Many families have secret recipes that they pass down from generation to generation. When Kim Nelson’s great aunt taught her how to bake a delicious cake, she turned it into a business called Daisy Cakes. Kim managed to strike a deal with Barabara Corcoran and Daisy Cakes is now worth $3 million.
Kim Nelson
Kim Nelson was raised in Pauline, South Carolina, by a family with a long history of cooking. In 1980, she studied at Spartanburg’s Wofford College and received a bachelor’s degree in history in 1984.
Her family’s long-standing tradition started with “The Southern Misses,” a group of talented bakers who were the primary cooks in their families. They used only farm-fresh ingredients for all of their dishes.
Though the Misses knew their recipes by heart, they wrote them down so that future generations could use them. Their exclusive techniques were passed down from grandmother to grandmother.
A Family Recipe Becomes a Business
When it was Kim’s time to learn her family’s secret, she didn’t waste the opportunity. Her great aunt Daisy taught the tricks of the trade and she named her business Daisy Cakes when it launched in 2009.
Reportedly she started operations with a $93,000 loan from her parents. Kim made all of her cakes from scratch by herself. The South Carolina native handled ingredients, cooking, packing, and marketing.
She sold cakes online through her website, ILoveDaisyCakes.com. Although Kim only cooked from a home kitchen, she shipped nationwide with the help of dry ice packing. The baking entrepreneur sold 2,000 cakes annually in the first two years of business.
Striking a Deal on Shark Tank
In 2012, Kim Nelson appeared on season two of Shark Tank, asking for $50,000 in exchange for 25%. Her business wasn’t revolutionary, but the founder believed that her cake’s taste was enough to score a deal.
The Sharks ate every last bit, they were willing to be customers but not investors, pointing out that turning a small business into a major brand would take too much work.
The last Shark left was Barbara Corcoran, and she was the only one who saw the potential of Daisy Cakes. Barbara offered $50,000 for 25% equity and a $1 per cake royalty. Despite having to pay a royalty, Nelson accepted the offer.
Following Up After Shark Tank
A day after the episode aired, Kim sold 2,000 cakes in a single weekend. The surge in orders was good for business but unsustainable for a two-person operation, so she made changes quickly.
To scale up, Kim set up larger bakeries in New York, Tennessee and Georgia, reaching $100,000 per month in revenue. The growth hit a significant obstacle when a contract bakery error resulted in a $165,000 loss – roughly 7,000 cakes that could never be shipped. Production was brought back in-house after that.
By 2019 the business had recovered and opened a facility in California. Barbara recouped her $50,000 investment relatively quickly and has cited Daisy Cakes as one of her favourite deals. Lifetime sales reached $8.5 million by 2020 and are estimated at over $11 million as of late 2024.
The product range has expanded significantly since the Shark Tank appearance. Alongside the original lemon, carrot, red velvet and chocolate layer cakes, Daisy Cakes now offers coconut, birthday cake, a rotating monthly flavour, and gluten-free and vegan versions. Kim also introduced MiniKins (individual cake and frosting portions in jars) though a vending machine experiment at Las Vegas airport was discontinued due to maintenance issues.
A New Chapter
After her mother passed away in 2022 and she became a grandmother, Kim Nelson made the decision to step back from the business. She sold Daisy Cakes to Marshall Langley, a longtime employee who had worked with the company since his mid-teens and whom Kim trusted completely. Langley has since introduced pies to the product line.
Today, Daisy Cakes generates an estimated $4 to $5 million in annual revenue and remains one of the more enduring success stories from the early seasons of Shark Tank.
