Nestled inside the Uptown Charlotte Plaza, Cloud 9 Confections is a welcoming, minority-owned bakery with desserts that will have you visiting several times a day. Cloud 9 Confections specializes in cakes and custom orders made from scratch. Not to mention the owners, Roland and Erica Baez-Horton, being a joy to be around. You will walk out with not only great desserts, but great friends as well.

Creative Loafing: Tell us some things about yourself?

Erica Baez-Horton: I love cake, can’t you tell! I was originally born in Puerto Rico, and then moved here to Morgantown, N.C., when I was 7 years old. So I have been in North Carolina most of my lifetime. I went to UNC-Charlotte, and then I fell in love and moved to Virginia with my honey.

Roland Horton: We have two kids. I love sports; I coach an AAU basketball team. Basketball is my first love. I am originally from Morgantown, N.C. And I have an associate’s degree in Criminal Justice. Then I met my lovely wife in 1992.

I saw on the web site that you all do eggless and vegan cakes; tell me more about that?

Erica: That came pretty much from one of my supervisors from Wachovia; she told me that I should really explore the vegan and the eggless world — she’s from the Indian community. So I decided to do the Festival of India with her, and I couldn’t believe the response I got from them. It was very welcoming, and it was almost like, “wow, finally we have a professional cake decorator who understands our religious beliefs in addition to our dietary needs.” We have extended our products to gluten-free, vegan and eggless. We are very detailed-oriented whenever we take orders to ensure we do the proper preparation for them.

Roland: We also cater to the diabetic community as well, seeing as how I’m diabetic.

Do you have a personal favorite cake?

Roland: My favorite cake, we have not baked here, but my grandmother used to make a caramel cake that was out of this world. That would be my personal favorite.

Erica: For me, being from the Caribbean we love anything with rum in it. I love Dominican cake, Pineapple Rum cake and a fresh pound cake.

Cloud 9 Confections is located at 201 S. College St., Suite 270 (inside Charlotte Plaza bldg). You can reach them at 704-334-7554 or visit their Web site.