Creative Cakes and Snacks opens doors in Copperas Cove

By BRITTANY FHOLER

Cove Leader-Press

Creative Cakes and Snacks opened for business in their storefront location Saturday morning, serving hundreds of customers until nearly 9 p.m.

Owners Know-Ledge and Salima Truth have been in the business of satisfying sweet tooths for nearly 20 years.

The couple have three children, and when their oldest daughter was around two years old, the couple began making cakes for their children’s birthdays. The cakes were vegan/vegetarian to satisfy the family’s dietary needs.

Salima said they didn’t get serious about making desserts until 2005, when they were stationed at Fort Campbell, Kentucky. Know-Ledge has been in the Army for the past 18 years, and as the family has been stationed around the country, they have seen their dessert businesses flourish.

While at Fort Campbell, Salima said she focused on custom cakes and cupcakes.  

“Over time, we started growing, started perfecting the skill a little bit more,” Salima said.

The family moved to Fort Bragg, North Carolina in 2008, where they began focusing more on custom cakes. At this time, the Truths still were making everything in their home and had obtained a home-based business license. In 2010, the family purchased their first food trailer, which was 18-feet long. From there, they appeared at every event in the area, Salima said.

They ended up contracting with a local high school for three years and were one of the first food trucks to partner with the school. The family then purchased a dessert truck, brining them to a total of two food truck businesses while in North Carolina.

The Truths moved to Hawaii in 2017, and by March 2018, they opened a kiosk on the military installation outside. Within one month, they were given the option to lease a building space, which they ran for three years. Salima said the family grew to eventually have four locations for their business, two of which were at the major mall and two were on different military installations.

In December 2020, the Truths moved to Copperas Cove, after being stationed at Fort Hood.

“We kind of started doing the same thing after we got here,” Salima said. “We were looking for a location, started doing it in-home again until once we found this location here.”

Located at 1301 E. Business190, at the corner of Avenue D and Business 190, Creative Snacks and Cakes has given the former location of Fong’s Seafood Market and the Blinded Lime a hot pink makeover. The mural painted on the outside of the building features an artist’s interpretation of an old photo of the Truths’ children with ice cream and cupcakes.

Creative Cakes and Snacks opened for business in its new storefront on Saturday at 10 a.m. and remained open until after 8 p.m., serving at least 200 families who were looking to satisfy their sweet tooth.

The line of customers occasionally went to the door, as Salima and Know-Ledge worked together to fulfill orders for cupcakes, root beer floats, ice cream cones, cheesecake in a jar, cheesecake cones, sundaes and more.

Lining two of the walls are all the toppings one could imagine, from fresh fruit and chia seeds and hemp and flax seeds to different types of candies.

There are 12 different Bluebell Ice Cream flavors, including a kid favorite, Cotton Candy.

Ice cream cones or bowls are available for either $3.25 for a kids serving or $5.25 for a regular serving, plus just an additional $2.50 for all the toppings.

Customers can also build their own sundaes with a cookie, brownie, banana split, cake or bubble waffle.

Salima said she and her husband were very mindful about their pricing.

“We don't make our prices where they're competitive, we just enjoy the company when customers come in,” Salima said. “We just like building that relationship or that rapport with everyone.”

Salima said that they try to keep their prices low so that parents and children can enjoy the experience.

“Anytime you go to a yogurt shop, your first experience, you get your yogurt, you pile all your toppings, especially if you have children, and then once you get to check out, that first bowl is $15, automatically, and you're like, ‘How did we even get that high?’ but it's because of everything that you put up there,” Salima said. “So, a lot of times those yogurt shops, people look at that as a once-in-a-while treat.”

At Creative Cakes and Snacks, the toppings are available for a flat fee, not by weight.

“Let's say if your child's having a great day at school, and you want to reward them, you know that you could send them in here with $10 and get whatever they want, and they still walk out with change in their pocket. Same thing if they were having a bad day where you want to cheer him up,” Salima said.

Salima said that her business is a place where customers don’t have to worry about those extra costs like toppings making a treat expensive.

“That's one of the reasons why we kind of like keeping our prices affordable, so our customers can come that enjoy that first experience and make them want to keep coming back,” Salima said.

Since moving to Texas, the cheesecake cones, which are $8, have become their best-selling item. These feature cheesecake in a large waffle ice cream cone and come in a variety of flavors: Cinnamon Toast Crunch, strawberry lemon, lemon, key lime, banana, cotton candy, Reese’s, strawberry banana, strawberry, Butterfinger, Fruity Pebbles and Oreo.

Other cheesecake items include chocolate dipped cheesecakes and cheesecake heaven in a jar.

Creative Cakes and Snacks also sells whoopie pies, chocolate dipped strawberries, chocolate dipped bananas (with or without drizzle and toppings).  There are single slices of cake, brownies and an assortment of candy on the shelves.

There are also cheesecake stuffed candy apples and regular caramel/candy coated apples.

The main stars of the shop are the cupcakes, which come in 70 different flavors.

“We've always had that motto, before we even moved to Texas: Go big or go home” Salima said about the number of flavors.

While most store bakeries tend to stop at four flavors and other local bakeries might stop at 12, Creative Cakes and Snacks feels there is no limit.

“We know there's so many flavors, so many different things that you can do,” Salima said. “We love experimenting with different flavors.”

Some of the cupcake flavors complement the ice cream flavors even, she added.

“We love giving people options, where is unique flavors that you can't find in the grocery store, and you know that you don't find anywhere,” Salima said. “We always have more than 15 flavors out every day, so that way when you come in, you never have to worry about if you come in at 5 p.m., and we're down to a couple of flavors left. We always have a stockpile. Staff is always working in the back to make sure replenishment is always there.”

Creative Cakes and Snacks is a family-owned business that “thrives on our endeavor to provide quality customer service,” said Know-Ledge. “That is our biggest endeavor is when you come into our location, it's not about us making a sale but us meeting a new face and being able to walk away remembering that individual. Every time we've gone on to a location, like my wife was alluding to, we've always been able to touch the lives of those who come into our establishment, whether to patronize or to just come by and talk, and they have also touched our lives. That is the biggest thing that I would want to stress to all of our patrons that we're not just people who are out just to sale.”

In their previous communities, the Truths used their business to raise money for local school groups and organizations and did a lot of various charity events as well as PTO events. They hope to bring that to their business here in Copperas Cove.

“A lot of times what they do is they'll just bring us a letter or ask if we can donate something,” Salima said. “We never turn that down because there's always opportunity to be able to talk to the teachers, to be able to just connect on different levels with people.”

Creative Cakes and Snacks is open Monday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. For the month of October only, they will also be open on Sunday, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

For more information on the items offered and flavors offered, readers can follow Creative Cakes and Snacks on Facebook through https://www.facebook.com/lifeissweet.truth and find them on Instagram by searching @creativecakesandsnacks.