Liberty alumna creates cake delivery business

In Lynchburg, a Liberty University alumna’s small business is committed to making every day a celebration, one cake at a time. This business is cakeday!, a subscription cake slice delivery business, and it’s bringing joy and sweet surprises to doorsteps all across Lynchburg.

Emily Pitts, the founder of cakeday!, graduated from Liberty in 2022 with a degree in strategic communication and a minor in graphic design. While working in corporate graphic design, Pitts discovered her passion for baking and realized that she needed to rebrand her portfolio in a more vibrant way. With experience from a previous bakery job and a penchant for baking, she set out to create something unique. 

Social media played a key role in getting cakeday! off the ground.

“When I first started, I had an Instagram account called ‘Baked by Virginia.’ That was just for fun. … It was mostly cakes I was baking for myself and the people in my life,” Pitts said. “But I didn’t like the name, and I wanted something that looked more like a real brand.”

Then, as a Valentine’s Day special in 2022, Pitts offered chocolate cake slices that quickly became a hit. With the immense positive response, Pitts realized this might be something she could do regularly. After taking a year to plan, cakeday! was born. Pitts completed her first delivery Feb. 12, 2023.

The concept behind cakeday! allows Pitts to focus on what she loves — baking without the added pressure of decorating full cakes — while also bringing joy to the community through her subscription service. 

“If I sell slices, then no one ever has to see the full cake, and more people can be a part of it,” Pitts said.

According to Pitts, cakeday! is not just about the cakes; it’s a monthly holiday.

“When I was planning cakeday!, I was trying to come up with a name that would be pretty literal but also kind of mysterious,” Pitts said. “When you hear ‘cakeday!,’ you’re like, ‘What does that mean?’ But then you find out it’s the one day a month where everyone gets their slices of cake. It’s the name of the brand, but it’s also almost like a monthly holiday.”

To enhance the celebratory experience for her customers, Pitts includes thoughtful touches into each delivery. On the first cake day, Pitts placed a birthday candle into each box and wrote a note encouraging everyone to play their favorite song and light the candle.

“My whole point is that you can celebrate on any day,” Pitts said. “You don’t have to wait for a birthday to celebrate.”

For Pitts, the process of preparing for cake days is a labor of love. She starts her workweek by prepping her cakes on Thursday. Before Saturday, she assembles and frosts them, along with completing tasks such as folding boxes and applying her signature wax stamps. On the morning of cake day, Pitts boxes the cakes before loading them into her car for delivery. 

According to Pitts, cakeday! is an experience unique to Lynchburg.

“Even though I don’t cover that much ground, each cake day kind of feels like I’m on a road trip in Lynchburg,” Pitts said. 

Pitt’s bakery offers a wide variety of festive flavors, each with the goal to surprise and delight her customers every month. 

“I try to look at popular desserts and base my cake flavors off of those,” Pitts said. “Sometimes I go and look at the Crumbl cookie flavors, and a lot of times I’ll post on Instagram and ask people what they want because that’s the best way to make people happy.”

Some of Pitts’ past flavors include a lemon cake with cream cheese frosting, dirt and worms, Neapolitan, a strawberry cake with Fruity Pebbles garnish and a Barbie-inspired pink cake.

Pitts hopes to grow the business and increase her delivery capacity when she is able to. Moreover, she is eager to enhance cakeday!’s social media presence with a large audience on platforms such as Instagram and TikTok. Inspired by food influencers from popular accounts, Pitts dreams of creating content that showcases her baking process and brings more attention to her business.

To stay updated on the latest flavors, join the cake subscription wait-list and learn more about cakeday!, follow @itiscakeday on Instagram.

Solem is the lifestyle editor for the Liberty Champion.