Nice to Meet Ya: Christy Seguin

Halloween is one colorful holiday and many look forward to it and celebrate it. One unusual television program honoring the holiday is the Food Network’s Halloween Wars. The program had a local cake sculptress as one of the contestants: Christy Sequin of Cakes Rock. Although she only advanced past the first round, the experience was exciting and hopefully she will be offered an invitation for next year’s challenges, as it is by invitation only.

“They found me, and they've actually asked me to do it for years. They search people out on Instagram and Facebook… They assigned two cake artists and a sugar artist on each team. And they chose 24 artists, and then they pair you up,” Christy said. “They gave us seven hours, which is the longest I've ever seen on any show. But we had seven hours of on-camera time.” Christy’s team decided to do a Headless Horseman as their project.

It was a little unusual this year because of Covid. First of all, Los Angeles studios would not be used, so it was off to a Utah ski resort in June when it was out of season. All the contestants had to quarantine.

“I had to be there a week before we even started filming, and we weren't even allowed to walk out our hotel room door. I was literally stuck in the hotel room for days, they had to bring food to us. We weren't even allowed to go out to the ice machine. It was very very strict, because one COVID positive (could shut it down.) So I totally respect and understand.” She continued.

“So it was very restrictive. We had to wear masks all the time, except when we were actually on camera. We were tested every 48 hours with the COVID tests.” But when it came time to record for the first round, there were all sorts of surprises.

“The first episode, the ovens wouldn’t work. It was a mess. They had accidentally put stuff in the freezer. They gave us frozen eggs.” Things had to be fixed, but in the second episode there was an even bigger mixup.

“They had to rearrange and do everything to kind of fix it for the second one. Well, Shayla put our cakes in the oven. When she went back to get the cakes, she got confused on which oven she put them in and absentmindedly went back to the first one. She pulled someone else's cake. Then they were looking for their cake. And Shayla thought she had our cake, and it turned out it was theirs, but the whole time ours was still in the oven.”

The cake came out less than perfect. An extra 45 minutes dried it out, but then time became a concern, and there just wasn’t enough time to finish the Halloweenthemed design of the cake. “​I just ran out of time, and I wasn't able to fully fill out the man, the Headless Horseman, like I wanted to. So I was kind of just trying to slap them together at the end because there's just never enough time.”

Being a sought out cake sculptress is just one of the many occupations that Christy has been involved in. Growing up near Athens, Georgia, she baked her first cake at the age of five, and later her first sculpture was a horse for her niece. Her love of cakes remained throughout her many careers: accountant, personal trainer, she even managed a boxing gym in South Carolina. Still a staunch Georgia Bulldogs fan, that didn’t change when her husband took a job in Austin.

“When we moved, (I said) I just want to do the cakes. I want to concentrate on the cakes. That's what I've always wanted to do my entire life. And I knew that Texas was a hotbed for cake artists, like some of the top cake artists in the world are in Dallas, Austin and Houston. I know I can make it there. Will you support me for a while while I kick it off? And he said absolutely. We moved to Steiner Ranch and found a little house in Steiner Ranch. We were looking for a house that had a kitchen that would work for me... I just put up a post that said, ‘Hey, I just moved here. Here's some examples of my work. First week for cake orders. It just took off really fast. And within a year, I was overworked... It just kind of took off from there, and I ended up with three employees in my house. The opportunity came up to move to a shared commercial kitchen… That worked out really well for a while until the people I was sharing it with moved out. This giant catering company moved in and they just took the place over. They put in a grill. I was trying to work on wedding cakes, and they had a grill with open flames going.” Another move was in the works. A friend’s bakery became available, which she purchased in South Austin, where her business is today. She hopes to move her business closer to Dripping Springs, where she and her husband Michael now live.

“I love Dripping Springs. We have an incredible view. I love it here. I love the vibe. I love the people. This whole Central Texas, the corridor from Houston through, San Antonio, Austin and Dallas is just, it's one of the top cake places in the world. And people here are willing to pay for art. They will support artists. It is not like that in the south.” When it comes to sculpting cakes, now, it is serious business.

”My focus is exceeding our client's expectations. We want our clients to be blown away. I focus on the end result. All my artists, all my bakers, everybody I have, we are focused on the client experience. How you get there is not important. As long as it's efficient, and effective.”

For more information on Cakes Rock and Christy Seguin, see the website at: cakesrockaustintx.com 877-711-2253 (2253 spells CAKE)