Brockton mom 'instantly had a business' after posting spectacular cake on Snapchat

BROCKTON — Inside a Brockton home, what started as a bakery experiment turned into a thriving business for one Brockton woman.

Gianna Pina started her business Sweet Kreations by Gianna by accident three years ago. She wanted to create her daughter's birthday cake and started the process in her kitchen. To the baker's surprise, the cake came out beautiful, and many people wanted in on the sweet treats.

The sweet treats include letter cakes, cookies, cake pops, round cakes, multiple-tier cakes, rice crispy treats and anything your sugar craving desires.

Pina learned how to create cakes from YouTube before TikTok or Instagram brought tutorials.

During the day, Pina works as a surgery tech in a dermatology practice.

Then, after leaving work at 3, she's off to her second job of baking six to seven cakes daily.

The work is tiring for the mother of two, but the money and having a business to pass down to her kids is worth it all, she said.

"I posted the letter cake for my daughter's second birthday on Snapchat, and it blew up. Everyone started writing me to make them one, and instantly I had a business," Pina said.

As the pressure grew to fulfill customers' orders, Pina knew this business would continue to grow, but she needed some help.

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One of the entrepreneur's biggest struggles was finding a mentor who could answer questions and help as a new baker. Pina didn't have much luck until later in her career when she discovered her baking community.

"One baker told me she wouldn't teach me the craft because that would make me her competition. I don't see fellow bakers in my area as competition. I see everyone as a big community because there are enough customers for all of us to make money," Pina said.

"I had a hard time finding people that would teach me, but I found one girl, and she ended up teaching me everything I know. She helped me with any questions I have had and helped me so much," Pina said.

Nonetheless, Pina did not let the lack of knowledge deter her from continuing her business.

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Pina continued to create cakes and made mistakes, and learned from them.

"Honestly, you just have to get in the kitchen and teach yourself," Pina said.

Since the beginning, Pina has expanded her skill set into creating cakes with realistic aspects to them. Her daughters get so excited when they open the fridge and see what beautiful creation their mother made today.

"My biggest motivation is my kids. Eventually, I want to have a legacy and foundation so they can pick up on and teach my daughters how to decorate and bake cakes if they're interested," Pina said.

The goal for the baker is to continue to expand her clientele and broaden her skill set. Right now, she thinks about opening a bakery but running a bakery at home has been difficult with a dozen clients inquiring about Sweet Kreations.

Some advice Pina gives to budding bakers is that you're not always going to be good initially. It takes a lot of practice, and eventually, you'll get there.

When Pina is stressed and overwhelmed, she takes a break and takes a deep breath, and remembers why she is doing this, and it's because she loves creating masterpieces with batter.

Another piece of advice Pina gives is to be organized. She takes a day during the week to reply to customers, finalize orders, set pick-up dates and create social media marketing materials.

Her favorite cake flavor is Oreo or vanilla cake with dolce leche filling. The other flavors customers can order include tres leches, confetti, chocolate, red velvet, strawberry and any fruit filling.

Pina never found baking interesting or thought she would create a second income from baking. Instead, the business came about from her curiosity and worked well for the entrepreneur.

Baking consumes most of her free time, but she wouldn't have it any other way.

Enterprise staff reporter Alisha Saint-Ciel can be reached by email at stciela@gannett.com. You can follow her on Twitter at @alishaspeakss and Instagram at Alishaatv. Support local journalism by purchasing a digital or print subscription to The Enterprise today.

This article originally appeared on The Enterprise: Brockton Sweet Kreations: Gianna Pina owns her own cake business