, Ursula is still baking, still building, and still one of the most talented cake artists in the Pacific Northwest. This conversation is for every baker who started their business out of necessity and is figuring out what it looks like to keep going anyway.

In This Episode:

• Why Ursula started Lush Cakes — and how building financial independence became a literal lifeline for her and her kids
• Growing from zero local connections to having her work featured by Wilton, Satin Ice, and major cake brands worldwide
• The pricing mistakes almost every baker makes — and the cheat sheet system Ursula developed to stop working for free
• What it really costs to make a cake (hint: it's not just the fondant) — overhead, time, cleanup, and the wear on your equipment
• Building contracts and policies the hard way — real stories about wedding cake transport, damage, refunds, and clients who didn't read the fine print
• Why "the customer is always right" isn't always right — and how Ursula now uses a client interview process to protect her work and her time
• The business structure anxiety that holds so many bakers back from going "official" — and what it took to get past it
• Ursula's advice for bakers just getting started: ask questions, find community, and don't try to figure it all out alone

About Ursula: Ursula Hatcha is the founder of Lush Cakes, based in Portland, Oregon. She specializes in lavish custom cakes, with a particular focus on weddings, and brings a fine artist's eye to every design she creates. Her work has been featured by Wilton, Satin Ice, and other major brands in the cake world. She works from home, raises four kids, and builds her business on grit, artistry, and a stubborn belief that it's possible. Find her on Instagram.

Resources Mentioned:

• Lush Cakes by Ursula Hatcha — find her on Instagram
• Price It Right class (mentioned by Dani) — Dani's Kitchen Shop: https://www.daniskitchenshop.com/price-it-right
• National Domestic Violence Hotline: 1-800-799-7233 | thehotline.org
• Dani's Kitchen Shop: https://www.daniskitchenshop.com/
• Follow along on Instagram: @daniskitchenshop

Connect with Dani:

• Website: https://www.daniskitchenshop.com/
• Instagram: @daniskitchenshop

What does it look like to move to a brand-new state, discover revised cottage food laws, and build a thriving custom cake and baking business in under two years — mostly on your own? Alexia Drifmeyer did exactly that, and her story is equal parts inspiring and deeply practical. If you've ever wondered whether you could really do this, this episode is your answer.

In This Episode:

• How Alexia moved from Northern Kentucky to Rapid City, South Dakota at 18 and turned a love of baking with her grandma into a real business
• Why South Dakota's cottage food laws gave her a head start — and what you should know about your own state's laws before you begin
• The turning point when getting let go from her job became the push she needed to go all-in on baking
• Why she repriced every single product before going full time — and the mindset shift that made it possible
• The free birthday cake that made her cry in her car and eventually launched her entire custom cake business
• How she navigated tourist season in the Black Hills, and why she started optimizing for shelf stability and portability
• Her honest conversation about imposter syndrome — comparing herself to bakers with 20 years of experience when she had one
• What teaching over 70 cake decorating classes in a year taught her about community, connection, and sharing your skill
• Her five-year plan: streamlining systems, growing her online presence, and eventually opening a storefront in Rapid City

Guest Bio: Alexia Drifmeyer is the owner of Bakes to Tango, a custom baking business based in Rapid City, South Dakota. She started her business in 2023 after moving to the Black Hills, and has grown from a cottage baker selling cookies on Facebook Marketplace to a full-time baker specializing in custom cakes, wedding cakes, and in-person cake decorating workshops. She operates a permanent booth at a local flea market and is expanding into farmers markets and pop-ups across the surrounding Black Hills communities.

Resources Mentioned:

• SDSU Extension Cottage Food Law (search "SDSU extension cottage food law" for South Dakota info)
• Bakes Two to Tango — find Alexia on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/p/Bakes-Two-to-Tango-100094457563488/ and Instagram https://www.instagram.com/baketwototango/
• A Bakery of Your Own Framework (Dani's five-stage roadmap for bakery entrepreneurs): https://www.daniskitchenshop.com/
• Dani's Kitchen Shop: https://www.daniskitchenshop.com/
• Follow along on Instagram: @daniskitchenshop
• The Business of Baking: https://www.daniskitchenshop.com/business-of-baking

Connect with Dani:

• Website: https://www.daniskitchenshop.com/
• Instagram: @daniskitchenshop

Do you ever feel like you're just wandering in your bakery business, doing what seems right and hoping something sticks? In this episode, Dani introduces the Bakery of Your Own framework — a five-stage roadmap that finally gives bakers the language and clarity to understand exactly where they are and what to focus on next.

