Lake Oswego Cake Decorating Classes

Yara's Cake Shop opens at former Eagle Bakery location, offers treats, tea and custom orders.

DESIREE BERGSTROM/MADRAS PIONEER - Yara Santos stands by a couple of her cakes at her cake shop's location at 123 SW H St. in Madras. She started making cakes for friends and family for free, then doing orders out of her home. But after 15 years of making cakes for people, she and her husband have opened a business with a storefront. Sweet treats, custom orders and Boba tea are all a part of the new bakery in Madras that aims to provide a peaceful environment for its customers.

Yara's Cake Shop opened May 3, at 123 SW H St., in the building previously occupied by Eagle Bakery. The shop features multiple varieties of cupcakes, including dairy-free, gluten-free, and sugar-free. The owner, Yara Santos, also makes Tres Leches cakes, macaroons, smoothies and milkshakes.

The grand opening is scheduled for May 31, and the business is currently planning to offer free cupcakes, as well as hamburgers and hotdogs.

Santos moved to Madras from California in August 1994. In 2004, she began making cupcakes and cakes for family and friends out of her home kitchen. She said that when her daughter was little, she liked baking for all her friends and Santos made it a point to spend time baking with her daughter as something to do and as a time to bond.

She said at one point, her son began asking if she could bake cakes for friends' events and weddings and Santos said in those days, she did several wedding cakes for free.

In the early years, Santos said she would get requests every three to six months to bake comething for an event, but a couple years down the road, that turned into every month and later, every weekend, until she got to a point within the last year where she was working on orders four days a week on top of working a full-time job.

Part of the reason Santos' business began to grow so quickly was because of advertising she was able to do after obtaining a license through the USDA to continue baking from home. Eventually, her kitchen just became too small.

While baking from home, Santos spent time taking decorating classes from Central Oregon Community College and had friends and family who helped provide instruction on cake decorating. She continued baking custom cakes from home up until the opening of her shop this month. She also took a six-month course on business several years ago through the Oregon Small Business Development Center Network.

After spending 15 years baking from home, Santos and her husband, Juan, decided to open a shop and grow their business and get more space.

Their goal with the shop is not only to provide custom cakes to the community, but to provide a peaceful environment for people to spend time while enjoying a baked good or Boba tea.

The shop will soon offer free internet for customers and tables and chairs set up throughout the small shop to give room for guests to work on their computers, visit and just enjoy the space.

Since opening, Santos said business has been going well and they have been selling lots of Boba tea and cupcakes.

The shop is open from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays, 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sundays and closed on Mondays.

For questions or more information about Yara's Cake shop or to get information about ordering, call 541-777-0058.

The cake shop operates out of half of the building, just behind Columbia Bank, while the other half is occupied by Brilett Wedding and Formal, which had its soft opening when Yara's opened, but will not be fully up and running until July.

Currently, the shop offers tux rentals and has some formal ware, but the bridal portion of the business is not quite up and running.

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