(CHICAGO) -Teresa Ging, the entrepreneur and baker behind Chicago's fresh new Sugar Bliss Cake Boutique, was a guest at the White House on Wednesday, March 11, invited to take part in President Obama's signing of an executive order to create a White House Council on Women and Girls.
Ging, a bright and savvy businesswoman who launched her first retail location in the Chicago Loop just two months ago, was in excellent company at the event, a celebration of International Women's History Month. She was surrounded by senators, representatives and governmental advisors as well as the nation's top female corporate and entrepreneurial talent, all chosen to attend for their exemplary work and achievements.
The new Council on Women and Girls comprises heads of every Cabinet and Cabinet-level agency. "Its purpose is very simple: to ensure that each of the agencies in which they're charged takes into account the needs of women and girls in the policies they draft, the programs they create, the legislation they support," President Obama said in his address. He appointed former Chicagoan and senior administrator Valerie Jarrett to lead the council. Tina Tchen, another senior member of the White House staff, is the council's executive director.
Ging knows well the career challenges women face; she successfully overcame hurdles of her own. Ging left a career in finance in 2006 to attend Le Cordon Bleu Patisserie program in Paris; when she returned to Chicago, she decided to pursue her entrepreneurial dream. "Because I was a woman, with a single income, a minority, and starting a business at a younger age, I faced obstacles at all stages of starting my business. But I just kept pushing forward and focusing on my goal...to ultimately open my own business and be successful."
Ging's spirit and determination were acknowledged in Jarrett's speech at the White House. "We are also joined by a successful small-business owner, Teresa Ging, the owner of Sugar Bliss Cake Boutique, from our hometown of Chicago. Teresa was helped along the way by the federally funded Women's Business Development Center with counseling and financing," Jarrett noted in her address.
Sugar Bliss Cake Boutique opened its first retail location in January 2009. The inviting, sophisticated shop at 115 N. Wabash Ave., between Macy's and Millennium Park, serves fresh specialty cupcakes baked from scratch daily in the kitchen on-site, using only high quality, natural ingredients such as European cocoa, Nielsen Massey Pure Madagascar Bourbon Vanilla, and real strawberries, bananas and other fruit. Every extra-moist cupcake is decorated
with the Sugar Bliss bloom, a blossom of rich, creamy frosting topped with a signature dot
The always-new menu includes breakfast cupcakes each morning and the famous Sugar Bliss frosting shot, a small cup with a Bliss bloom inside. Sugar Bliss Cake Boutique also offers mini cupcakes, 6-inch custom cakes, cupcake tiers, custom-colored frosting, cupcakes with custom logos and party-favor boxes. Guests can pair any treat with Sugar Bliss Signature Blend coffee, GuS Soda, milk, hot chocolate, tea or bottled water.
Sugar Bliss Cake Boutique continues to offer delivery and catering services as well. Ging launched the catering and delivery side of the business in October 2007 and has expanded her client base with corporate customers, hotels, event and wedding planners and catering companies. Sugar Bliss Cake Boutique also has participated in a variety of local charity events, including Great Chef's Tasting (United Cerebral Palsy) and Shopping for Wishes (Make-A-Wish Foundation), and will continue to contribute to Chicago charitable organizations.
Sugar Bliss Cake Boutique is located at 115 N. Wabash Ave., at the intersection of Washington Street and Wabash in the Chicago Loop. Store hours are 8 a.m.-7 p.m. Monday-Friday, 9 a.m.-6 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Sunday.
