1233's Carol Duncan first heard of Alice Lees when she was making a few cakes for a Hamilton cafe some years ago. Alice was living in Newcastle, teaching design in Sydney and working as a casual waitress when she decided to make a few cakes for the cafe.
Alice then worked towards wholesale baking - first from her home where she outfitted a commercial kitchen, to now having celebrated the opening of her bakery and cafe in Maryville.
"It's been an epic journey but it's been fun."
Her decision to try her hand at baking has led her on a journey from an arts background as a product designer, teacher and silversmith, to that of backing herself and making the leap into small business operator.
"I've had a lot of support a long the way but maybe I'm a bit mad, I don't know, but we've got customers so it must have been the right decision."
Alice Lees admits that working on her own had been a bit alienating, "I like having staff working with me, I'm not just stuck in a little vacuum at home or out in the van. I've got great people that I'm working with every day and that keeps me working harder.
Making the decision to invest in a business is one thing, but it also means getting help, hiring staff and handing over some of the responsibilities for the products.
"I've started doing sourdough breads now and the chefs are doing the cakes and tarts," Alice is employing about 10 people now and says it's fantastic, "It's great working with chefs who have new ideas to inject into it, too. It's inspiring and keeps it fresh."
Has it been hard to hand over actually making some of the cakes?
"It wasn't as hard as I thought, they're both very talented chefs, but letting go was hard. Letting go of my product and seeing if someone else could make it the same, that was hard."
Alice says the hardest part of establishing a small business is payroll, "Making sure you pay people on time and get it all right, that's the hardest, but the satisfying part has been seeing the customers come all the way over to Maryville and seeing this space change."
Does the baker harbour a desire for expansion of the business, perhaps a franchise?
"No! Never! I should never say never but, no. I just want to turn up to work each day, make my bread and see the customers. I don't think I want to grow it beyond that."
Alice says the change from making jewellery to baking pastries isn't really much different, "I use my hands to make things, I'm just using them to make a different product now."
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