When Ashley Lokey held a grand opening for her bakery business in Wildwood during October 2022, more than 300 people showed up and she sold out of everything, twice. “I had to gather all my family to help me in the kitchen with decorating more cupcakes and cinnamon rolls to keep up with the crowd,” she recalls. “It was more than I could’ve ever dreamed. We started taking orders, and the rest is history.”
Fantastic Cakes and Where to Buy Them has operated for the last year in Wildwood at 16962 Manchester Road, but Ashley and her team are navigating another growth phase via relocating to Lake Saint Louis by the end of 2023. Sept. 30 will be the last day of operations at the Wildwood location.
“While our space in Wildwood was a great starting point, we were ready to grow. We looked everywhere in West County. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to find a building that worked for our goals,” she stated.
For the past year, this West St. Louis County go-getter and her baking team busily provided custom cakes, engagement cakes, bridal shower cakes, wedding cakes and custom cupcakes. They also launched customized "Take The Cake" classes. Kids learn how-to decorating tips for cakes, cupcakes and cookies during the children’s classes; adult classes were modeled after fun, relaxing paint and sip parties. TTC classes are held three times a week, alternating classes for age groups. Private classes also are available, and have been hosted for birthday parties, girl scouts and team-building office events. Ashley assures they intend to bring back the popular TTC summer camps in 2024. There are two tiers of class memberships for both children and adults to accommodate various interests and frequencies.
Ashley says the envisioned, future production kitchen will be three times larger, enabling them to ship out baked goods. They'll also have a dedicated party and classroom space equipped with a wine/beer bar. “We’ll have a new, updated menu full of old favorites and some exciting new updates,” she adds.
The Fantastic Cakes team offers traditional cake flavors from their custom order menu, as well as more unusual ones, such as German chocolate, lemon, carrot or coconut. They also provide a wide selection of items including scones, muffins, cupcakes, brownies, cookies, macaroons and their version of cinnamon rolls, which is a family tradition recipe that's been modified for the bakery. "Many days, the cinnamon rolls sell out early in the morning," confirms Ashley.
Gluten- and dairy-free menu options also are available.
When Ashley reflects, she says she has at least two reasons to marvel at the bakery’s success. First, she never thought she’d be baking and decorating cakes for a living: “From as young as I could remember, I wanted a career in fashion.” After getting a fashion degree and while working in a related management role, this baker says in her free time at-home she was baking for others, getting five to six cake orders a week.
“I absolutely fell in love [with baking]. I was always finding cakes that would help me learn as a decorator, and became head-over-heels for a career I could never have envisioned for myself,” she adds.
Secondly, however, a horrific car accident involving her family during October 2021 left her with a broken femur, hip shoulder, ribs and a kneecap in 34 pieces. She says, “I was in a very bad place, unsure of if I’d ever be able to get back to my career, if I would ever be able to stand on my feet like I used to, and unable to take care of my newborn baby without assistance. It was painful, heartbreaking and the hardest thing I’ve ever had to go through. My family was amazing through all of this, and I could never have pulled through without them. I made a speedier recovery than I could’ve imagined.”
Harry Potter fans can rejoice, too, at Fantastic Cakes, which sports a magical theme beyond the name. They sell HP merchandise, such as cropped sweatshirts, swish and flick spoons, character earrings, and a line of candles named after the HP characters and Hogwarts Houses, making the business the perfect destination for fulfilling magical needs.
636.422.1505
FantasticCakesSTL.com
