Gail Holdcraft of Bakies, Custom Baking on Coleman

Soon after finishing her degree in accounting, Gail Holdcraft started making cake. While working for former Charleston Mayor Joe Riley’s father after graduation, Holdcraft had one of her first opportunities in custom baking. She prepared a wedding cake for the daughter of one of her co-workers – and learned an important lesson.

“The cake icing came out neon, and I told the decorator to use pastels,” she remembered. “I realized that if I was going to continue baking, I had to do my own decorating, too

Soon after that experience, Holdcraft landed a position as the director of financial planning at Johnson & Wales and, as an employee, was able to take culinary courses.

“It was great,” she said of her time at the school. “One minute I was crunching numbers and the next I was putting on my chef ’s jacket.”

That combination of interests – accounting and cake – has stuck with Holdcraft; she now runs Bakies in Mount Pleasant in addition to helping with her sister’s CPA firm.

“My sister comes here and makes icing and I go there and help with bookkeeping and taxes,” she pointed out.

Holdcraft admitted that “long hours and hard work” are vital to running any small business, so entrepreneurs should pick something they love. For Holdcraft, the opportunity to meet and bake for several generations of the same family is particularly rewarding.