We've got a sweet success story to share at our 2nd Annual State Conference at Ruth Eckerd Hall in Clearwater.

Kim “Daisy,” of Daisy Cakes has always had a passion for cooking. She started cooking before most kids learned how to ride a bike! By the time she was 10 years old, she had sold her very first cake, now named the Jilly Vanilly.

Kim has a lot of experience up her sleeve. She has been in the food business for over 30 years and started out waiting tables during the summer in South Carolina and slowly began learning the tricks and trades of cooking and running a restaurant.

After Graduating from Wofford College she and a friend, Sophie Copses, started a catering business and then four years later, in 1990, Kim opened her first full-service restaurant, As You Like It in Spartanburg, South Carolina.

To further spread her love of cooking she started Cooking Up A Storm in 1998, which was a hands-on cooking class that allowed students to bring their own groceries and explore their love for cooking. She taught over 300 students!

And then there was Daisy Cakes. Daisy Cakes began in June 2009 when Kim really wanted to share her family cake recipes to a much larger customer base. She and her mother individually hand-sift, bake, and frosted each 4-layer cake. They would travel to Junior League and other holiday and food shoes where folks can taste just how delicious the cakes are for themselves. The cakes are always available to take home or they can be ordered online and shipped directly to the home of the consumer.

Daisy Cakes really took off when Kim and her cakes appeared on the hit ABC show “Shark Tank,” and aired in April of 2011. Since then, her business has really boomed. She received an investment from Barbara Corcoran, and with the help of her new business partner, Kim has had many great opportunities. She has been on “The Nate Berkus Show, Anderson Cooper, ABC World News, The Today Show, The Taste, and QVC.

Her cakes have even been featured as prizes on “The Price Is Right” and “Wheel of Fortune.”

Kim continues to inspire individuals with her passion for cooking and her sentiments on life and business. She says, “Never give up. I have never given on this. I knew in 2009 when I started doing this that it would work…. I cook dinner almost every day for my family but I really love the cakes. They are delicious.”

Look for her first cookbook, Daisy Cakes, Share a Slice of Love, coming out in Summer 2014.

You can hear Kim speak on September 12th at the Working Women Annual Conference.