TACOMA, Wash. — At Lulu's Bakery Shop, you might want to have what Marlyn Martinez is having.
"It's so good!" Martinez exclaims while eating a homemade custard dessert called a jericalla. "Yummy! Yum! Yum!"
Her daughter says you can't possible order the wrong thing at Lulu's.
"I love her churro cheesecake," Paola Vera said. "Her cake pops, her cookies. It satisfies any craving that anyone would have."
"I think this is where dreams begin," said Lourdes "Lulu" Hernandez who quite possibly made the sweetest and pinkest pandemic pivot on record.
"I used to be a property manager for 22 years," she said.
But when daycare closed for her 5 year old twins, Hernandez found a new calling in a place that surprises ever her, the kitchen.
"Somehow people started asking me 'Can you make me a Tres Leches cake?' 'Can you make me a Tres Leches cake?'" she said.
"I'm like 'I don't know how to make a Tres Leches cake!'"
"'Come on Lourdes!'"
"I'm like 'No I don't know.'"
"Well thank God for YouTube," she said.
Her friend made a Facebook post about Hernandez's first attempt at the National Pastry of Mexico
"And after I got that I got another one, then another one, then another one and here I am now!" she said.
Well, it wasn't really that easy, as anyone who has tried to start a food business knows.
"To start Lulu's Bakery shop, it was not easy at all," Hernandez said. "Oh Lord Jesus! It was not easy at all."
Hernandez had trouble finding other bakeries that would offer advice, and she found plenty of bureaucracy blocking her way.
"So, I was coming back home and crying and crying and my husband was just looking at me and he thought I was going to quit because I didn't see a green light anywhere," she said.
And that's when Hernandez decided to be her own green light. No matter the cost, she was going to make her dream come true. She wants the Latino community to see what happens when someone refuses to give up.
"Because a lot of the time we quit or we give up because of the language or because we are scared," she said. "Don't be afraid. Don't be afraid."
Neighbor Susan Njeri loves the cupcakes here because they're "very friendly for the kids." Customers come in for the chocoflan, with its moist chocolate cake base and her arroz con leche, a Mexican rice pudding that tastes great warm or cold.
Ashley Gotcher says her kids love Lulu.
"They know she makes all their cakes for their birthdays," she said.
"God works in different ways," Hernandez said, seated at a small table looking over her shop. "I never knew I had this gift. I don't know if I was born with it or God give it to me on the way, but I learned how do all these things. I love this bakery now."
Lulu's Bakery Shop is located 447 96th St S, Tacoma, WA 98444. It is open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. every day of the week except Sunday and Monday.
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