Baking her way through post-secondary
Teenager launches Andrena's Cakes to generate income for college
Lyndsay Herman
Northern News Services
Published Monday, December 9, 2013
AKLAVIK
To save for college, many high school graduates make a point of saving, apply to every bursary and scholarship they can find, or take out student loans, but it's not every day you hear about a student starting a business to generate extra income.
The cupcake 17-year-old Andrena Noland displays is one of many pastries she's selling so she can save for college, after she established her own business in February. - photo courtesy of Andrena Noland |
Seventeen-year-old Andrena Noland opened Andrena's Cakes in February, in preparation for the costs of post-secondary education.
She settled on baking as her venture after participating in a Skills NWT competition in the baking category.
"My mom owns a hair salon, so she really helped me a lot with the business aspects," said Noland. "It was really just a bit of a whim. I set up a Facebook page and just started selling them."
Noland and her family moved to the North over seven years ago from Florida, and now live in Aklavik.
While they lived in Inuvik, Noland learned her craft from a woman who made cakes in the town. She gave Noland some books to study up on the trade.
When the Skills Competition came up in February this year, Noland decided to submit an entry on a whim.
She won first place in the regional competition and, though she didn't place in the territorial competition, she was inspired to put more into her baking. Noland subsequently set up Andrena's Cakes with a Facebook page to try her hand at baking as a business.
"I just kind of took off with it," Noland said.
Most of Noland's customers are local, with the majority of orders orders being for events like birthdays, she said.
A real test of her skill was in creating a wedding cake for her brother in Florida.
"I do birthdays, mostly," she said. "I have done my parent's anniversary cake. I did my brother's wedding cake. That was huge."
She said working on a dinosaur-shaped cake for a customer in Aklavik was one of her favourite projects, because it was a unique shape that tested her skills.
"Sometimes, I get bored with doing the same roses over and over again, so I like to try different flavours and like to do different shapes," Noland said. "I really want to be challenged in it."
Baking is more of a hobby than a career choice for Noland, but she said expects the business experience to be a valuable addition to her resume, particularly if she is looking for work while she studies.
"If I need to find a job, maybe at a bakery, then I'll have that there," she said.
Noland has already been accepted to the Ambassador Baptist College in North Carolina, U.S. She plans to study missions, which will teach her about running a church or ministry in a foreign country.
