When we caught up with Rachel Barbaro Arrieta in 2019, we learned she never planned to open a bakery. she didn’t even think she was that good at baking. It started when she baked a cake for her mom’s 50th birthday, and ended with getting enough delivery contracts to open her own storefront.
Sugar Ray’s Bake Shop opened on Nov. 13, 2013. With small-batch baking and always-fresh goods every day (she often donates any leftover cupcakes, you’re not going to find day-old anything), classes on macaron-making and lots of help from family, the bakery is still cooking up confections 10 years later.
“Ten years honestly feels so surreal. I feel like I just opened on one hand and then if I look back at the last 10 years and all the different experiences I have had with the shop it feels like its been a decade, but in the best way” Barbaro says. “I have grown so much as a baker and as an entrepreneur and I really wouldn’t change a thing.”
Looking back, one of Barbaro’s favorite memories was being able to bring her shop to Netflix’s Sugar Rush Christmas. The baking competition show brought together four teams of bakers to compete in cupcake, confections and cake competitions. Barbaro ended up winning her episode, which you can stream on Netflix. (Season 1, episode 3 “Christmas Carols”)
The shop celebrated the anniversary on Saturday with free cupcakes/cookies for customers and a drawing for a free dozen of custom cupcakes.
“Being born and raised here want to thank the city of Plano for being so amazing to me with letting me be a part of so many special birthdays and events. I love this city and I love all my customers!”
Sugar Ray’s Bake Shop is located at Lakeside Market at 4021 Preston Road.
