MY STORY
YUMMY AUSSIE
I’m a Brit, who at 21 fell in love with a yummy Queenslander while I was here on holiday in 1996.
I’ve been living on this beautiful island ever since.
I started out working in steel foundries as a manufacturing engineer and retrained as an interior designer while I was pregnant with our second child. It wasn’t until our youngest daughter headed off to school that Cake 2 The Rescue was born. From that day forward I became known to most as Baker Girl Lou.
“WE RESCUE FAMILIES DAY IN DAY OUT ALL OVER AUSTRALIA. BUT IN TRUTH THE PERSON C2TR “RESCUED” IS ME “
FINDING ME
As a stay-at-home mum of three girls under 5 with a hubby working in China two weeks of the month, life was pretty full-on.
By the time my youngest headed off to school, I felt completely lost and had no idea where my own dreams fitted into our family life. Launching C2TR helped me find myself again. It gave me something of my own, a place to belong, to grow, to flourish.
“SINCE OUR LAUNCH IN 2011, OUR DIY CAKE KITS HAVE HELPS TENS OF THOUSANDS OF BUSY FAMILIES POUR THEIR LOVE INTO A HOMEMADE CAKE“
10 YEARS IN THE BAKING
I honestly love my job. I’m one of those left and right brain people. I’m into the nerdy smart business stuff, but I’m creative at heart. Building C2TR from scratch has allowed me to be both. On any given day, I can be whipping up a new design in the kitchen one minute and expanding my entrepreneurial vision the next.
When we started C2TR I had no business experience at all, and it showed.Man, we made so many classic mistakes in those early years. After an ugly partnership split three years in, a rethink of the business model, and a much-needed brand update, we slowly transformed our “great idea” into a viable business model. By the seventh year, it was a real business and since has flourished into a successful brand I love and am proud to call my own.
KIDS DON’T CARE ABOUT CRUMBS IN THE ICING
IT’S NOT PERFECT BUT…
Something I see every day in my beautiful customers is Mummy Guilt. The pressure to be perfect. So many cake posts that start with “It’s not perfect but…”.
Over the last three years, my focus has shifted to celebrating imperfection, raising mums up, building a kind, supportive community and reminding mums that they are enough just as they are.
VULNERABILITY IS MY SUPERPOWER
I’ve come to realize that if I show up for my community as the truest version of myself then everyone else has the confidence to be themselves too. All of a sudden we can all let our guard down and breathe a sigh of relief.