By Brian Argabright
The 830 Times
It’s taken Andrea Gomez nearly a year to acknowledge that she’s an artist.
The 29-year-old pastry maker has been dazzling Del Rioans with her creations under the banner of the Sleeping Lady Bakery, named for the famed mountain range visible to the south. And while many of her clients and tasters of her delectable delights have marveled at her work, she always felt her cakes and pastries were more a labor love than examples of edible imagery.
“I made a cake and the person who ordered it took one look at it and said, ‘This is art.’ I felt that it might be, but when I showed a photo of it to my sister Rebecca, she commented, “Aww. There’s Andrea, my sister … the artist,” Gomez said.
Gomez’s talent will be on display Friday, Oct. 7, at The Firehouse beginning at 6 p.m., with “Let Them Eat Cake! An Edible Art Show!” A different take on the usual First Friday Art Walk showcases, Gomez’s show will be Marie Antoinette-themed and will be used to also celebrate Sleeping Lady Bakery’s first year of business.
“I’m calling it a feast of treats to feed the senses,” Gomez said. “First of all, I love French pastries. I want to go to France and just try everything. I also love vintage things. I even own a guillotine, which will be on display at the show. There will be French pastries, little mini vintage cakes that will be fun and elegant, some elegant piped cake, a macaroon tower, éclairs, lemon and raspberry fruit tarts, Petit fours, and more, and there will be items that can be purchased.”
Gomez was born in Port Arthur, but she attended school in Del Rio from first grade until she graduated. Her love for pastries began as a sophomore, but her love of baking materialized at a younger age.
“Baking came to me as a kid. I had cookbooks from Better Homes and Gardens and Pillsbury, and those were my inspiration. There were things I would see on Pinterest eventually, but I first saw them in a book,” Gomez said. “Every birthday or Christmas I would get money and I would buy baking stuff. I remember one year I really wanted a set of piping tips but my parents thought they were too expensive. My sister, Selina, was working at Whataburger and she saved up her money and bought them for me. It was the best Christmas ever!”
As her baking skills grew, Gomez learned even more from two baking icons to Del Rioans. The first was Haby’s Bakery, a popular stop in Castroville for Del Rioans traveling to San Antonio, and the second was Susan Ridgeway, a local legend who was famous for her cakes.
“I remember someone paid Mrs. Ridgeway for a three-tier chocolate, chocolate cake covered in strawberries and I so wanted to recreate it. I would pipe for her. She taught me to do that and I loved her for that. I watched people get stuff from her and the sheer joy they had when those cakes were in their hands. It was such an experience,” Gomez said.
Gomez’s father suggested she go to school to learn more about her passion for baking, so she attended Le Cordon Bleu in Austin and studied pastry there. She would attend school from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., and then go to work from 3 to 11 p.m. She also worked a second job to help pay rent.
While in Austin, Gomez had the opportunity to cut her teeth for two renowned Austin eateries – Parkside and Olive & June. She also worked at Central Market Bakery for two years.
Everything she learned at every stop she brought back with her to Del Rio in 2016. She came home to help family and learn how to operate a business, but she still found time to create pastries for family and friends.
In December 2020, the final piece of the puzzle fell into place for Gomez while she was out walking her dog in the Buena Vista area.
“It was then that I saw her … the Sleeping Lady. That moment, seeing her, I went back to being a kid. I went back to that moment when I fell in love with baking. I screamed aloud and set out to make my dream of owning a business a reality. I even learned Adobe Illustrator and it took me six months to develop a logo,” Gomez said.
Slowly but surely, Gomez’s cakes became viral sensations. The first to garner massive attention was the Bee cake. Featuring edible honeycombs and small bees, the cake brought Gomez plenty of positive attention. From there her pop ups at places like Mesquite Creek Outfitters Del Rio introduced her smaller pastries to a new audience.
When the Val Verde County celebrated National Library Week, Gomez created a multi-tiered cake designed to look like classic pieces of literature such as “Pride and Prejudice,” “To Kill A Mockingbird,” and “The Odyssey.” The cake took about 35 hours to complete.
Her latest confectionery marvel was a luchador cake. The almost lifelike piece of edible art took weeks to plan and hours to execute. Gomez consulted photos of professional wrestlers, dozens of lucha masks, anatomy books and more to create the perfect masked wrestler. The result was so lifelike it had people questioning if it was even a cake.
Gomez said she’s grateful for all the help she’s received, from her friends, her family, her boyfriend (who takes all the photos of her work for social media), to businesses such as Big Dave’s, Fragola’s and La Hacienda. She said it’s the reaction people have to her work that keeps her going.
“If something I do gets 100 ‘likes’ it freaks me out. I’m more excited when I see the reaction of folks who order cakes from me and they get my creations. What makes me happy is that people are happy,” Gomez said.
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Contact the author at drnhsports@gmail.com
