Personalized cakes and Asian traditions

Food has a language of its own. For Viktoria Ovsepyan, it became her connection to a new community.

Seventeen years ago, she was working on her English skills and needed a job to support her family. Ovsepyan and her husband, Samvel, left behind their roots in Armenia and Turkmenistan to come to Wisconsin and raise their family. While working as a nurse, coming here meant building a new life and learning a new language. She got a job decorating cakes. Even if she didn’t always find the right words, she put all her creativity into each dessert.

Now Viktoria and Samvel Ovsepyan have three children and live in Grafton. In October, they launched their specialty dessert business, Cake Creations Cafe, 1239 Washington St., Grafton.

Ovsepyan prides herself on her ability to freehand and decorate custom cakes, but also enjoys creating cupcakes and slice cakes with the traditional baklava and gata pastries she learned from her mother.

Offering activities for children and adults, Ovsepyan customizes cake and cupcake decorating classes, team building events and birthday parties. Starting this month, hot ham and bread rolls baked on site will be available on Sundays. Free local delivery is available for orders over $50. For pricing and ordering, go to cakecreationscafe.com or facebook.com/CakeCreationsCafe.

Attracted by desserts

I’m really good at art. I needed a job. I was a nurse in my country. It was difficult to continue education here. There was an opening for a cake decorator.

I was a cake decorator at the Metro Market in Mequon. For 17 years my co-workers were telling me why don’t you open your own business? I did it, finally. Opening Cake Creations gave me confidence.

Getting to Grafton

My roots are in Turkmenistan. My husband’s parents were here, his parents and siblings. We all came as a family. It was also for the opportunities for my children. My country, it was hard when they declared independence when the Soviet Union broke up and it wasn’t safe for us. It was in 2003.

I have three children. My eldest is at Marquette University completing his Masters in Criminal Justice. My second son, he’s at UW-Madison for computer science and will finish in May. I also have an 8 year old daughter. She likes to come and help me.

Make your menu

We are not only specialized in cakes, it is a cafe and a bakery. People can grab croissants, strudel, a cup of coffee and bring their friends and kids. People can have a birthday party in space. I even added decoration courses for adults and children. We have a package that includes pizza, cakes or cupcakes and drinks. I provide cupcakes to decorate.

Taste and tradition

I make Armenian pastries, baklava and gata, which is an Armenian pastry roll. This is a hundreds of years old recipe, very traditional in Armenia. I learned it from my mother.

Most popular on the menu

Slices of cake and cupcakes. My cupcakes, it took many months to get an excellent recipe. I have 12 different assorted cupcakes all with different flavors.

We specialize in special occasion cakes for birthday, confirmation, graduation and holidays, and wedding cupcakes. I make pies for special orders. Starting this month, we are adding hot ham and assorted rolls, available only on Sundays.

point of pride

If I didn’t sell it to myself, I wouldn’t wear it. If your cake isn’t moist, if it isn’t good, people have options.

The language of food

I like the people I used to work with because my English wasn’t good at first, but they trusted me. I did everything with my heart. Everything I learned comes from the catalogs, from the books they have. I couldn’t talk, so I had icing and books and went to work every day. It is also a kind of art therapy.

Start from nothing

Doing everything from scratch is difficult. It’s very personal. Inside me is medicine and cakes. Maybe if I was 25, I would finish my nursing course here. I can do it with my eyes closed. I was an anesthesiology nurse, but there was so much to do when we got here. Now I make cakes and draw and create, and I’m really good at that too.

Favorite thing to do

Really, my favorite is probably drawing something. Even when I’m tired and standing for six to seven hours, I can do it. This is where I can use my creativity.

His indulgence

Strawberry chocolate cake, black forest cake and tiramisu. I also have a taste of coffee with ice cream on my menu. We put a scoop of ice cream in the coffee. Hot coffee with melted ice cream, it tastes like mocha. I introduced a few people to this. It melts and it’s creamy and tastes so good.

Desserts of the day

I rotate cupcake flavors. I have a stable of cake slice flavors. Right now I have 12 different slice options. I have cannoli cake, black forest which is very popular, carrot cake, tiramisu, raspberry chocolate, strawberry chocolate, lemon, espresso, delmonico, rainbow -sky, the mango, the pina colada.

We have meringue shells every day, gluten free. Cherry and apple strudel, cream puffs, Napoleon cake with my homemade Bavarian cream, everything is homemade.

Lesson learned

You must know marketing. Mary Unkel has been very helpful to me. She is very knowledgeable and has experience in marketing. She helped me with Barbara Hunt. She teaches me that the trade does not only consist in working with the hands. You can bake 24 hours and it won’t work. You need to socialize and introduce your product to people. I waited a bit for customers to arrive.

Plan ahead

For basic cakes, I need 48 hours (notice). If it’s more complicated, something for a special occasion, I need at least a week or two in advance.

Fork. Spoon. Life. explores the daily relationship that local notables (both within and outside the food community) have with food. To suggest future personalities to profile, email [email protected]

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