Tiny Cakes
Local Fresh Bakery for Everyone
Tiny Cakes Bakery is a Black-owned business that was established in May 2015 by Saudamani Gray. For the past seven years, Saudamani Gray’s goal has been to make a difference in the community based around good quality food, community service, and professional development. The quality of food in the community affects the growth and development of the people that reside in the surrounding areas. So, Saudamani’s ultimate goal is to make someone's day a little sweeter.
Through the years, Tiny Cakes Bakery has collaborated and built so many professional relationships with other minority based businesses and non-profit organizations such as, the No Bully’N ME Inc., D.O.P.E (Doing Our Part Eclectically), The Michelle Snow Network (Grow With Snow), Voice In Power, and Path to Greatness to name a few. These relationships have given Saudamani the opportunity to make a difference in her community by feeding the homeless, supporting initiatives that are important to her, and cultivating youth by speaking at local Philadelphia schools. Her interactions with the youth in her community has shown her that the children in the Philadelphia inner city yearn for understanding, attention, love, and support.
These experiences have planted a seed in her on how she can make a difference in her community and how she could incorporate all that she’s learned in the Tiny Cakes Bakery brand. During the COVID Pandemic shutdown she wanted to find a way to support the youth and parents by providing them an outlet and also giving her an opportunity to grow. Hence, Tiny Bakers (501c) was created in September 2020. Tiny Bakers is a non-profit organization that provides a safe and creative environment for youth ages 5-14 years old that have an interest in the Culinary Arts. The program encourages and promotes creativity, and professional development. Each child will have the opportunity to develop their culinary skill set of choice, and have the ability to learn basic skills from a Pastry Chef. Since the program started, Saudamani has experienced so much pleasure in passing down her knowledge to the next generation. Their excitement and eagerness to learn makes my heart full and brings me so much fulfillment.
Due to baking being a very technical, mathematical, and scientific field many get discouraged when their products don't turn out as planned. However, Tiny Bakers formulates a sense of self-worth and confidence in the children by learning that mistakes are learning experiences not the final result. Once they understand this concept they develop the confidence to try again while applying the knowledge they have acquired.
As Tiny Cakes Bakery and Tiny Bakers continue to develop, Saudamani plans to hire volunteers, interns, and salary workers to provide opportunities for disadvantaged minorities within her community. The goal for the Tiny Bakers program is for it to become an academy in order to reach a larger amount of minority or disadvantaged youth. Growing up as a disadvantaged minority and teen mom, she wants to show the youth of today that anything you dream of doing you can accomplish with the right support, mentorship, resources, and belief in self.
