'I’m finding my groove': Ashlyn’s Sweet Revenge baker strives to keep gluten-free cakes simple, tasty

Ashlyn Haury got her start in baking with bunny cakes. Every year, she’d make them with her grandmother.

It is still what she thinks of every time she makes a cake today. She even has her grandmother’s Kitchen-Aid mixer.

But her baking has changed.

It wasn’t until well after she’d started making and selling cakes that she realized how many people needed gluten-free options. Then she learned she had an allergy and had to cut gluten from her own diet. It wasn’t a simple transition, but one that proved to work well for her and the home-based baking business she’s built.

Today, she focuses her business, Ashlyn’s Sweet Revenge, on creating gluten-free custom cakes and cupcakes.

She offers eight flavors, with various fillings and frostings; “funfetti” has become a popular pick for weddings. Haury will be at the Ozaukee County Wedding Showcase with samples from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Feb. 26 at River Club of Mequon, 12400 N. Ville du Parc Drive, Mequon. Her custom cake prices start at $80. For information, go to ashlynssweetrevenge.com.

How she started with baking

When I was little, I used to bake with my grandma. Every year for Easter, we’d make a bunny cake. It literally looked like a bunny. We have videos and pictures of us doing that every year.

Baking was something I was always going back to. I did not really know what I wanted to do in high school. In college, I changed my major three times. I wasn’t finding my fit. My mom, Stella Holmes, was like, "What if we take these cake classes at Michael’s?" … I really liked it. OK, this is something I want to pursue.

Drive to succeed

I was looking at Milwaukee Area Technical College for baking and pastry. They had a really long wait list. I was, like, No. 80.

I found Waukesha County Technical College. I got accepted into the baking and pastry certificate program. It is a yearlong program. I would work from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. and then drive to Waukesha and have school from 5 to 10 p.m. It was the first time I felt like I was good at something. I was enjoying going to school every day, which was not usual for me.

Finding her fit

I worked at Blooming Lotus for two years. I got burned out. It can be a lot, being on your feet all day. Maybe I should go back to an office job and just do this on the side. I can bake my own recipes and do this when I want. I wanted the experience of working at a store, so if I ever wanted to do that I knew. Now I work full time at a dental office and do cakes on the side.

Ashlyn’s Sweet Revenge

I was going through a breakup at the time and had moved back home. My mom came up with the name.

Going gluten free

Everyone loved my chocolate and strawberry cakes — they were my top sellers. Then I found out about my gluten allergy. What am I going to do?

I was young, my early 20s. They were just starting with (more available) rice flour, cup-to-cup flour. Do I make the switch? For a while, I didn’t. I was just going to do what I knew. Then I started working at Blooming Lotus and learned about cashew butter instead of butter cream frosting, almond flour, coconut flour. You actually can make stuff taste good. It is hard to find stuff that tastes good and is gluten free. That experience opened the door.

Recipe revamp

I was able to re-create my chocolate cake recipe. I made a gluten-free vanilla cake recipe. I make a chocolate chip cookie with almond and coconut flour that is really, really good. That pushed me forward.

I kind of kicked and screamed for a while, but I’m finding my groove. It has been six years. I’m still finding my recipes and developing them. I test them all on my family. It is all trial and error.

Finding her flour

With almond flour, it is a little grainier than normal (wheat) flour. Coconut flour is a little less grainy. When I found rice flour and the cup-to-cup options, I felt it is the same consistency as regular flour. This is going to work for my recipes.

Flavor fun

One of my most popular wedding cake flavors is “funfetti.” My mom thinks it is crazy, but it is really fun. I was not expecting it to be my most popular. Funfetti is also my husband's favorite.

Chocolate has always been my tried and true. I put chocolate chips in my cake, it just adds a little something. My vanilla cake is really good, and my peanut butter frosting is one of my favorites. I use something I learned from school, a Swiss meringue buttercream. That is my only frosting I use. It is creamy.

Sweet style

I like to do simple. I don’t want to do a cake covered in fondant. I want you to be able to taste and enjoy the frosting. I don’t want that to be an afterthought or something you have to work for. I want you to bite into the cake and taste the frosting with the cake. I don’t know that I’d call myself a minimalist, but I want simple with little personal touches.

Painted perfection

My mom and I recently started this thing. I make the cakes and frost them, and she paints the flowers. She is an artist (Holmes owns Stella's Studio Art). She uses frosting for the painting. It is the new thing, people want flowers on their cake but not real flowers. People are starting to use buttercream as the floral part of the cake.

Her first sale

The first wedding cake I sold was for a friend of a friend, a three-tier chocolate cake, all white with blue fondant flowers. I remember sitting in my living room, making tons and tons of tiny flowers. It hit me: Oh my, I’m making somebody’s wedding cake. When it was delivered, I could finally breathe.

Need to know

I don’t ever want to replicate somebody’s cake. If somebody gives me a photo and says we want to do this, I don’t want to do that. I don’t want to copy somebody’s idea. I want ideas, a vision board, a theme, like colors or a certain thing like Lego or Superman. Let’s have a theme and make it our own. I also don’t want to cover a cake in fondant. It loses the taste, and this cake will be eaten. I want you to enjoy it.

Custom creations

I just updated my pricing. For a 6-inch cake, it starts at $80. For a 10-inch, it is $120. For tiered, it can go up from there with the different layers.

I need at least two weeks for birthday cakes. Usually, wedding cakes are ordered months in advance.

More:She loves to bake but didn't want to eat it all. Hence the bakery business

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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Ashlyn's Sweet Revenge baker finds her groove with gluten-free cakes