Today we’d like to introduce you to Hazel Toledo.
Hi Hazel, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
Growing up in a low income immigrant household we didn’t have much. My parents worked very hard to provide for my brothers and I. My passion for the baking world started around the age of 14 when my dad surprised me with an Easy Bake Oven. I always wanted one but never thought I would of ever gotten it. Since then my dream was to eventually open my very own bakery so I continued working on my baking and cake decorating skills. At the age of 17 I went to culinary school at Le Cordon Bleu. After graduating I started working in grocery stores in their bakery department. I started falling more in love with cake decorating as time went by. Throughout all this time I always made cakes for my friends and family, eventually I started getting customers and started selling cakes from home. In 2020 my husband and I moved to Indiana from California and I started working for a company called 3 Chi, a hemp company. There I was their bakery department manager and helped build their edibles department. After about a year I discovered the female department managers were getting paid significantly lower than the male department managers. I tried my best to prove to the owner why this was not fair and why I had deserved equal pay. The owner ignored and dismissed everything so I decided to quit and make my dream come true, to open my own business and do what I love. In September of 2021 Hazeables started! We had started via Instagram and started receiving orders for my cakes! I was so excited to see my from home bakery grow! In June of 2021 we moved into a corner of a hemp smoke shop were I sold my infused and not infused baked goods. After a year we had grown enough to get our first location! In September of 2022 we found the perfect location in Irvington and our doors opened in October. The community was very welcoming and supportive, it has been a great experience. Today we have been open almost 3 years and continue to grow. I am happy and proud of seeing all that hard work and dedication making my dreams come true.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
The struggles I have encountered have been mainly in places where I was not appreciated or taken seriously for being a Hispanic female. Many times my ideas or suggestions were laughed at or not taken seriously. Many times I had been broken down but thankfully managed to pull myself together with the help of my loved ones and doing my best to keep a positive mentality. Staying focus on my goal helped me to keep pushing forward.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
My main specialty, aside from the edibles made with Delta 8 and Delta 9, are my cakes. I deeply love decorating cakes. I love creating cakes that are different from your ordinary birthday cake. I love fondant work, sculpting, and making cakes look like creatures.
Is there any advice you’d like to share with our readers who might just be starting out?
I would say to not give up. Even if you fail DO NOT GIVE UP. There will always be bumps in the road but those bumps are lessons that will later on come into play and show you what you need to learn. also, in all honestly I do not recommend culinary school. I don’t think culinary school really provides what you need to succeed in the culinary world. 99% of what I learned was from practicing at home and at jobs.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://g.co/kgs/sPGpEQc
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hazeables?igsh=bXFoaGRrZ3E3Mndo
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/1H3MwHPXmR/
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@hazeables?_t=ZT-8vQcytfdyFX&_r=1
