DENVER — As Black Business Month comes to a close, we want to highlight one of Denver's newest black-owned, woman-owned, vegan businesses to join the city's ranks.
"I got tired of paying top dollar for expensive vegan cakes, that didn't taste good, So I started baking my own. It wasn't easy at first. My first cakes were flat, but they tasted good," Angela Wells, owner of The Cake Bar, said.
Since 2020, Wells has been hard at work perfecting her recipes.
"I ended up baking the perfect cake during the pandemic, I shared it with my friends and family, and they started hiring me to make the cakes.
Vegan may not come to mind when you think of sweets. It's a mindset Wells is working to change, expressing the importance of veganism.
"My journey into veganism started in 2012 when i was dating someone who was a raw vegan, so i went completely cold turkey. And when we broke up, I kind of rebelled against what I was taught,. But it was through learning for myself that veganism isn't just about health, it's for the animals and seeing what they go through," Wells said.
Through cakes, cupcakes, cake cups, cookies and ice cream, Wells is sharing- you don’t need eggs, milk or dairy products to make a good sweet treat.
"The initial response has been overwhelming. When we opened last Saturday, we had a line around the corner for four hours straight. And then when we opened the very next day, it instantly was a line," Wells said.
The Cake Bar's successful opening is a testament to the progress Black people continue to make in owning their own businesses, especially women. A study from JP Morgan in 2021 showed Black women were the fastest growing demographic of entrepreneurs in the United States with close to 2.7 million businesses nationwide.
"Black Business Month is so important because as hard as it is for everyone to start businesses. Black-owned businesses face extreme challenges, in addition to just the regular pains of opening a business, and so Black Business Month brings awareness not only to those businesses so that they can get exposure, but it also celebrates them and how hard they had to overcome certain things to be in business," Wells said.
Wells shared with Denver7 that the support from the community is great, but the support the from her village is everlasting.
"My husband and my son have always encouraged me to share my skills and talent with the community. And they've given me the space and understanding to do so. So I wanted to thank them so much for coming here and spending late hours with me washing dishes, baking cakes and just lugging all of my stuff from one place to another," Wells said.
If you would like to check out The Cake Bar, you can visit them at 214 East 13th Ave. in Denver. For more information on their products and open times, follow this link to their Facebook page.
