Rachel Barbaro Arrieta created a sweet little empire built on cupcakes, cakes and macarons when she opened Sugar Ray’s Bake Shop in 2013. She bakes everything fresh daily, and offers a variety of flavorful treats including lemon ricotta cupcakes, red velvet cakes and milk chocolate hazelnut cupcakes. And now the bakery is taking on a new challenge by competing on the show “Sugar Rush.”
“Sugar Rush” is a baking competition on Netflix where contestants compete to win $10,000. The first round is a cupcake competition, the second round is a confections competition and the final round is a cake competition. The cast of celebrity judges included Candice Nelson, the creator of Sprinkles Bakery. Needless to say, this type of competition was right up Rachel’s alley.
After watching season one of “Sugar Rush,” Rachel called the production team. After a series of interviews, she was cast for “Sugar Rush Christmas” which begins airing Nov. 29. Rachel flew to L.A. in February of this year to film the competition.
“It was crazy to be competing in a complete winter wonderland of Christmas decor in early February, but it was so fun,” said Rachel.
When asked if the nature of this competition was stressful, she said that it was far too fun to focus on the stress.
“I love being thrown into a competition like that, with enormous amounts of pressure. That is where my skills are put to the test, and that feeling is addicting,” she said. “Of course, with that much pressure comes a bit of stress. But when you are having so much fun getting to compete doing something that you love, you really don’t have time to think about the stress level.”
“I know Netflix is a huge streaming platform, and I hope that I will gain some new customers from the area that may not have known about my shop,” said Rachel. “This sort of platform is a dream for small business bakers like myself, so I couldn’t be more excited and humble that I was able to compete in an environment like that.”
Watch “Sugar Rush Christmas” on Netflix beginning Nov. 29 to see how Rachel fares in the competition.
Sugar Ray's Bake Shop > Sugar Rush on Netflix >
Sugar Ray’s Bake Shop
4021 Preston Rd
Plano, TX 75093
