Meet Megan Travers

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Megan Travers a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Megan, looking forward to learning from your journey. You’ve got an amazing story and before we dive into that, let’s start with an important building block. Where do you get your work ethic from?

Similar to most people, I think my work ethic comes from my upbringing, especially from my grandmother. She spent her career as an educator at her local vocational school preparing young people for their future careers. She also served on the Board of Education and worked to abolish corporal punishment on students in the state of Pennsylvania. Even after retiring from education she continued to work, joining the board of her local symphony. She is turning 100 this year and is still finding ways to not only stay active in her community but to enrich it.

Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?

I run my one person, cottage bakery from my home in Benton Park specializing in seasonal cakes. My goal is to create unique cakes for each client with outside-of-the-box flavors that are also visually stunning. My background is in baking and pastry, and cakes are my favorite canvas to implement my skill set. I make all my fillings and jams in house and grow all of my edible flowers for decorating in my garden. Right now is the best part of the season for me, there’s so much produce available to make preserves for the rest of the year and the flowers are in bloom.

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

One of the most helpful things I’ve learned from working in food for over ten years is how important it is to be open to learning from other people. Not just from your direct superior in the hierarchy of food work, but from everyone that you spend time working with. Everyone is coming in with different levels of experience, different skill sets, different channels of work and there’s nothing beneficial about writing off someone because they don’t have the same experience as you. If you have an ego, you’ll put yourself in a box and you’ll never grow in your work. The opportunities to learn in this field are endless if you’re open to them.
Another important skill for me has been organization. It’s one of my strengths and I enjoy creating systems for organization and safety nets. Now that I am a one person business, I rely entirely on myself and if I don’t have organizational systems in place to support myself, it all falls on me.
When I first started in pastry, I was developing a wide range of skills, baking cookies and crackers, developing recipes for plated desserts, and prepping for high volume catering events. Although I’ve narrowed my work to just cakes, I’m still using all of the skills I learned and applying them to my business. It’s shown me how important it is to always keep learning as you go.

Tell us what your ideal client would be like?

I love to create for clients who appreciate the unconventional and want to bring a distinctive aesthetic to their event or celebration. I also love to convert the people who aren’t super fond of cake because they’re familiar with grocery store cake and American style buttercream. I’m a great fit for people who find value in eating seasonally and supporting local businesses.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://ohtobethecreambakery.squarespace.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ohtobethecreamstl/
• Other: Email: ohtobethecreambakery@gmail.com

Image Credits

Megan Travers