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“I was fond of my Easy-Bake Oven as a child,” admits Rachel Willis. So it’s not a big leap to learn that she grew up to become founder, owner, and chief baker of Cakes by Rachel.
There was a little preparation along the way. Willis attended the New England Culinary Institute and spent several years cooking in France before settling in Charlottesville in the early 1990s. Over the next 15 years, she worked at Metropolitain, was opening chef at Continental Divide—where her Red Hot Blues, Santa Fe Enchilada, and tuna tostada remain on the menu—and served as sous chef and executive chef at The Clifton, as well as chef at L’Avventura.
The next big change came in 2007, when Willis and her husband had their first child.
“I thought I would do some small-scale catering from home—that would offer more flexibility [while my son was young],” Willis says. “A friend asked me to make her wedding cake and I thought, ‘Okay, I can do that.’ And then someone else asked …”
And Cakes by Rachel was born.
Willis ran the business from her Crozet home until 2015, when she purchased a nearby cottage to house the growing operation. She later added Laura Grice, a UVA studio arts graduate, and Laurel Fortier, a Hokie and home baker who helps keep the business running smoothly.
“We do make other things, but wedding cakes are the core of our business,” says Willis. “Handling weddings takes a specific structure as a business, and requires booking very far out. But we will do jobs for special occasions, and have offered a selection of sweets for Valentine’s Day for the last 10 years.”
Making the leap from chef to baker required a shift in mindset.
“Baking uses a different part of your brain,” Willis says. “Cooking is a lot about being in the moment, flexing with the ingredients—you can add and change as you go along. Baking takes more mental discipline—it’s more precise. Everything has to be part of the plan from the get-go.”
While making a cake requires patience, baking for weddings is an organizational and performance challenge.
“It is sort of an extreme sport,” Willis says. “My motto is, there is no ‘almost’ in wedding cakes.”
Still, the creative side is what she loves most. It starts with getting to know clients—their tastes, style, backgrounds, and expectations.
“We love to personalize,” she says. “Basically, we’re a customer service business, and you get a cake at the end!”
Cakes by Rachel tries to source ingredients locally whenever possible. The bakery specializes in filled cakes featuring seasonal fruit compotes made fresh for each order, while also offering vegan, gluten-free, and dairy-free options.
Beyond the ingredients, wedding cake trends are constantly changing.
“There are few things trendier than wedding cakes,” Willis says with a laugh.
Sugar flowers remain popular, as do vintage-inspired cakes decorated with bows and ornate piping. More recently, couples have embraced millefoglie, an Italian dessert made with layers of puff pastry, vanilla custard, and fresh fruit.
Then there are groom’s cakes, where tradition often goes out the window. Willis has created cakes resembling everything from a giant pistachio statue to a steak, a mountain, a burger and fries, a beaver, and a Scrabble board.
“I’m very grateful to be able to spend every day creating,” says Willis. Whether it’s three tiers decorated with macarons or a smiling giraffe, you can only wonder what’s next.
