I am a mom to 4 adult kids, and along with my husband, Marvin, we founded a farm sanctuary, Rowell Ranch, in Chandler, Arizona.

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I was born in Canoga Park, CA, but have lived in Florida, Virginia, Oregon, and Arizona, too! Growing up, my dad built and renovated hotels, so we moved every one to two years. When we were in Oregon, my mom decided that she wanted sunshine again, and we moved to sunny AZ when I was in 7th grade, and we have been here since. I met my husband when I was 16, married at 20, and welcomed our first daughter shortly after.   When the fourth child was born, I followed in my dad's footsteps in construction management, and that was my full-time career until September 2023.

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Although construction management has always been my full-time career choice until recently, I have always had creative side hustles. Starting with CAKES!

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When I was pregnant with our 3rd kid in 2005, I felt overwhelmed, and like I had nothing just for me, so my mom bought me Wilton cake classes at Joann's. I was never a cook or baker, but I did go to a specialty high school just for art, and at that very first class, I realized that I could use cake as my medium and started making cakes for family and friends. My first cakes were highly sculpted cakes that looked like everyday items, gaming consoles, football helmets, etc. Eventually, friends of friends started to reach out for cakes, but unfortunately, the Arizona state law did not allow for home bakers at that time in 2010. This eventually led to me opening a commissary shared-use kitchen in Gilbert, AZ.  The business was great. However, my partnership with my business partner was not. After a short while, we decided to go our separate ways, and they took the business in a different direction in 2012.

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Feeling bummed and burnt out, I decided to turn to my other passion of hosting parties. At the time, Pinterest-style parties were all the rage but unattainable for the average person, so I created Simply Party Box. It was a box of Pinterest-worthy party supplies curated to meet your needs. One day, while on vacation in 2014, I got a marketing email from a huge corporation announcing almost my exact product but scaled in a way I could not compete with. With few resources, I decided to dissolve the company, but this is where I started using the name Simply Cheyenne.

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During the pandemic in 2020, my family and I decided to move to a larger home with more space, and it quickly grew into our non-profit farm sanctuary.  I also discovered a great non-profit organization called For Goodness Cakes, which makes cakes for underserved youth and foster kids, and I started baking for them in my free time. As time passed, I quickly realized that I could not take care of the animals while working in an office again and missed baking cakes regularly. After a few discussions with my husband and doing a few budgets, we agreed that I needed to quit my full-time job, and  I told him that I wanted to open a bakery on our farm.  So, we got to work on the bakery space!

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Having the time and equipment again to work in the bakery reiterated my love for providing people with sweet celebration treats. I have been able to work on what I call bakery-style cakes that might not look like a gaming console but taste like heaven!

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Through all of this, I have always loved traveling around the world and experiencing new cultures and foods, which feeds my soul and is something I love to share with others through my baked goods, photography, and stories.

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Now, I combine my love of animals, travel, parties, and baking into my everyday life and am happy to share it with you!

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 I think the cakes in the oven are done…until next time!

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~Cheyenne