Mia Lanier photograph by Michael Lanier/My Different Perspective Photography
Children’s voices rise above the thrum of motors: “Caaake Boat! Caaake Boat!” they shout as they spot a bright flag across the water from their boat. Their wake reaches the main channel on Lake Tillery, where a pink pontoon boat rides out the swell. News flash! Selling cupcakes from a bobbing boat requires sea legs.
Mia Lanier’s childhood on the lake gave her sea legs long before she began Make “Mia” Cake, the bakery business in which she fulfills custom orders and delivers sweets to local shops.
On summer weekends, Lanier and her crew work together to keep her Cake Boat, a pontoon that she uses as a floating storefront, well stocked. She even dashes home after church to reload the boat with scratch-made mini Bundt cakes, cupcakes, push pops, cookies, and snack mixes. Lanier’s husband, Michael, launches the boat from their dock into the ribbon of lake separating Montgomery and Stanly counties. The couple’s 10-year-old son, Asher, watches his dad skillfully maneuver alongside other rocking vessels, and helps his mom serve customers, navigating between boat rails as they hand off sea salt caramel and Cherry Lemon Sun Drop-flavored sweets. And when it’s hot and humid, relief is just a short step overboard. “I like that I get to swim a lot and hand out cake,” Asher says.
“Each summer weekend,” his mom adds, “I want to be selling sweets and making smiles in my happy place.”
Lake life — how sweet it is.
To learn more, visit facebook.com/heymakemiacake.
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