Dream kitchen leads to new career
Nov. 26—The idea was hatched in 2016, but Candice Meade didn't know it yet.
"We had just finished building our home and more than anything, I wanted a kitchen that I could really entertain people in," she recalls.
So she got her dream kitchen in her dream home in Shady Spring, and began doing just that.
But as she looked around the space, she decided it was big enough for other things as well.
"I started thinking, 'I have the resources here,'" she says. "'I have the space and the equipment I need. Maybe I can do a little catering.'"
She was looking for a change, anyway.
After more than a decade in real estate — buying, selling and remodeling — the mother of two children wanted something different.
"I was burned out," she says. "I had been injured. I'd had both hips reconstructed. Life turned around all at once and I decided I wanted to try to do something I was passionate about."
Her real passion has always been to create.
"My mom always wanted me to do something artistic like having a gallery," she recalls.
Meade, a 1998 graduate of Woodrow Wilson High School, had sold her paintings as well as pencil and ink drawings on the side for years.
Catering wasn't quite like painting, but she says it did give her a chance to create.
And it didn't take long before she received a request for a cake.
"I thought, 'Huh. Yeah, I can do that,'" she says. "I think it started with a carrot cake."
Soon, she was baking more than she was cooking.
"People started asking me for more and more," she says, explaining she eventually decided to end the catering portion of her offerings and focus on cakes.
She already knew how to bake, but researching techniques opened a whole new world.
"I really had no idea the possibilities with it," she says. "I just fell in love and realized this is really a great way to be passionate and enjoy not just the culinary aspect that I like, but the artistic, beautiful side that I love."
Meade's cakes have grown in both size and detail since that carrot cake.
It was word-of-mouth in the beginning, but then Facebook and Instagram really helped her take off.
"In a small town, word travels fast," she says.
As she got more involved in baking, she spent more time researching.
She was secure in her abilities to decorate, but she was committed to learning the art of baking.
"It was the more upscale and traditional old-world techniques," she says. "Just pure baking. Pure butter creams."
Through trial and error, she perfected French and Swiss butter cream.
Then she turned her attention to macaroons.
That's where, she says, she really set herself apart.
"Even down to the fruit filling compote that is fresh fruit balanced with floral and/or herbs and things," she says. "I try to use the purest ingredients and refine it so it's unique and high quality."
Though they're time-consuming and tricky to make, macaroons have become one of Meade's best-selling creations.
"There's nothing cheap or fast about it," she says of the process. "You either do it right, or it's trash.
"I just love that about it."
Meade still makes those simple requests like a birthday carrot cake, but she's often busy creating intricate multiple-tier wedding cakes with hand-drawn designs.
"I call it canvas on cake," she says of her hand-drawn creations. "It's the icing on the cake for me because I get to draw."
It also allows her to personalize on a different level.
"I like to convey to people that the reason I do this is that I really enjoy making something original that people can receive and enjoy in their special moment," she says. "It's one-of-a-kind and represents that special occasion whether it's a birthday cake or a wedding cake."
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Five years after officially launching Posh Manna Cake Art, Meade still works out of her kitchen, but is helped by her 20-year-old daughter Chloe Craddock and her newest assistant Derick Drafton.
Chloe not only assists in the creative, but also helps run Meade's social media and website, through which orders are placed and appointments for wedding tastings are scheduled.
Though her kitchen has met her needs so far, Meade has her eyes on something bigger.
"I'm looking to start a boutique hotel in Beckley," she says, explaining her baking operation would relocate upon its opening.
"A lot of good things are happening and things are really looking up for Raleigh County and southern West Virginia," she says of her reason for the plan. "There's so much potential."
She has big plans for it and says it's moving along but isn't ready to release too many details just yet.
In the meantime, she's simply focused on providing the best service she can.
"You're only as good as your last cake," she says.
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Meade asks those interested in ordering custom cakes or other desserts to visit www.poshmanna.com.
She asks that intricate cake orders be placed about 2 1/2 months ahead of time and says weddings are booking four to six months in advance.
Posh Manna also offers specialties for the holidays.
This year's Christmas menu will feature Swiss Yule Logs and three choices of macaroons — chocolate mocha, holiday spice and pistachio — sold by the dozen. For more information, visit Posh Manna online.
