(WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- From a young age, Rebecca Lesmeister had a passion for cake making.
"I was about 11 years old, and I decided that I wanted to decorate cakes and so for my birthday I got a decorating kit and classes,” she says.
After years of measuring, mixing and pouring, her labor of love grew into a business. In February 2020, during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Lesmeister went from her home kitchen to opening up her very own custom cake shop in downtown Bartlett.
"We were in a hidden little storefront that only the people who went to the dog wash that used to be back there knew about,” she recalls.
But word of Lesmeister’s custom cakes spread, and she quickly outgrew the space.
Now, Rebecca’s Cakes by Design sits in a storefront along South Main Street in the heart of Bartlett. Passersby can’t help but smell the sweet aromas of cakes, cookies, cupcakes and cheesecakes.
What separates this bakery from others is it is a 100% nut-free facility.
Lesmeister discovered her son had a tree nut allergy at a young age, and from that moment on, she pulled any and all nuts from her recipes.
"When we did this, it went from zero to 1,000," she said. "I have people who drive an hour and a half because their child can finally come to a place and pick out whatever they want."
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