We had the good fortune of connecting with Michelle Hlavinka and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Michelle, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?
After being in the corporate world for several years, I found myself dreading the monotony of a 9-5. As I delved deeper into my baking hobby I found that it could be a legitimate business. A few years later and Cake 4 Dinner is going strong! 

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
All of my cake creations are always custom made for my clients. I keep the client involved throughout the cake process. There are lots of decisions to be made, and I feel that the client should always be involved. I like to give suggestions based on my experience, but ultimately my goal is to make every client happy with a perfect cake. In my opinion, a custom cake needs to be a lot more than just an order form that you fill out online. This year at the height of the COVID pandemic I changed my business drastically to better serve my clients and the struggling city. In the month of April, I vowed to donate 100% of proceeds to the Greater Houston Covid-19 Recovery Fund. I set a modest goal to create 10 small ‘quarantine’ cakes for my clients but they came through big time. We nearly tripled that goal and donated over $2,000 to the relief effort here in Houston!

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
A typical date night for my husband and I would be cocktails followed by dinner. We recently moved to the Energy Corridor area of Houston but before that we lived in Rice Military. For cocktails we really enjoyed Julep and Anvil. Our favorite dinner spots were the casual, local hits like Velvet Taco or FM Kitchen. Another place we enjoyed walking around from time to time is Discovery Green.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I want to dedicate my shoutout to Yvette Valdenegro of Pop Up Weddings Houston (PUWH). When I got married we picked her as our coordinator and she was excellent. Since then we’ve become business partners and I’ve created many cakes for the awesome Pop Up events!

Website: http://cake4dinner.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cake.4.dinner/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cake4dinner.michelle/
Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/cake4dinner-houston

Nominate Someone: ShoutoutHTX is built on recommendations and shoutouts from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.