If you can dream it,
I can bake it.

That Cake Lady of Santa Fe began in January of 2017 when I decided to turn my dream of professional baking and decorating into a reality. My name is Samantha Haynes, and I am the owner and cake artist behind TCLSF.

Born and raised in Santa Fe, I first started baking cakes in my teens after having spent years with my eyes glued to the television  watching the likes of Ace of Cakes, Challenge, Cupcake Wars, and of course The Cake Boss. To my surprise, it wasn't as easy as it looked. My earliest cakes were an ugly mess to say the least (though I've burned the pictures so no one can prove it). Beginning in the summer of 2014 I decided to enroll in the Wilton Method of Cake Decorating classes that were being held at my local craft store. The series of weekly courses took participants from the basics of buttercream to the advanced art of fondants and gum-paste flowers. To my utter surprise and no doubt by the grace of God, my teacher and I found that I actually had a knack for cake decorating after all! I graduated from those courses in 2015 with my certification as a Wilton Method decorator and have continued to gain many new skills since then, learning from some of the best resources in the industry. While cake competitions in our area are limited, I was grateful to take home the Blue Ribbon and win the title of Best in Show for the cake contests held at the Santa Fe County Fair in 2017.

I pursued cakes purely as a hobby for two years, but after working at odd jobs for years after high school I felt called to do something more with the skills I had been blessed with. What better way to do that than give back to the community what I had received! I enrolled with the Wilton Company as a Cake Decorating Instructor and completed their training and certification program in January of 2017, the same time I decided to start TCLSF. I launched my business from home and became the only cake decorating instructor in the area offering public and private cake classes, mainly through the Hobby Lobby teaching program.

Shortly after starting TCLSF I was offered a position at the Sam's Club bakery and remained with the Walmart Corporation as a cake decorator for thee years. I continued to manage TCLSF as well until moving out of state in August of 2018, when I made the tough decision to close down my business until I could give my clients the attention and time they deserved. That time finally came when I moved back to Santa Fe in the fall of 2019, and re-launched TCLSF in April of 2020 with more services, more experience, and more options than every before.

I continue to run the business from my home kitchen, and am passionate about serving the community with high-quality and beautiful cake creations for all of life's special moments. I am available for a wide variety of cake and baking related services, though I specialize in custom event cakes. I first earned my NM State Food Handler's Certification in 2014, and have maintained an active certification through 2023.

I truly consider it an honor and a blessing to do something I love and be a part of my client's special moments, and want nothing more than to meet your needs and turn your dreams into a reality. Thank you so much for taking the time to invest in a local operation, and I pray that I can use my skills and resources to serve you and our community to the best of my ability.

"Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God's grace in it's various forms." 1 Peter 4:10, NIV