In This Episode:

• Why most bakers feel lost — and why it's not their fault (the path exists, it's just not talked about clearly enough)
• An overview of all five stages: The Dream, The Foundation, The Recipe, The Proof, and The Rhythm
• Dani's personal story at each stage, from dabbling in cookie decorating to building a systems-driven business
• Why the Foundation stage is the one no one warns you about — and why it's actually everything
• How the Recipe stage is where baking becomes a true business (and why underpricing is a business-ending problem)
• What the Proof stage really requires: honest eyes on your numbers, not just a full order calendar
• What the Rhythm stage actually looks like in real life — including the months Dani still hits the edge of burnout and how she builds in the reset
• Take the free quiz to find your stage in about two minutes: quiz.tryinteract.com/#/68f97e1719c7ec0015e1e6a2

Resources Mentioned:

• 🎯 Find Your Stage Quiz (free!): quiz.tryinteract.com/#/68f97e1719c7ec0015e1e6a2
• Your Dream Guide: https://daniskitchenshop.myflodesk.com/dream-stage-freebie
• Full Bakery of Your Own resources: daniskitchenshop.com/a-bakery-of-your-own
• Dream Stage Starter Guide (free resource for Stage 1 bakers)
• Price It Right mini course (for Stage 3 bakers working on pricing)
• The Business of Baking: daniskitchenshop.com/business-of-baking
• Dani's Kitchen Shop: daniskitchenshop.com
• Follow along on Instagram: @daniskitchenshop

Connect with Dani:

• Website: daniskitchenshop.com
• Instagram: @daniskitchenshop

This week, Dani is in the middle of the most intense baking stretch of her year — 2,500 cookies in a single week — and she's pulling back the curtain on exactly how she got here. Spoiler: it wasn't luck. In this solo episode, Dani gets honest about the opportunities that nearly broke her, the systems that saved her, and what it actually means to build a business that's ready to say yes.

In This Episode:

• Why the opportunities showing up in Dani's life right now didn't come out of nowhere — and what they have in common
• The truth about consistency: you can't always see it working, but people are watching
• The hard yes that triggered an insurance nightmare — and why it was exactly the push she needed
• Why being "ready" is a system, not a mindset
• The four behind-the-scenes foundations that made a 2,500-cookie order possible
• A powerful reflection question: if your dream opportunity landed in your inbox tomorrow, could your business actually hold that yes?
• What to do if the answer is "not yet" — and how to get specific about your gap

Resources Mentioned:

• Dani's Kitchen Shop: https://www.daniskitchenshop.com/
• Follow along on Instagram: @daniskitchenshop

Connect with Dani:

• Website: https://www.daniskitchenshop.com/
• Instagram: @daniskitchenshop

You've been baking for years. People love your stuff. But does that mean you're ready to run a business? In this episode, Dani gets real about what actually separates the hobby baker from the business owner — and it has nothing to do with how good your cookies taste.

In This Episode:

• Why the question "am I ready to start a baking business?" is actually the wrong question to ask
• The mindset shift from measuring success in compliments to measuring it in profit
• The hobby-to-business trap: why underpricing feels normal at first and how to get out of it
• Why systems are the real foundation of a scalable bakery (and what Dani's very first system actually was)
• The cost of saying yes to everything — and how experience teaches you when to say no
• Why you are not your own ideal customer, and why that matters for your pricing confidence
• The difference between doing something fun and building something lasting — and how Dani holds both

Resources Mentioned:

• Dani's Kitchen Shop: https://www.daniskitchenshop.com/
• Follow along on Instagram: @daniskitchenshop

Connect with Dani:

• Website: https://www.daniskitchenshop.com/
• Instagram: @daniskitchenshop

What does AI actually mean for someone who works with their hands? In this honest, solo episode, Dani shares the stance she's been quietly building for a year and a half — not from hot takes and headlines, but from real research, real conversations, and real dough. If you've been feeling the pressure to have an AI strategy before you've even figured out what you believe about AI, this one's for you.

