Selling cakes on the side during COVID led Columbus woman to open her own bakery

Asisha Person began baking in high school over 20 years ago, but it was always sweet treats for family and friends until June 2020.

She’d been baking a cake and messed up the icing. It didn’t look very good, but it likely tasted fine. So she went on social media and asked people in her community if they wanted to buy a slice of cake. It was on a whim, and no one would care how the whole cake looked if it was in slices.

The cake was a hit, and Person began selling cake more regularly while still working full-time for the state of Georgia. After she started selling cake slices, her growing fan base didn’t ask if she had specific flavors like red velvet or caramel.

“Girl, you got some of them cakes?” they would ask Person instead.

The phrase stuck and became the name of her business, and Them Cakes by Asisha was born.

Four years later, Person has opened a storefront for her business at 4026 Buena Vista Road and partnered with another small business to offer more ways for Columbus residents to try Them Cakes.

Creating custom cakes

Person started her business selling old-fashioned cakes made from scratch with flavors like German chocolate and key lime. But she didn’t decorate her cakes.

“My customers were like, ‘well, your cake is good. You got to start decorating because we want to get our (custom) cakes from you,’” Person said.

Accepting the challenge, Person began teaching herself how to decorate cakes three years ago. She watched a multitude of YouTube videos and later took a session with an instructor.

Now her customers can order custom cakes for any event, such as weddings, birthdays or other special occasions. But Person tells every customer she doesn’t copy other people’s work.

“You can show me your inspiration,” Person said. “I won’t do it (exactly) the same because I’m not that baker or that decorator who did the cake. But you will have a nice cake.”

Her cakes may look different because she’s using different ingredients or materials than others. Person primarily uses buttercream icing rather than another popular option, fondant, because she believes buttercream tastes better and she can still get sharp edges on her creations.

Along with custom cakes and cake slices, Them Cakes customers can also order other treats like cookies, truffles and “Them Cakes Petit Fors.”

Person grew up in Macon, and there was a pastry shop there that sold petit fours. She loved the pastries, and remembers them with nostalgia.

“I got in the lab and created my own,” Person said. “It’s not like theirs, but it’s pretty darn good.”

Supporting local businesses

Them Cakes customers will notice a display on the wall in the bakery dedicated to business cards for other local businesses.

Person places a lot of value on supporting all local businesses, she said, and she has a lot of friends who do a variety of things. She encourages other business owners to visit the bakery and leave their cards on the display.

“You don’t have to come in here to buy anything,” Person said. “But if you have a business, you’re welcome to come and put your card on the wall.”

Recently, Person heard a local chef, Dexter Roux, was opening a new barbecue restaurant. She reached out to Roux to ask about desserts he was offering customers.

“He told me to come by and let me see what you got,” Person said.

She met with her fellow local business owner, bringing along three different cakes: red velvet, key lime and caramel.

“I want all three,” Roux told Person before he even tasted them.

Dexter’s Southern Barbecue also opened its doors earlier this month, and Roux already reached out to Person to request more of her cakes to sell.

Columbus residents can now buy Them Cakes from Dexter’s Southern Barbecue, her bakery on Buena Vista Road or her website. Person is also working to make her cakes available on DoorDash.

“I don’t call my customers, ‘my customers,’” Person said. “They’re actually my family. A lot of them have been with me since the beginning.”