FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WANE) – Grayce Holloway is the baker and mother behind Icing for Izaac, a business that has blossomed from her kitchen table to a new storefront.

The bakery-café is set to open Saturday near the intersection of Lima and Cook roads.

“I started decorating cakes at my kitchen table as a way to cope with postpartum depression,” said Holloway, whose son, Izaac, died before birth. “The more cakes I was decorating, the less I was crying.”

She officially started the business in 2019. Four years later, Holloway transformed an office building into a café.

The space includes a dining area along with a “mommy and me” room with high chairs, a changing table, and a play area.

“It’s super important to me because I have five babies. As a working mom, there were days I didn’t have a babysitter. I needed to bring them to work with me, so I initially thought about creating a space for myself to bring my babies,” Holloway said. “But, then I was thinking about the stay-at-home moms and they can come and have coffee and their kids will be safe.”

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Helping other moms is also an important part of her business.

“Everyone on my team is a mom. My custom girls work on a task-based schedule. They can work whatever hours they want as long as our orders get done on time,” Holloway said.

All of the custom cake and cookie orders will now be baked and decorated in the new store.

Holloway grew up around creative cakes. Her mother made professional cakes and she started to help. It wasn’t her career until she found healing in the creative process.

Holloway found out she was pregnant with twins in fall of 2017. A few months later, she learned at an ultrasound that “Baby B” didn’t have a heartbeat.

“They were identical, so there wasn’t anything I could do. I continued with the pregnancy,” she said.

Zaden was born in July 2018. His brother Izaac was already in heaven.

“The grief was almost unbearable. On top of postpartum. It was crippling. There were days I couldn’t get out of bed and my husband had to bring me food to eat. And I had a baby and two other kids to take care of,” Holloway said. “Even now, it’s hard to think of myself being so sad.”

She slowly started to find solace by creating cakes.

“Zaden was about 8 months old and a friend asked me to make a cake for her daughter. She encouraged me to do something more,” Holloway said.

She posted about the cakes on Facebook, and seemingly overnight, a business had blossomed out of her pain.

Icing for Izaac would keep her son’s memory alive.

Now four years old, Zaden’s big heart loves for two.

“He’s an absolute light. He loves so big. He will always hug you or kiss you or hold your hand if he’s standing next to you,” Holloway said.

He also loves to tell people about his twin.

“Just the other night he said my twin Izaac lives in a castle in the clouds and if I could take an airplane, I would go see him,” Holloway shared. “He talks about him all the time, which is exactly what I wanted. I didn’t want to decide when it was right to tell him. I just want him to be part of our every day life.”

Holloway also wants other moms who lost a child or are experiencing postpartum depression that they aren’t alone.

“I want to be the voice for us,” she said.

She also credits her husband, Eric, for helping her keep going.

“To see someone so broken and to be able to love them back to life deserves a huge recognition,” she said. “I know what it was like for me and I can’t imagine what it was like for him to see me so broken.”

Last April, Eric left his job of 12 years to stay home with the kids and to encourage Grayce to keep building her business.

“He said, ‘I believe in you. I know you can do this,'” Holloway said. “He’s incredible.”

Makenzie, who’s almost 11, Eizaiah, 5, Zaden, 4, Benjamin, 3, and Mia, who will turn one next week, are already loving the new shop’s playroom. And the rest of the café embraces the sweetness of honoring Izaac.

“I wanted it to be peaceful and magical and Heaven on Earth,” Holloway said. “You can’t help but to be happy when you’re here.”

The shop will soon offer lunch foods as well as sweets. The full menu will be revealed at a grand opening in the coming weeks.

The café, located at 243 Airport North Office Park, will be open from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday through Saturday, and again from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. Thursday through Saturday. The soft opening Saturday will be from noon to 6 p.m.

People can also rent the rooms for small parties. The entire space will be available on Sundays with a max capacity of 40. The patio room can be rented during the day for smaller gatherings and meetings. Catering will also be available.

For custom cake or cookie orders, in addition to visiting the storefront, people can place an order online.