For Kimone Ferguson, there was no artistic pivot or grand quest to find herself. The transition away from powerhouse team leader and general manager at the Fortune 500 cleaning agency, Cintas, was always in the cards. “I took the role to get experience in overseeing an operation,” Ferguson reveals. Her entire corporate life was built in service of what would come next, Kimone’s Cake Art Studio.
Right now Ferguson is ramping up for her next pop-up event on November 25th and 26th at the Aventura Mall in Miami. She’s sourcing ingredients from restaurant outlets and farmers’ markets to get ready for the big bake the night before. “I bake as close to the pop-up as possible,” she explains. “I have to make sure everything is as fresh as possible for my customers to enjoy.” Ferguson is diligent about getting her branding in order and making sure her setup is on point. “I get a lot of compliments on my setup,” she boasts. “I take pride in making sure everything is organized and looks good for the clients to see.”
Throughout the interview, Ferguson switches between “customers” and “clients” frequently. The self-taught baker (and self-taught marketer) earned her undergraduate degree in business management from the University of Florida and dips into business jargon out of habit. This fluidity is also a testament to her unconventional and meticulously planned career path of utilizing a high-ranking position at a Fortune 500 company as a stepping stone to pursue her dream of baking.
However, it’s not all business for Ferguson. Her childhood was perfumed by the scent of rum cakes and coconut. Born in New York, she recalls living in her Jamaican grandmother’s kitchen as a child. “I had the chance to watch my grandmother cook and bake different things in the kitchen. I got to taste test a lot of recipes,” she laughs. Her family moved to Florida around when she started high school, and she became even more engrossed in Jamaican culture. She took every baking class she could, and experimented with her own flavors in her free time, coming up with recipes she utilizes today.
Now, her heritage is on the menu. “It’s nice to see it come full circle, where I got a chance to observe my grandmother in the beginning, then really learn the recipes, and now I’m able to have it on the menu. It has really come full circle for me,” she explains. Her grandmother’s rum cake is a popular seasonal offering amidst her artisanal cupcakes, decadent celebration cakes, and expertly crafted macaroons.
When she’s not preparing for a pop-up, Ferguson creates bespoke custom-order cakes for every occasion and teaches classes. She’s fresh off teaching an interactive cookie decorating class at a local elementary school. The one-woman bakery has even bigger goals for Kimone’s Cake Art Studio. “I always had this dream of opening my own bakeries in New York, Florida and Jamaica,” she explains. “New York, because that’s where I’m from. Florida, because that’s where I grew up. Jamaica, because that’s my heritage.”
