SILVERDALE — Justinna Biggs, owner of Tinnie Cakes, said her favorite cake to make is the “smash” cake for a one-year-old.

“I just love so much the fact that a baby gets to enjoy that cake 100 percent and just be happy and get all into that cake and get it everywhere,” Biggs said. “It’s just so wonderful. Like, we all want to shove our face into a cake.”

Well, maybe in a few months, she can make one of those cakes for herself, because Tinnie Cakes is “just a baby” too: the custom cake business opened in a rented kitchen at Pips Bagels in July 2016.

Biggs studied at Le Courdon Bleu about a decade ago, and has spent the ensuing years in the industry. She’s been a head chef at various restaurants, but she “never wanted to be anything but a pastry chef.”

“I have been in the industry a good 10 years,” she said. “My love for cake specifically is the one thing that just held true and has grown stronger.

“I’d been intending to do this for a very long time, but I finally took the leap.”

Making nothing but custom cakes, Biggs said her bakery has “grown wonderfully.”

“Whenever I make a cake, I end up giving a bunch of business cards with that cake, so everybody at the party, if they’re interested, can take a card,” she said.

She also posts photos of her creations on her Facebook page, and regularly gets messages requesting appointments.

The process of getting a Tinnie Cakes creation is relatively simple. Give her a call or message her on Facebook, and a one-on-one meeting will be set up to discuss the cake, the event, the colors, decorations, etc., so that the cake she makes is tailored specifically for each client.

One recent cake she made was a rodeo/princess-themed cake for a surprise birthday party for a 9 year old.

“We ended up making a pink cake … put a picket fence, some grass, a rope ‘9,’ flowers” — basically the perfect rodeo/princess cake for a surprise birthday party.

But the customization of the cake is perhaps one of Biggs’ favorite aspects of her job.

“When I get to sit down with a new customer and get to know them, not getting to the part where they just show me a picture,” she said. “It’s the part where I get to know them and say, ‘I think that your interest here could be incorporated into this cake.’ ”

One of the challenges she faces, however, is re-creations.

A recent trend, she said, is re-creating wedding cakes for anniversary celebrations, meaning Biggs has to tell from a photo how the original chef created the original cake in order to re-create it.

“It’s very fun, but it can get challenging.”

Currently, Tinnie Cakes only does special, custom cakes, made in the rented kitchen of Pips Bagels. But in another three years, Biggs hopes to have a storefront location where she can expand to selling not just custom cakes, but pre-made cakes and a variety of pastries as well.

“For Tinnie Cakes, the New Year’s resolution is to get 100 new customers,” Biggs said. “(That’s going) very well. I love how I have people, friends of friends of friends of friends, calling me. It’s very nice. It’s going well.”

Info: Justinna Biggs, 360-536-8974, or www.facebook.com/tinniecakes. She prefers a minimum of two weeks to create a custom cake. She’s created birthday, wedding, anniversary and various other special-occasion cakes.

Michelle Beahm is a reporter for Kitsap News Group. She can be reached at mbeahm@soundpublish ing.com.