In This Episode:

• Why Dani stopped forming her opinion from other people's opinions — and did the hard work of figuring out what she actually believes
• The question that unlocked everything: Am I still the author of this work?
• Pillar 1: AI as a tool, not an authority — and why fluent output is not the same as wisdom
• Pillar 2: Somatic intelligence — the body knowing before the brain does, and why it's irreplaceable (royal icing, cookie dough, and years of reps as proof)
• Pillar 3: Vigilance as an active practice — staying the maker, not just the producer, and why you need to do something the hard way this week on purpose
• Pillar 4: Ecological accountability — the water, the land, and the questions a farmer's wife can't set aside
• A challenge to find your stance before you build your strategy

Resources Mentioned:

• Dani's Kitchen Shop: https://www.daniskitchenshop.com/
• Follow along on Instagram: @daniskitchenshop

Connect with Dani:

• Website: https://www.daniskitchenshop.com/
• Instagram: @daniskitchenshop

After 10 years and 160,000+ cookies, Dani's finally telling the whole story — not the highlight reel. In this honest, funny, and deeply relatable episode, Dani is joined by her kitchen manager and lead baker, Mercedes, to walk through the real mistakes, mishaps, and near-disasters that have shaped Dani's Kitchen Shop. If you've ever felt like you were the only one scrambling, this one's for you.

In This Episode:

• Why Dani's ordering system is the root of most chaos — and how she's learned to own it
• The truth about color-matching custom cookies (RIP, every dusty rose order ever)
• Production disasters: from spelling mistakes on cookies to footless chickens to a 14-cookie "dozen"
• What it really looks like when the oven runs away with the temperature for six straight months
• The ant colony that hatched on a Monday morning — and why procrastination made it worse
• Smelly aprons, dishwasher bubble floods, and a printer that works about 50% of the time
• Why the mistakes don't define the business — and why Dani is still proud of what she's built

Guest Bio: Mercedes is the kitchen manager and lead baker at Dani's Kitchen Shop. She's the steady hand behind the scenes, the person who catches the miscounts, double-checks the text messages, and has witnessed more than her fair share of Dani's "it'll be fine" moments. She's also the one who graciously reminds Dani when they're out of milk.

Resources Mentioned:

• Dani's Kitchen Shop: https://www.daniskitchenshop.com/
• Follow along on Instagram & Facebook: @daniskitchenshop

Connect with Dani:

• Website: https://www.daniskitchenshop.com/
• Instagram: @daniskitchenshop

When You're Wired for Creativity but Running a Business: A Conversation with Joy Kaplan of Sweet Joyness Bakery

What happens when someone who spent years inside professional bakeries decides to go out on their own — and realizes that making beautiful things is only half the job? In this episode, Dani sits down with Joy Kaplan of Sweet Joyness Bakery in Beaverton, Oregon, for an honest, laugh-out-loud conversation about creativity, burnout, pricing, and the messy reality of building a business around how your brain actually works.

In This Episode:

• Joy's path from Wilton classes at Michael's to Cold Stone to pastry school to professional bakeries — and why she finally launched her own cottage bakery in 2020
• The difference between working in a bakery and running your own: wearing every hat, from decorating to ordering boxes to chasing invoices
• Why pricing correctly changed everything — Joy discovered she was charging $15–$20 less per dozen than other bakers and made a shift that changed her stress level overnight
• How comparison with large bakeries can quietly distort your pricing and your confidence as a small business owner
• The burnout cycle that so many cottage bakers fall into — and the systems that can interrupt it before you crash
• Why streamlining your order form and setting clear creative boundaries can protect both your time and your artistry
• The case for protecting your hobbies: why Joy doesn't sell her craft projects and Dani doesn't sell her dahlias
• How other creative outlets — embroidery, quilting, other crafts — can actually refuel your cookie creativity instead of replacing it
• Joy's advice for bakers just starting out: visit your local Small Business Development Center and start learning the business basics early

Guest Bio: Joy Kaplan is the owner of Sweet Joyness Bakery in Beaverton, Oregon, a cottage bakery specializing in decorated cakes and cookies with a delightfully quirky style. Joy brings a rare perspective to the cottage baking world — she spent most of her adult life working inside professional bakeries as a cake decorator, learning high-volume production, food safety, and efficiency before launching her own home business in 2020.

Resources Mentioned:

• Sweet Joyness Bakery (Joy's business) — find her on social media
• CookieCon — national conference for cookie decorators
• Sweet Nelson's Bakery — Ashley Nelson's efficiency class on order forms
• PCC Small Business Development Center — free initial seminar and business planning support
• Spark Program — business mentoring connected to the SBDC
• The Business of Baking: https://www.daniskitchenshop.com/business-of-baking
• Dani's Kitchen Shop: https://www.daniskitchenshop.com/
• Follow along on Instagram: @daniskitchenshop

Connect with Dani:

• Website: https://www.daniskitchenshop.com/
• Instagram: @daniskitchenshop