K-pop band Loossemble shows off Houston baker’s custom cake

Juliet Mendez’s cake was impeccable. The heart-shaped slab was perfectly decorated: Seashell dollops of lavender and violet icing bordered the edges with glittery black bows lining the second layer in between. Bearing the faces of K-pop idol group Loossemble, the cake was placed in a clear box and delivered to the back door of Sugar Land’s Smart Financial Center. Mendez thought she would never see it again. 

Yeojin posted seven photos of the cake the next day to her 330,000+ followers on Instagram the next day.

“When I make something for an artist, I never get pictures of them with it,” said Mendez, who is over the moon.

In the past year, she’s been whipping up treats for some of music’s biggest stars — TXT, Kendrick Lamar, Kid Cudi, and Olivia Rodrigo — from her home kitchen. For Cudi, she made a three-tiered cake for the rapper’s “To the Moon” stop at Toyota Center last September. Come February, Mendez will have promotional cookies ready for Olivia Rodrigo’s “Guts” tour.

According to Mendez, her celebrity cake career came about after shooting her shot with a chance email to Live Nation. She had asked to make a cake for pop-punk band My Chemical Romance. Though the deal sputtered after a missed email, the concert promoter reached out to her again after the pandemic. She’s been baking for musical acts ever since.

Her most recent custom cake was for Loossemble, formerly known as Loona. A portmanteau of both “Loona” and “Assemble”, the band of five has been embroiled in one of K-pop’s biggest controversies in the past year. Originally a 12-member group, Loona was on the cusp of making it big: The band had a growing fan base abroad and were even the subject of an Internet meme. In November 2022, the group’s managing company Blockberry Creative announced the departure of the most recognizable member of the group, vaguely citing an abuse of power as the reason. Allegations of labor disputes and mistreatment of the members led to a fan boycott of all things Loona under Blockberry. Each member slowly parted ways with the management company, with the remaining five regrouping as Loona Assemble. Despite the turmoil, Mendez is a fan and was excited to see her cake in the arms of the group.

Back home, Mendez’s Lime St. Bakery operates in small digs. The operation runs solely via requests from email and social media “I have a huge commercial fridge, its massive!” she said. “I have a basic oven, three mixers, a big ol’ baking rack.”

The native Houstonian taught herself cake decoration through YouTube videos, and worked at a cupcakery to support herself.  “I’m a hustler,” she said. “You gotta have money coming in if you want to keep practicing on the side.” 

While working her side job, Mendez kept practicing and perfecting her craft, posting her goods on Instagram. Her decorated goods were largely centered around the globally popular boy band BTS. A Houston K-pop fan club took notice of her goods and invited her to work as a local vendor at a fan event. Since then, her bakery took off and cake-making became her full-time job.

Outside of concert cakes, Mendez caters to Houston’s growing K-pop fan community, making goodies to sell at fan events. A K-pop fan herself, the baker credits the community for building her confidence and business, fueling her passion for the job.

“My number one goal right now, even before opening a bakery, is to make a cake for BTS or a BTS member,” she said. In spite of upcoming military enlistment for several BTS members, Mendez doesn’t care how long it takes. The fan-turned-baker-turned-hustler is ready to show Houston — and the world — what she can whip up.