In The Mix Cakery, the family-run Peters Rest bakery on St. Croix, known for its custom-designed cakes, is on the cusp of something big. The Economic Development Authority approved In The Mix for tax benefits Thursday and soon, the co-owner said, Cakery products could be on shelves outside the Virgin Islands.
Cherise Williams kindled a passion for baking as a child but when it came time to work joined the corporate world. After a decade or so she found herself laid-off and got back in the kitchen, whipping up cookies and other treats. When a friend with an ice cream parlor wanted specialty cakes to accompany his frozen fare, Williams found herself specializing in cake.
“As people started asking for cakes, the demand grew and we’re like, we’re on to something,” Williams said. “We do everything related to cakes.”
She opened In The Mix Cakery with her daughter, Cheraine Christian, in 2016 across from Plaza Extra East. Thursday, with tax incentives in place, the bakery is working on financing for a manufacturing plant in the William D. Roebuck Industrial Park that could eventually employ ten or more people.
Reached by phone at her shop shortly after the EDA’s Enterprise Zone Commission voted in favor of her benefits, Williams was both excited and humble, saying her religious faith came first.
“We have a huge project that’s coming. We will be shipping a lot of our products globally,” Williams said, declining to further describe the project until financing was in place. She said she’d never dreamed of her business growing in such a way. “I used to do baking part time!”
Specializing in custom cakes — ice cream cakes, wedding cakes, picture cakes, number cakes, character cakes, butter cookies, and more — Williams said her shop keeps individual slices available daily. A popular item is the company’s cake jar product: passion fruit, berry, and other flavors of cake packed into a small, portable jar for easy, on-the-go cake eating.
The Economic Development Commission discussed in executive session two new applications for benefits from Bloom Analytics, LLLP and MJB Caribbean Ventures, Inc., owners of St. Thomas’ Hotel 1829 and At Home in the Tropics Bed and Breakfast. MJB also owns the bar and service Rumpourium.
MJB told the EDC it would invest more than $4 million in St. Thomas, hiring at least 10 full-time employees.
Bloom Analytics, which provides consulting, ideation, development, and management services, including analytics, marketing, and consulting solutions to lenders, financial technology firms, and embedded finance companies, committed to hiring five full-time employees within one year from the date the VIEDC Chairman signs the VIEDC Certificate. Bloom Analytics also said it would invest a minimum of $100,000.
