Celebrating black owned businesses: DreamWorld Bakes

Throughout February and beyond, we celebrate the innovations and impact of black owned business owners. We want to highlight the good they’re bringing every single day- not just during Black History Month. One of those people, bringing tasty treats and creative combinations to East Kensington is Ashley Huston, owner and founder of DreamWorld Bakes! Huston joined us in the PHL17 kitchen to show us some of her pastries and talk to us about how she turned her dreams into a brick-and-mortar reality.

“We opened our brick-and-mortar in January so we’re pretty new, I used to sell cakes out of my house for a few years so that’s kind of how we got our start,” says Huston.

On DreamWorld Bakes’ website, Huston says “My name is Ashley. I’m mostly from Philly and I love my city very much. I’ve been professionally cooking since 2016 and I’ve always had a deep passion for food since I was a kid, especially desserts. So, all the baking is self-taught! Food is what my family came together with and so it was natural to keep that with me. I love- love- love food! Love to cook it, love to eat it, and I love to learn about it. I love to travel too, but mainly so I can eat. I love sugar the most, I might have a bit of an addiction to be honest. Hence, why I’m a baker! I find that food, especially cakes (and some other baked goods) tend to be either tasty or beautiful, never both at the same time. I’m personally on a mission to change that. My cooking philosophy is simple: if you prepare each individual piece of a dish, or each part of the cake, to its full potential, together they will all be magnificent! Each month or so, I change up Dreamworld’s menu. The inspiration for what actually makes it on there? Well that can come from a few different things. First, I start off with what’s in season. Then I move into what’s conceptual and relevant to me at that time. If we’re not full by that point, nostalgia tends to make its way into the process. I’m not really sure what to call my style of baking or design. It’s a little bit uncategorizable. But, someone once called my bakes transcendent, and I liked how that sounded. Let’s go with that. If you have ever gotten the chance to get a custom cake from Dreamworld (or to merely eat one), you know that everything about them is CUSTOM. I don’t think I’ve ever made the same cake twice, and I think therein lies our uniqueness.”

Watch to learn more.