Cabin Cakes Bakery
For Allie Neal, baking started with two things she has always loved: precision and creativity.
A full-time nurse and mom of four, Allie first turned to baking as a creative outlet outside of work and family life. She loved the science of getting a recipe just right, but it was the creative side that really captured her attention: taking simple ingredients and turning them into something beautiful, personal and made specifically for someone.
Word began to spread. What started as something Allie enjoyed doing for fun officially became Cabin Cakes Bakery in 2018.
Today, Cabin Cakes is a cottage food home bakery specializing in custom decorated cookies, cakes and traditional baked goods, with a permanent pop-up location at 74 Sonnemann Street in Carlinville. Allie also takes Cabin Cakes to festivals and markets and has begun using the bakery space for birthday parties and private decorating classes, something she hopes to do even more of in the year ahead.
But what customers see on the other side of the bakery case is only part of the story.
Cabin Cakes is, as Allie puts it, a “business of one.”
The person answering your message is the same person planning your order, baking it, decorating it, packaging it, posting on social media, preparing for the next market and working the pop-up.
Her husband gets some credit, too. He helps with dishes, the kids, and setup and teardown when needed.
It makes every order especially personal. Allie gets to create treats for birthdays, weddings, graduations, holidays and everyday celebrations, often for customers she has come to know along the way.
That connection is one of her favorite parts of doing business in a small town.
“As a baker, I get to be part of so many of life’s special moments,” Allie says. “It’s incredibly rewarding to see familiar faces, build relationships with customers, and know that the treats I make are helping make someone’s day a little brighter.”
One important turn in the Cabin Cakes story came from an Illinois State Fair award recognizing some of Allie’s decorated cookies. That recognition eventually helped connect her with the Carlinville Chamber of Commerce, and Allie says the community welcomed her with open arms.
Since then, she has watched Cabin Cakes become something she hadn't necessarily envisioned when she first started baking for fun.
Whether she is participating in a fundraiser, partnering with another organization, setting up at a festival or creating a cake for an important celebration, Allie has found ways for her small business to become part of the community around it.
That is something she is particularly proud of.
“Looking back and realizing that I built something people recognize, support, and enjoy is incredibly rewarding,” she says.
Growth has also brought an important lesson: knowing when to say no.
Balancing Cabin Cakes with a full-time nursing career and raising four children means time is always valuable. Like many small-business owners, Allie admits it can be easy to say yes to everything because she genuinely wants to help.
But she has learned that growing the business can't come at the expense of the reason she started it.
“I have to remember that this all started out of fun and creativity,” she says. Keeping that joy while making sure her family stays at the center of her priorities has become an important part of how she approaches Cabin Cakes.
It's a lesson that probably sounds familiar to more than a few small-business owners.
And perhaps that's part of what makes the Cabin Cakes story such a fitting small-town business story. Something Allie started because she loved doing it has grown through word of mouth, relationships and the support of the people around her.
Allie describes that spirit as “community over competition.”
“I have always had a genuine desire to see my neighbors and friends succeed,” she says. “Being a local business and a Chamber member means I’m not just serving a community, I’m part of it.”
For a bakery built around making life’s moments a little sweeter, that seems like a pretty good place to be.
Cabin Cakes Bakery
74 Sonnemann Street, Carlinville
Follow Cabin Cakes Bakery on Facebook for pop-up dates, custom treats, classes and more.
Now for the really sweet part... Meet Allie, step inside Cabin Cakes and see a little of the creativity behind the cookies, cakes and business in our Member Spotlight video below.