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Self-taught and inspired by baking shows on YouTube, the Passaic native didn't start with a simple, single-tiered cake. No, Ellen went big: Three tiers.
Ellen was less than pleased with his results, time and time again, but he learned far more than he lost and, eventually, the success he saw was beyond his wildest dreams.
At 16, Ellen launched his business, "Everything Just Baked." He missed out on prom and high school graduation to film "Is It Cake?" on Netflix.
Ellen was raking in a six-figure salary as a teen and now, at 20, Ellen is making headlines once again: This time for making Mary J. Blige's 52nd birthday cake.
Ellen, however, has no time to sit around thinking about his past. He's focused on the future.
"I still feel early in my career," said Ellen, who has 121K followers on Instagram, and says baking tools, mixes and custom cakes on his website. "I'm still deciding what I want to be seen as."
He's certainly got time to figure that out.
Ellen started baking when he was 7 years old old alongside his mom and grandmother. They made lots of pies and cookies, but not cakes.
"We weren't a cake family," Ellen said with a laugh.
A freshman in high school and inspired by Yolanda Gampp's wildly popular baking tutorials "How To Cake It," Ellen learned cakes himself.
"It was definitely hard," he said. "I couldn’t make a one-tier but I went right to making three tiers. I was like, 'What's the worst that could happen?'
"It was a complete disaster."
Every day after school, Ellen set up shop in his family's kitchen and practiced, and practiced, and practiced.
By junior year, his cakes were in good shape, looking and tasting better every time. That's when he launched "Everything Just Baked," selling six-inch cakes for about $60, according to CNBC.
Ellen put his cakes on social media, where producers for Netflix's "Is It Cake?" found him. The premise was to bake cakes that look like everyday objects. Ellen made a raw steak cake and a taco box cake.
The show boosted both his self-esteem and his career, he said.
"I knew a lot of people were going to watch but I didn't realize how many," he said. "I was in Mexico and people were recognizing me. I was all the way from Jersey but I was being seen in Florida."
While his peers enrolled in college, Ellen attended "YouTube University," he joked. While there were times Ellen felt like he was missing out on the college experience, he didn't want to undo any progress he'd made with his business. And so, he continued baking.
"I kept practicing and the more I posted, the more orders I'd get," he said. "I spent a year working on the business, posting more cakes, putting myself out there, going to wedding expos, and trying to get more clients."
The same year he graduated high school, and was making enough money to support not just himself, but a whole family. Ellen was starting to get more press, and more orders. Finally, he felt his hard work was paying off.
Sometime last year, a caterer that Ellen knew through the industry mentioned that she was close with Mary J. Blige, and that he should bake her birthday cake in January 2023.
Ellen designed a multi-tiered black, white and gold cake with sparklers for the party, enjoyed by Blige and other music artists. Ellen made a smaller, simpler cake for a smaller birthday event Blige held for close friends and family.
"Saturdays and Sundays were cleaning days when I was younger, and my family would be playing her music," Ellen said. "Now it's like, I make cakes for her."
Ellen hopes his story will serve as inspiration to other youth and people in the Black community.
"You don't have to go the traditional route," he said. "Selling cakes might not seem like a possible career, but the opportunities are endless.
"Five years ago, 'Is It Cake?' didn't even exist. So today, what you're dreaming of might not even be here yet. You might create something."
Click here to shop Ellen's website.
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