Sinful Decadence is a mobile bakery that focuses on bringing a variety of gourmet cupcakes at an affordable price. Owner Yesenia Portes started with a home bakery, bought and refurbished a food truck, and is now looking to expand to a storefront after successfully operating here in Fayetteville. Baking has always been her passion, and she is so excited to be sharing that with the community through her delicious baked goods.
In 2009, owner Yesenia Portes decided to fulfill her dream to become a Pastry Chef by attending Culinary Art school. She is a graduate of the Culinary Institute of the Pacific, Class of 2011. During her time in Hawaii, she was able to complete a brief internship at the Hilton Hawaiian Village Hotel, in downtown Honolulu. Once her husband received relocation orders to Fort Bragg, Yesenia had to place her dream on hold to support her family. Baking has been a passion of hers for years, however, during her time in North Carolina, she was been unable to find a position in which she felt she could use her full potential, so she decided to open her own cupcake shop.
Yesenia was afraid to start her own business because of life as a military spouse. The concept of having a cupcake truck offered the most flexibility to her due to the challenges of military life. In 2018, she was able to purchase my own brand new trailer with money saved. She wanted to fulfill her dream, however, she was very concerned with getting into debt, so she continued to bake for another year until she had the rest of the funds necessary to build the interior of her concession truck. Today Yesenia has been on the road for nearly a year, as well as continuing to utilize her home kitchen.
Covid-19 forced everyone to do things a little differently, and Sinful Decadence was no exception. Yesenia saw website sales increase in addition to her food truck operations and began to draw business that way, using her truck and locations around Fayetteville to do pick-up for customers. She now has items in Rude Awakening and Hot Sugar Pop, two other small businesses here in Fayetteville. In December of 2020, she provided delicious hot cocoa bombs for the staff here at the Women’s Business Center of Fayetteville to enjoy and share with attendees of our monthly Monday MotivationMonday Motivation event.
As a client since early 2018, Sinful Decadence has had the support of The Women’s Business Center every step of the way. We helped Yesenia with business planning and marketing before the ribbon cutting for her cupcake truck grand opening. She said,
“Prior to meeting with CEED representatives, I had a basic idea of how to begin my own business, however, they gave me the focus to help shape my concept.”
We continued to follow up with Yesenia and involve her with activities such as Monday Motivation. Now, The Women’s Business Center is helping her search for grants and answer questions regarding opening a storefront. Yesenia said, “It is so relieving just to know I have the team at the WBC to answer questions and be there for me.”
When asked about her hopes for the future, Yesenia said, “I am ready to continue my dream and offer the Fayetteville and surrounding areas my delicious cupcakes. During the last 20 years, I have been busy raising my kids and supporting my husband’s military career. I feel that this is my time to see my dream grow so I can help empower other women to own their own business and more importantly, own their own dreams.”