Cake pro leaves banking for baking

When Torie Hancock applied for a job bagging groceries in high school, she didn’t get it. Instead, she settled for a bakery job, where she bagged bread and prepped customers’ orders. Bored, she soon turned her attention to cake decoration. “I’d watch the cake decorators, and then go in and practice after they left. When I got the hang of things, I’d decorate the cakes and cookies for display cases,” she says. Despite attending college and entering the a career in banking, she never stopped decorating cakes, and eventually earned a degree in baking and pastry from the Art Institute of Cincinnati. “I learned a lot more than I thought I would – basic cooking skills, chocolates, sugars. The hands-on experience was priceless,” she says. On July 1, Torie quit her finance gig to develop her business, Go Ahead Bake My Day, full time. Cake is Torie’s specialty, and she says she’ll create nearly any design or flavor, with cakes, cupcakes and cake puffs (similar to a cake lollipop) her most commonly requested items. “I make everything myself at home,” she says, noting that her next step is growing her business and moving into a storefront.   Although she honors requests for gluten-free, vegan and other specialty cakes, Torie says she most commonly creates sugar-free confections, and even has a neighbor unofficially assigned to test her new recipes. When she’s not baking, she enjoys Cincinnati’s foodie scene, and can be found sampling local fare at Roc-A-Fella’s Pizza, Sammy’s Gourmet Burgers & Beers, Pappadeaux Seafood Kitchen or Kabuto.   By Robin Donovan