Inside Baton Rouge’s newest scratch bakery

After more than 20 years working in laboratories, Shameka Lavigne traded biology for a bakery, turning her lifelong passion into a storefront of her own. 

Creole Cakes, Lavigne’s Southern scratch bakery on Perkins Road, opened Sept. 12. This milestone is years in the making for Lavigne, who has dreamed of owning a bakery for as long as she can remember. 

“I always knew there was something more. I was capable of more,” she says.

The name Creole Cakes reflects her heritage and roots in south Louisiana. She settled on the name about six years ago, repeatedly returning to it as she considered names.

Inside the store, pink, gold and white accents create a soft, elegant atmosphere with the hope that customers feel comfortable enough to slow down and enjoy a treat. It’s also equipped with a functioning drive-thru for a to-go stop. 

One of her favorite and most personal design elements is the large flower wall made by Lavigne herself. She purchased silk flowers in January 2024, assembled them and stored them away, knowing someday she wanted to display them in her future shop. 

“At first I kept saying ‘If I get a shop’ and so I had to change that to ‘When I get my shop, this flower wall is going up,’” she says.

When fire safety regulations initially threatened to keep the wall from being installed, she found a way to treat it with a fire-retardant spray and keep it in place. 

“I knew that was going to be in my shop one day,” she says. 

The shop offers more than 20 cake flavors, with five featured flavors rotating monthly alongside its signature Southern Wedding Cake. Customer favorites include red velvet and praline cake, while Lavigne’s family particularly loves her carrot cake. 

The November lineup includes German chocolate, praline, fresh strawberry and rum cakes. Customers can find cupcakes and cake slices in the display case, along with cookies, brownies, cheesecakes and other desserts. 

Lavigne says her love for baking began in childhood, watching her mother make cake, pies and other desserts from scratch. 

As she grew older, she began baking for herself and her siblings. Her first paid baking order came in high school, when a friend’s mother asked her to make brownies. 

As she grew older, she set her dream aside and earned a biology degree. building a career in labs. Through it all, baking remained a constant and she spent years selling desserts on the side while working, eventually becoming a lab supervisor. 

About two years ago, Lavigne decided it was time to seriously pursue her dream. She took small-business classes and worked to figure out how to turn her passion into a profitable business. 

“I told myself, ‘You’re not stopping. You can’t give up. You’ve got to make it happen,’” she says.

Leaving her career for entrepreneurship was intimidating, but Lavigne said the experience reaffirmed that this is what she wants to do. 

“It’s still scary, but I’m living it, and this is what I feel like I’m supposed to be doing,” she says. 

Her background in science has proven useful. She sees baking, especially scratch baking, as an extension of her laboratory work, requiring precision, patience and careful measurements. Her experience supervising employees has helped her navigate another responsibility: managing a bakery team. 

Since opening, business has been steady, with recent weekends showing growth as more customers discover the bakery. For Lavigne, her ambitions extend beyond the Perkins Road space and she hopes to expand into multiple locations and become a part of the Baton Rouge community. 

For now, she’s focused on growing her customer base, perfecting the craft and making the bakery a place where people can stop in for a slice or to order something special for life’s celebrations. 

“It’s only up from here,” she says.

Creole Cakes is located at 9065 Perkins Rd. and is open Tuesday to Saturday from 10:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. For custom cakes, visitors can order whole cakes through the bakery’s website or by calling the shop.