FOR ARLEY BELL, BAKING is about more than making showstopping desserts. It’s a way for her to celebrate others and the causes she’s passionate about. In fact, recognizing the hard work of others is what inspired Arley to start baking in the first place. After college, she took a job at a nonprofit in Charlottesville, Virginia. “We didn’t have a budget for birthday cakes,” she explains. Despite not being an experienced baker at the time, she tied on an apron and got in the kitchen. “My co-workers deserved to be celebrated, so I started baking cakes for them,” says Arley.
Many birthdays later, she left her nonprofit job and opened Arley Cakes, a cottage bakery in Richmond, Virginia. In her home kitchen, she frosts layer cakes artfully, adding iced decorations and…
