Get to Know: Sarah Lynch

If you’ve ever been inside West Side Bakery, you’ve noticed the cakes.

Whether it’s the display cakes at the front of the store, or the slideshow of custom cakes on the wall, it’s hard to look away from these edible works of art. They come in ever color, pattern and intricate design you can imagine. And they take a whole team of people to create.

Meet Sarah Lynch: she’s been decorating the cakes since 2006.

Lynch got her start in cake decorating at 16.

“I worked on ice cream cakes at Dairy Queen for five years,” she said. “Then my sister saw a job advertisement for a real cake decorator at West Side and told me to go for it.”

Unlike many of the other cake decorators at the bakery, Lynch has no formal training. “I’m very much self taught. Right from the start, I cut, split, filled, and frosted the cakes,” Lynch said. “I’ve been doing it ever since.”

On average, the decorators fill 20 to 30 orders for custom cakes each day. On their busiest days, like Mother’s Day, they produce up to 80 cakes.

As the popularity of bakery television shows has grown, so has the demand for custom cakes, Lynch believes.

“We always have people come in and say ‘I saw this on Cake Boss’ or ‘Look what they did on Ace of Cakes.’ Can you do it?’” she said.  

Lynch frequently designs and decorates elaborate custom cakes: a football stadium, a Venice building, even a cake shaped like the Bellagio, just to name a few.

“Once I decorated a Louis Vuitton diaper bag cake. I loved that one because I’m a Mom too.”

Lynch has two kids: Logan, 2, and Daphne, 4 months. Her kids and her husband are big fans of her baking.

“Whenever Logan sees me in the kitchen he starts yelling ‘Cake! Cake! Mo’ cake!’”

Her son’s love of cake may be genetic. Lynch is primarily a cake decorator, but admits she is quite the cake lover too.

“One of the best parts of my job is eating the mistake cakes and test tasting the trial baking,” she said.

Lynch says the real reason she truly loves her job is because it gives her the freedom to be creative.

“I like the challenges,” Lynch said. “I could never just sit in an office and do the same thing every day.” 

To check out more pictures of West Side Bakery’s custom cakes, visit www.thewestsidebakery.com.