CAMEROON, Bamenda :: Meeting the People, Getting the Photos

 

Cakes Spring up in Chicago

If ever a business name matched the owner’s name and spirit, it is Sunshine Best and her Rise and Shine Desserts. Sunshine’s unique, wheat-free baked delights have spread across the United States’ online-order dessert market in 2007. “One in 30 people have an allergy to wheat,” says Best during a recent interview. “Wheat-free is a growing market – but I want everyone to know that it doesn’t mean a trade-off on taste.”

Tossing out market-savvy statistics is just one of this optimistic entrepreneur’s many strengths. A recent transplant to Chicago from Canada, whose parents came to North America from Barbados and Jamaica in the early 1980s, she combines knowledge of her craft with vision, technology, and tremendous personality.

Operating out of her kitchen, she began advertising online (www.sunshinesbest.com) in March 2007. In the summer 2007, her business showed enough promise for her to be approved a $1200 microloan from ACCION-Chicago. Now, as her orders pick up and she begins to build strategic partnerships with Chicagoland caterers, she hopes to obtain a second loan in the future to help her to access a new cooking space.

As she details plan to expand her business, pay off the loan, and seek another, she reveals her conscientious choice to leave a small ecological footprint with her baking business (cupcakes are wrapped in reusable silicone) and a personal tale of struggle and inspiration. The afternoon winds to a satisfactory conclusion – with one more peanut butter cookie, of course, and a few more for the road.

by David Shuey / Interviewed October 2007 /
In cool Chicago, in the lovely state of Illinois /
(see old state seal below; yes, we’ve come a long way)

 
  
1809 territoral seal vs. current