When Rosalía and Raw Alejandro released the video clip "Vampires" this spring, where they are seen eating churros with chocolate, the light went on for Lara Guerrero. This entrepreneur was already working on social networks to follow the trends in the design of her handmade cakes, so she thought why not incorporate one of that style into the Pepina Pastel catalogue. She called it "Pepichurro" and sold more than a thousand in one week, as she already explained to more than one media outlet. "We even had to double the shift!" She remembers.
Let's say that innovating is a trademark of the house. It has among its best sellers one of horchata with fartons and for this Christmas it is launching one of Gublins, the snack produced by Grefusa, and even sweet popcorn with Belros. "When we started it was all cakes according to my mother's recipes (Pepa, hence the name), but now I do market analysis, I look at trends..."
The brand has become professional, says Guerrero, who does not avoid detailing how he started a business that is going from strength to strength and that, four years later, employs 35 people in Alzira. "I always say that Pepina is 'daughter of the pandemic', but there is nothing more. It all came from a family celebration, in which my mother's cakes were successful and I clearly saw that there was business there," she says.
With studies in Business Administration and Law and the experience of the cafeteria that mother and daughter managed in Carcaixent, they started marketing the cakes. Although in that way: "I started selling to them on Instagram, people spoke to me on WhatsApp, I sent them a PDF with the cakes and they paid me in hand... all very rudimentary."
However, he did not feel the need to have a health registry or a workshop until a client saw that this was gaining strength, so he rented a closed workshop, placed three home ovens and some refrigerators inside and began producing in his own premises. . Pepina Pastel was born.
Then came the refrigerated van - "I had to sell my car and I went with it everywhere, I even went to my cousin's wedding in it dressed and wearing a hat," she remembers with a laugh - and above all, the pandemic. That 2020 started with the two of them and ended the year with 10 employees; A year later they moved to a larger warehouse where, yes, the process has become professional although, he assures, without losing the artisanal style.
Pepina Pastel preparations are tasted mainly in the Valencian Community, but also in Andalusia, Madrid and Catalonia. They are sold online, but also in a small store open next to the Alzira warehouse and, as of December 11, in their new store in the Russafa neighborhood, in Valencia.
Among her prescribers are Carmen Lomana and even Alaska and Mario, for whom she prepared the cake for their birthday party. Rosalía has not yet been able to gain access to tell her how her successful cake launched in Fallas, because churros and chocolate are a must at the party, was actually inspired by her. Everything will come.
