Baking and the art of baking has increased in popularity in the past few years. With shows on Netflix dedicated to show-stopping creations that are a mixture of art and food, the surge of artistry bakers has been on the rise as well.

Manisonh Geddie, the owner, baker and cake artist of Cultured Flour, has always been interested in baking, but didn’t get into the art side of decorating until after COVID.

“I had visited a friend in D.C. and we had these ube pancakes and I fell in love with the flavor and I thought,I really want to make an ube cake. And so I tried to search YouTube for a recipe and instructions on how to make this cake. But what I actually came across was a bunch of decorating videos. I've always been into art, and so that really intrigued me. So I kind of went down a rabbit hole watching all of these decorating videos on YouTube. So that’s really how it started,” Geddie said.

She didn’t kick off her business right away. Geddie started to post cakes and cupcakes online on her own social media and people started to reach out to her. They were asking if she made cakes for birthdays, bridal showers, gender reveals, all of it. Her love for decorating the cakes soon overtook her interest in just baking.

“I’ve always loved creating art. Ever since I was younger, my dad would paint these watercolor paintings. So I think that’s where I get my appreciation of art from. I just like creating and experimenting with colors,” Geddie said.

That was the beginning. But then she had a child and took a break for over a year. Geddie started to get back into baking at the end of last year.

“At the beginning of this year I told myself that I wanted to get back into it and I wanted to start selling them, like proactively,” Geddie told Up & Coming Weekly.

Very shortly after making that decision for herself, someone reached out to Geddie about the #HerPitch competition in March.

“The idea was giftable, edible art. So the cakes that I make are petite painted cakes or cupcakes, and they come in different flavors other than your traditional vanilla, chocolate, strawberry. I wanted the flavors to be botanically and culturally inspired.” Geddie said.

The flavors she proposed wouldn’t normally be found in a bakery. She wants to work with flavors like strawberry rose water, ube, lavender and guava. But it’s not just the flavors that would be unique. The artistry on the cakes would be precise and beautiful enough to be bought and given to a person as a gift — all on its own. Ideally, Geddie would love for these cakes to be given out as a gift for Mother’s Day or an anniversary.

Geddie presented her idea as a part of #HERPitch. Out of a dozen business owners, Geddie was one of the four winners who received a grant for $2,500 from CEED Capital and the Women of Power Society of NC. Geddie will be using the grant money towards supply costs.

“When you’re baking, a lot of the supplies individually aren’t super expensive. But it requires a lot, especially the decorating portion of it. And it just adds up really quickly. I think it would have taken me months and months to accumulate supply wise. [The grant] is allowing me to go ahead and get everything I need now, basically wiping out all of my start up costs,” Geddie said.

She hopes to launch these edible, beautiful gifts online sometime before summer kicks off.

Looking towards the future, Geddie says she is taking it all one step at a time. Perhaps she will open up for commissions for a wedding cake one day. But at the moment, she is excited to launch her new project and get her business started.

To learn more about Geddie and her company, Cultured Flour, visit her instagram page, @Cultured_Flour, or email her at culturedflower@gmail.com.