SYCAMORE – Most people only dream of having a cake like those on Pinterest.

Paige Halstead makes those kinds of cakes for a living.

At Polka Dot Bakery, Halstead sells baked goods – which she describes as food art – including cakes, shortbread cookies and homemade candies. Thousands of cakes and cookies have been made in her tiny 400-square-foot bakery since she opened in November 2012. Halstead takes a notepad everywhere she goes, because, she said, she is constantly doodling new ideas for future cakes.

Halstead told MidWeek reporter Katrina Milton about making art with food.

Milton: Why cakes and cookies?

Halstead: I make custom cakes and cookies because it is a really cool form of art. Everything is a kind of art creation. Everything that I do is different; no two cakes are alike or the same. I tweak each cake a little bit. Since everything that I do is custom, I change the colors and arrange it differently. It would have a different name on it or age if it were for a birthday. Especially to take pictures of the cakes, it’s fun to do. That way, you get a cake that is custom to you. …I don’t make your typical chocolate chip-type cookies. I don’t do boring. I do cute. As an artist, I take my creations seriously.

Milton: Do people often want a custom cake?

Halstead: Some people are very adamant, wanting a cake exactly like the one they see in a picture. They could pull a picture off of the Internet that they’ve found on Pinterest or Google, then say that they want that exact picture. If it’s something that I’ve done before, I will tweak it a little bit. If it’s something from Pinterest, I’ll stick to the picture.

Milton: What is your favorite cake?

Halstead: The ones that people recognize are always the ones that are the most fun. So those are Sesame Street characters or superheroes, minions and Disney characters. I just recently did one that was “Nightmare Before Christmas.” That was probably my favorite cake that I’ve ever done. It had Jack and all the characters on it and some spooky Halloween stuff. I’ve been waiting to do a “Nightmare Before Christmas” cake, and I went all out with it. I love doing all of the iconic characters. I have a lot of favorites.

Milton: Were you always interested in baking?

Halstead: I had no intention of opening my own bakery. ...I’m pretty much completely self-taught, watching videos on YouTube. If somebody wants something that I don’t know how to do, it’s YouTube, practice, perfect. ...I worked at the Jewel [Osco] bakery when I was younger, and that’s where I learned how to frost a cake. They didn’t let you be very creative; you had to do things a certain way. After I left there, I went to beauty school.

Milton: Did you ever have an Easy Bake Oven?

Halstead: No, but I remember making box brownies when I was a kid. But I was never really interested until my aunt brought it up one day. …One day my aunt, who runs a daycare, was ordering custom Valentine’s Day cookies. And I thought, well I can do that. And that’s how it started. I started baking cookies for Valentine’s Day and it spread from there. I really had no intention of baking cake until I tried it and realized that I was good at it. I was just going to be a cookie bakery, but I tried a cake, and I loved it.

...My husband and I were thinking about one day opening a little quaint pizza shop. But it just turned into a bakery. The pizzeria could be in the works one day along down the road. Making pizza dough is baking, so it kind of went hand in hand. But it’s definitely just a bakery right now.

Milton: If you didn’t bake, what would you do?

Halstead: Honestly, I wouldn’t know what to do with myself. I’ve always been artsy and I’ve always known that I would be an entrepreneur. When I was younger, I made bracelets and sold them. My mom and I make aprons to sell. I didn’t necessarily know that I would be a baker, but I’ve known that I would be work for myself.

…A lot of my friends tell me that they are bored and need a hobby. I have too many hobbies, from sewing and crafting to baking and making decorations. I always have a craft that I’m working on. If I found another hobby, I wouldn’t sleep and have to do it overnight.

Milton: Does your family help you?

Halstead: My husband will come help, mom will come help, and sometimes my brother helps out. But 99.99 percent of the time, it’s just me. I’ll turn the music on and just bake. Sometimes my oven is on for 16 hours at a time. I have just one regular-sized oven. I hope to get a commercial-sized oven soon, but for now, it’s just that one oven.

Milton: What was your craziest order?

Halstead: I can’t think of anything specific, but working for myself and by myself, I overbook myself. Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, sometimes I am working 18 or 19 hours. But I’ve learned time management because of it. It’s a good thing that I’ve been so crazy busy, because I’ve learned how to handle it all. …But I would say wedding cakes are the most stressful. I make sure that everything is perfect, and then it takes about half an hour to just assemble the cake together. Then I take pictures. In the car, driving away, I let out a huge sigh of relief, knowing that I’m done and that all I have to do is post the pictures to the Internet so that everybody can love it.

Milton: How long does it take to bake a cake?

Halstead: It depends on the cake’s size and decorations. When I first started, I remember pulling all-nighters, staying up all night, finishing a three-tiered cake. Now, I have 25 cakes due on a Saturday, along with 50 dozen cookies.

Milton: Do you use your own recipes?

Halstead: Yes, and everything is made here fresh, fresh, fresh. I never freeze anything. I have never frozen a cake or a cookie in my life. Everything is made to order using my own original recipes that I have tweaked and played with until they are perfect. Cake flavors are mostly chocolate, vanilla, and marble. And then I can play with fillings. For cookies, it is just my signature shortbread cookie. And those are completely custom, too, and can be decorated any way under the sun.

Milton: How did you create the recipes?

Halstead: When I first started, I was looking online and pulled some trial and error recipes. For the shortbread recipe, I found a recipe I liked but wound up not having all of the ingredients. I just played with the ingredients I had at home, and it turned out perfect. I haven’t changed it since. It is beyond perfect. …Now, I can tell just by looking when I’m finished baking. I never even use a timer anymore. I burned a lot of cookies along the way, but I now have a good system figured out.

Milton: How many cookies and cakes do you bake per month?

Halstead: It depends. Some months are cookie-heavy, others are cake-heavy. Around the holidays, I make around 400 dozen cookies minimum. NIU is a client, and I made 20 to 50 dozen cookies for football games. There are always birthdays and wedding showers. In the spring there’s Easter and graduations. The other big ones are Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Valentine’s Day. Those are the major holidays. …It’s always fun to move onto the next holiday. I can’t wait to start on the next holiday’s cookies.

For holidays, I give out a mix of holiday-themed decorated cookies. And when I wrap them in little gift boxes, they make perfect gifts for holidays, like for teacher gifts or for Christmas. It’s nice to give them, and it’s nice to get them, especially when it’s all wrapped up beautifully. We will have lots of gift packages and boxes wrapped up for the holidays.

Milton: Do you deliver your cakes?

Halstead: Yes, I just bought a new SUV and that has been my delivery vehicle. I can deliver wedding cakes, but for tiered cakes, I box them separately and assemble the cake there. …Most people pick up their orders at the shop.

Milton: After baking so many cookies and cakes, are you tired of eating them?

Halstead: No, I’m still snacking when I bake because everything is so good. Lately, I’ve been making only enough for the order so that I never have extras around for snacking. I try not to eat the cookie dough, but almost every day I am. I’ve got to taste test and make sure that it’s good.

Milton: Do you bake for your family?

Halstead: Pretty much every single person in my family gets a birthday cake or cookies. If I have leftover stuff here in the shop at the end of the week, I often give it to them.

Milton: What are your goals for the future?

Halstead: I have had the same vision since day one: I am going to have a larger shop in Sycamore. My prospective location is going to be down near the Jewel on Peace Road. I love the area right around there. That’s where I hope the bigger shop is going to be. It’s going to be cute and quaint with lots of decorations. And that will hopefully be in a couple of years, possibly by November 2016.

For more information on Polka Dot Bakery, call 815-764-9747 or visit www.polkadotbakery.net.