Photos by Yuvie Styles
Alex Baker Kincaid’s birth announcement was a baker’s hat with a recipe and directions that lead to her arrival. “Bred a Baker from birth” is written across her website, as if making cakes was destiny.
After more than a decade in public relations and marketing, Kincaid began living up to her destiny and became a full-time baker in 2020. A. Baker, the cake business she runs out of her home, produces glamorous cakes in unique, modern flavors for weddings and events.
A. Baker’s cakes are decadent but classy. Think Food Network meets Chanel.
The Hockaday grad cut into her creative side in school, practicing art and photography.
She graduated from Elon College in 2009, with degrees in history and journalism. After that, Kincaid studied at Sotheby’s Institute of Art in London, earning a master’s degree in contemporary art.
That’s also when she began baking in her free time.
“I had won a pie contest in college at a fraternity party, so it was just sort of a creative outlet, rather than an educational outlet,” Kincaid says. “But I knew that education and corporate was the way I was going to make money.”
Kincaid returned home from London to work in marketing and hospitality. The Dallas Art Fair, Ross-Michael’s Gallery and Hotel Zaza were among her clients in luxury marketing and public relations. Later she was Modern Luxury magazine’s marketing manager and director. Eventually, she became the marketing and communications manager for the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company.
The Ritz-Carlton provided Kincaid the opportunity to see behind the scenes some of the city’s well-known pastry chefs and bakers. Among chef Dean Fearing’s pastry team, including rock-star pastry chef Jill Bates, Kincaid found herself surrounded by sweets galore.
“If you couldn’t find me at my desk, you’d find me down there, bugging them in the kitchen and just asking a million questions,” Kincaid says. “Even though I wasn’t technically trained in pastry, that’s sort of where I saw true beauty and art come together in a culinary way.”
Kincaid practiced her skills on loved ones.
“I was baking my friends birthday cakes, making cookies, and making cupcakes,” Kincaid says. “Just figuring it out as I went along.”
After the pandemic, Kincaid realized life was short, and she quit her job to start her own business. She found that Dallas had a bit of a hole when it came to bakeries that provided beautiful, whimsical cakes.
“I was like ‘Don’t fight it. People want the cake.’ So I made them cake, but super interesting with a little bit more adult flavors,” Kincaid says. “And then decorated in a way where you’d be proud to set it on your table.”
Kincaid got her food handler’s license and cottage baking license, and she registered the name A. Baker.
“I am truly the only employee of the company. I’m the baker, the decorator, the dishwasher, the purchaser, you name it,” she says.
Now Kincaid whips up a variety of flavors like white raspberry, chocolate raspberry, funfetti crunch, black cocoa mascarpone, chocolate cool mint, carrot caramel, chocolate peanut butter, champagne and roasted strawberry, chocolate mocha toffee crunch, and her personal favorite, limoncello.
Her cakes are inspired by the floral arrangements of her customers’ events, and Kincaid often works with local floral shops to make sure that cakes fit the theme.
“It’s typically florals I would never think to put together or I would have never picked myself,” Kincaid says. “And that is when I’m pushed and when the best work comes out of me. That’s when the creativity gets really fun and usually ends up in some of the most beautiful cakes.”
The cakes range from $60 to $160, depending on size, and can feed anywhere from six people to over 30.
“They say that you’ll never work a day in your life if you’re doing what you love,” Kincaid says. “And that’s really how I feel about this business; I was born truly, A. Baker.”
