Meet Jasmyn and Aneesha Reddicks of VTasteCakes in Old Fourth Ward

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jasmyn and Aneesha Reddicks.

Jasmyn and Aneesha, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
From our grandmother’s kitchen to her grandmother’s kitchen, baking has been the soul of my family. Whether it was baking a cake for a special occasion or Sunday dinner desserts, it became the norm for us to always have rich and flavorful sweets cooked from scratch. As a food industry and marketing administration major I began to understand the importance of creating natural yet scrumptious vegan desserts while attending the University of Georgia. During my senior year, I entered into a business pitch competition and competed as the only undergraduate team against other graduate student teams. The competition was for students who had ideas that they wanted to turn into businesses. They had to then pitch their plan and product to judges and a live audience. It was very competitive and pushed me to find a way to infuse vegetables into desserts. There was a chemistry to mixing the old (my grandmothers handwritten recipes) with the new (vegan plant-based desserts). I, with the help of my team, was able to take the quality that I had come to know and love, transport it into the realm of plant-based vegan cupcakes and cakes – without giving up a thing!

Ultimately, we won the competition which provided funding for me to start the company and obtain licensing. This was only the start. Making the company run as an actual business was the next step and so I spoke with Aneesha and asked her to be my partner and we came up with a plan. She asked me one question, before agreeing to go the course, she said “Jasmyn, are you serious about doing this? Because if you are then I’m all in.” I was nervous about what I was getting into, but I absolutely knew that I wanted to do it. Within less than a year, we’ve been able to make sales, attend markets/events and have recently upgraded our licensing to a commercial kitchen licensing. It’s all very exciting and sometimes intimidating.

Has it been a smooth road?
From the stand point of an entrepreneur- no. From the standpoint of a young, African-American female entrepreneur- absolutely not. Funding was the first obstacle in getting the company started. As a college student in a one-parent household, I didn’t have the means to fund a start-up. Once we received the start-up money from the pitch competition, we learned very quickly that there were a lot of hoops to jump through to be certified and obtain our fist licensing- a cottage food license.

My next learning curve was figuring out how to run a business and navigate life after graduation. All of this happened within a few months and interestingly enough, no one gives you a handbook on either of them. Both of them fall in the category of “figure it out” and for me, I had to figure it out fast.

The other main thing that we have run into is the perception of our product and our capabilities. For example, we entered into another pitch competition earlier this year. We competed as a cupcake company against tech start-ups, apparel companies and specialty products. We were also the only female African-American team and the only team in the food/beverage industry competing. We ended up tying for second place. After our pitch, we had someone from another team come up to congratulate us, they also added on that it was amazing how professional our pitch was and that we were well-spoken. We could have taken this negatively, but we honestly took it in stride. It’s one of the small reasons that we are inspired to work harder and continue surprising people. Most people don’t expect a small-baking business to be a major contender in the business world- but we did not come to play, we came to bake!

So, as you know, we’re impressed with VTasteCakes – tell our readers more, for example what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
VTasteCakes is a vegan plant-based bakery that started in Fall of 2018. We serve cupcakes, cakes and specialty cake truffles to the Athens area and Atlanta are. We have recently moved into the Irwin Street Market shared commercial kitchen. We are known for infusing our products with vegetables such as beets, squash and pumpkin. We are on a mission to bring people together one cupcake at a time, by creating a cupcake for everyone! With that being said, we will be releasing some gluten-free options this summer!

We are most proud of our humble beginnings, local support and our passion to keep building. We have the skill, we have the ingredients and we have the drive. We would say that the one thing that sets us a part from others is our background and growth as a company. Aneesha, my partner, has a background in marketing and event planning. She’s also a beast when it comes to logistics and project management. I have a background in food science and business and I enjoy pushing the limits when it comes to new ideas and building partnerships. She’s the technical one and I’m the creative one. We balance each other out and have grown a lot in the past year because of it.

Let’s touch on your thoughts about our city – what do you like the most and least?
We love the opportunities, the culture and the variety of people and businesses. We, like almost every other person in Atlanta, hate the traffic! However, the traffic has lead to great podcast discoveries!

Contact Info:

• Address: The Irwin Street Market
  660 Irwin St NE, Atlanta, GA 30312
• Website: https://www.vtastecakes.com/
• Email: [email protected]
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vtastecakes/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/VTasteCakes/

Image Credit:
All images taken by VTasteCakes.

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