Andrea Hoxie has been baking cakes for the last 10 years, ever since she realized she enjoyed art and ceramics in high school and that felt that cake-making was along those same lines in shaping and sculpting edible works of art.

Originally from Maryland, Hoxie and her husband moved to Florida to take care of their parents and that’s when she started baking cakes.

“My friend asked me to do a 3-tiered cake for her wedding and it turned out really good,” she says. Hoxie has since gotten better at cake-making over the years, producing a 4-tiered wedding cake in purple and white colors with beading, diamonds, and decorative flowers adorning it.

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In 2010, Hoxie’s father indicated that he wanted to move to Lake Tahoe, so the couple soon followed. Before opening Happy Tiers, Hoxie used to work as a childbirth educator at the Renown Health in Reno and now makes cakes full-time.

“I do custom cakes…I don’t have a storefront but I do offer free delivery in town,” she says. Hoxie rents out a commercial kitchen with two ovens, four mixers, and she does all the baking. It takes her at least three days to bake a cake beforehand, but it all depends on the type of cake and detail.

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Ever since she launched Happy Tiers in Incline Village in the summer of 2016, Hoxie was placed on the vendor list of the Chateau at Incline Village and the business quickly took off.

“I did a lot of weddings there last year and have 12 booked so far for this coming year,” she says. Hoxie also specializes in birthday cakes- she’s made cool Harry Potter and Nerf cakes- but she likes making wedding cakes the most.

“With wedding cakes I have the opportunity to make someone’s day really special,” she says. Happy Tiers produces cakes in all kinds of flavors, but the two most popular ones are lemon-raspberry and champagne buttercream.

Hoxie says that she loves making cakes in Incline Village because of all of the tailored orders she receives and the ideas that her customers come up with. “Today I just got a call from someone who wants a volcano cake. It is super fun to be able to do these kinds of cakes for people,” she says. As the only commercial cake-maker in town, Hoxie is also happy to fill that niche.

“Some people ask if I make donuts or bread- I’m willing to try anything once. I made one customer a King Bread for Fat Tuesday,” she adds.

Along with staying busy by baking lots of cakes for all kinds of North Lake Tahoe special occasions, Happy Tiers also participates in community special events. Hoxie has showcased her desserts at a wedding expo at the Chateau last year and recently partnered with Glasses Wine Bar to offer chocolate, raspberry, and carrot cake trifles for its February 14 ValenWine’s Day event. Happy Tiers will be back at the Chateau for a spring wedding expo on April 9.

Kayla Anderson is an Incline Village-based freelance writer. Email her at kaylaanderson1080@gmail.com.