“It just made sense. I could use pre-tax dollars I’d already earned — and instead of letting that money sit in the market, I could invest it directly in myself."
Joe & Denise Carbone, The Welsh Baker
A Business Born from a Crisis, a Kitchen, and a Lot of Heart
Joe & Denise Carbone, The Welsh Baker
Quick Facts
Location
Newhall, CA
Business Type
Independent
In Business Since
2009
Customer Since
2017
Employees
2-10
Their Story
It started with a 100-year-old family recipe, a griddle, and a simple idea: bring people together through food. Joe and Denise Carbone never imagined that Welsh cakes — a treat few Americans had heard of — would become the foundation for what is now America’s Premiere Purveyors of hand-griddled Welsh cakes.
Since 2009, they’ve been making each humble little cake entirely by hand, using a recipe passed down through Denise’s family. On the Create the Life You Want podcast, they share how The Welsh Baker grew into a beloved brand.
How a 100-Year-Old Recipe Sparked a Business
Joe Carbone had spent over 20 years working as an IT executive. The industry had always skewed young, and he knew it. “As I hit my late 40s,” Joe says, “there weren’t a lot of older people in IT where I worked. And that had always been the case. So I knew at some point when I reach a certain age, I’m going to be less and less valuable to an organization. I’m going to be more and more a target.”
That moment came during the 2008-2009 financial crisis, when his branch — and his job — were cut. “There I was at a crossroads in life, trying to find a new job,” Joe says, “at the age of 47.”
He could have gone back into tech, but something had shifted. “My heart just wasn’t in it.”
And that’s when an idea surfaced — something that had been simmering in the background for years.
“During my last business trip,” Joe says, “I told Denise, ‘hey, why don’t you look at these Welsh cakes? You know, they’re kind of unique and they’re different. Why don’t you see what it would take to start a company to do that?'”
Denise didn’t waste any time.
“When he returned, a scant nine hours later,” she recalls, “I had developed a preliminary business plan, including a place where the cakes could be made.”
Things moved quickly. “A week later, we were in the kitchen,” Joe laughs.
But what exactly is a Welsh cake — and how did it turn into a business?
As Denise explains, “I’m from Wales originally, part of the U.K., and it’s a traditional product there. You find them in every town. It’s similar to a scone, but they are cooked on a griddle, like you’re making a pancake.”
She had started making them in the U.S. for family and friends — and they were an instant hit.
“I made them after I came to America,” she continues, “and everyone said, ‘wow, those are great. You should go into business doing this.’ So the seed was planted in my brain, but for a long time I didn’t do anything about it.”
At the time, Denise focused on raising their children while Joe continued working full-time. “I was a full-time IT executive for 20-plus years and had businesses on the side. So I was familiar with running your own business as a side gig. The idea of being in business was always something I thought about.”
The couple had even explored franchising, but nothing stuck. Welsh cakes, though? That was something different — something rooted in heritage and uniquely theirs.
As Joe puts it, “I always want to be in a business that nobody else is in. I don’t necessarily want to be the best at something that 100 other people do. I want to be the one and only, if I can be.”
Scaling a Homemade Recipe
Welsh cakes may be small, but making hundreds — or thousands — by hand was no small feat.
The first challenge Joe and Denise faced wasn’t taste. It was volume. “Hiring 50 Welsh grandmas to bake them” might’ve made for a great marketing hook, but as Joe points out, it just wasn’t scalable.
They knew they needed a production process that could handle real demand — without sacrificing the quality or tradition that made their cakes special in the first place.
“I’m more of an engineer, and she’s more of an artist,” Joe says. “We spent six months just testing equipment and developing a process, having custom tools designed and made for us on spec, trying to find something scalable.”
Each custom tool required iteration. One prototype wasn’t enough. “It usually took three to get it right,” Joe explains.
It was tedious. It was technical. But it worked. Slowly but surely, the couple transformed a nostalgic family recipe into a product they could produce with precision — and pride.
From Retail Dreams to Real-World Demand
With production figured out, the next question was: who’s going to buy these things?
Their initial idea was to pitch to major retailers like Whole Foods or Trader Joe’s. But with no industry experience, that path felt like trying to scale a wall with no ladder.
Then someone they worked with offered a different idea: events.
“She said, ‘you have to do events,‘” Joe remembers.
It wasn’t what they had in mind. It felt unpredictable, a bit scrappy. But they gave it a shot — and everything changed.
“We had the most unconventional booth,“ Denise laughs. “We split a booth, with Jamaican food on one side and Welsh cakes on the other.“ It was a cultural mashup — and an unexpected hit.
They spent days baking for a two-day event… and sold out in just three hours.
It wasn’t just a good day. It was a proof of concept.
“We became festival merchants to become online merchants,“ Joe says. They handed out business cards to drive web sales and leaned into the Celtic Fair circuit, where they found a passionate and loyal customer base. “Marketing that paid us,“ as Joe puts it.
The $1 Million Kitchen Gamble
The business was growing — but their kitchen space was suddenly in jeopardy. Their landlord planned to raise the rent and bring in another tenant. The Carbones had a choice: move again or take a leap.
They decided to buy a building of their own.
“That really was a great move for us in the end,“ Joe says. “It took all the uncertainties away. We had 100% control, 100% access.”
It wasn’t a small decision. Outfitting the space with a commercial kitchen required major investment — nearly $1 million when combining the mortgage and renovations.
To fund the purchase and build-out, Joe and Denise used Rollovers for Business Startups (ROBS) — an innovative strategy that allowed them to access their retirement savings without incurring taxes or early withdrawal penalties. Joe had first come across ROBS years earlier while researching franchise opportunities, and the concept stuck with him.
“It just made sense,“ Joe says. “I could use pre-tax dollars I’d already earned — and instead of letting that money sit in the market, I could invest it directly in myself.”
For the Carbones, ROBS wasn’t just a financial tool. It was a way to take control of their future, use their existing resources wisely, and build a business with confidence — without taking on debt or giving up equity.
“A third of that money technically isn’t even ours: it’s the government’s,“ he says. “If I use after-tax money, it’s a hundred percent my money. If I use 401(k) money, it’s partly the government’s money that I’m using.”
The decision didn’t just solve their space problem — it diversified their business. They now owned real estate, not just a brand.
“If the business ever changes or winds down,“ Joe says, “we still have an asset that can be rented or sold.”
Rewriting the Recipe During COVID
When the pandemic hit, Joe and Denise found themselves at yet another crossroads.
Virtually overnight, the festival circuit — the foundation of their early growth — disappeared. Events were canceled. Crowds vanished. And the personal, face-to-face connection that had fueled The Welsh Baker from the start? Gone.
But what could have been a breaking point became a breakthrough.
Fortunately, they’d already built something just as strong behind the scenes: their online business.
Orders surged. Loyal customers from past festivals reached out with encouragement and, more importantly, repeat purchases. And with more people shopping for food online than ever before, the shift felt less like a pivot and more like a natural evolution.
The pause from the festival grind also gave the Carbones a chance to rethink how they wanted to live. The non-stop travel, the physical exhaustion… It wasn’t sustainable forever. So, they shifted focus.
They scaled back personal appearances, ramped up online sales, and expanded into wholesale. Now, other vendors sell Welsh cakes at festivals on their behalf — keeping the product in front of customers while freeing Joe and Denise from the toll of constant travel.
“We became less involved in the baking and day-to-day kitchen work,” Joe says. “We’ve gone from three employees to five, and now we just sort of watch from the sidelines.”
It wasn’t the plan they started with. But it became the life they wanted.
Handing Off a Legacy
After years of growing the business from scratch — from a borrowed griddle to thousands of loyal customers — Joe and Denise are starting to think about what comes next.
Their goal? To pass The Welsh Baker on to someone who truly understands its roots.
“If there were no authenticity to it, it would have never worked,“ Joe says. “So it has to be handed off in the same way. It’s got to go to somebody who has a background that fits it. It’s not like a pizza parlor where you can stick anybody in the kitchen.”
That authenticity — rooted in tradition, family, and a deep respect for their product — has been the throughline of their story.
From navigating job loss to scaling a niche product, embracing unexpected sales channels, and weathering a global pandemic, Joe and Denise have built more than a business. They’ve built a legacy.
To hear the full story of The Welsh Baker, tune in to the Create the Life You Want podcast with Jeremy Ames:
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