Cassie Smith-Johnson knows her way around social media. It’s how she promotes her business, The Cheesecake Lady Indy, and unexpectedly how she discovered a talent she didn’t even know she had.
It started with a Facebook post on Dec. 2, 2020.
An acquaintance named Will was in a bind. He needed a banana pudding cheesecake fast and put out a call for help online.
“I just kind of ignored his post,” she said. “Several hours later the same post showed back up in my feed and he had no responses.”
With no baking background and nothing to lose, Smith-Johnson decided to give it a shot. She made the cheesecake, charged him $20, and posted a photo of the finished dessert on social media.
That single post changed everything.
Friends began messaging her, asking if she could make one for them, too. For the next three days, Smith-Johnson said she was up until 3 a.m., baking cheesecakes out of her home kitchen.
Five days later, on Dec. 7, 2020, she made it official, filing an LLC with the state of Indiana and becoming The Cheesecake Lady Indy.
“It truly just happened,” she said.
Failed at first
After launching her business, Smith-Johnson jumped in headfirst quitting her job and hiring too many employees too fast, she says.
“I was trying to get everything done as quickly as possible,” she said. “I was brand new as a business owner, so that was a huge fail for me.”
She started out selling from her home kitchen. By January 2021, she’d landed her first brick-and-mortar location, a major milestone that quickly turned into a setback.
Believing all her paperwork was in compliance, Smith-Johnson was stunned when the health department shut her down. She pivoted again, moving into a shared kitchen and selling cheesecakes out the back door, while also running a small storefront she rented from a friend.
For the next four years Smith-Johnson worked from the shared kitchen producing cheesecakes until she moved into her current brick and mortar, across from the Children’s Museum, with a kitchen in July 2025.
“Every little accomplishment is so rewarding,” she said. “Very rewarding.”
Bodybuilding baker
When she’s not baking cheesecakes, Smith-Johnson is usually thinking about fitness. The gym, she says, is another place where she feels at home though finding time to get there isn’t easy when you’re running a bakery seven days a week.
“Since I started this business, I gained almost 30 pounds,” she said. “It’s a bakery, and I’m eating a lot of what I’m making.”
So she decided to flip the script.
Smith-Johnson set her sights on bodybuilding, teaming up with friend and trainer Vikki Gladney, owner of Natural Measures Cycling and Fitness.
On a recent Tuesday after spending the early morning hours inside her bakery, Smith-Johnson headed straight to the OrthoIndy Foundation YMCA. The workday wasn’t over, it was just changing locations.
While warming up on the treadmill, she took business calls. Minutes later, she was under the barbell, grinding through squats and leg exercises. Then came posing practice, a completely new challenge as she prepares for her first bodybuilding competition.
When the workout ended, Gladney wrapped Smith-Johnson in a hug and offered more behind-the-scenes guidance ahead of her debut show in March.
The big show
Smith-Johnson sat in a chair inside the green room at Greenfield-Central High School, her nerves growing as the Organization of Competition Bodies’ Indy Naturals bodybuilding competition unfolded just beyond the curtains.
While the men took the stage, her trainer, Gladney, applied her makeup and offered quiet words of encouragement. As showtime crept closer, the weight of the moment set in. Tears streamed down Smith-Johnson’s face, this was the culmination of months of grueling work, discipline and sacrifice. It was proof to herself, her family and her friends that she could accomplish anything she set her mind to.
In a packed auditorium buzzing with anticipation it was finally her turn to step on stage in the wellness division. Smith-Johnson gathered herself, walked confidently to center stage and posed for the judges, smiling through every movement. In the wellness category, judges look for an athletic physique with defined muscle tone, a fuller lower body and a balanced upper body.
Beyond the competition, she says the sense of community within bodybuilding is what keeps her coming back.
“The community, everyone is so supportive,” she said. “We’re all telling each other how good we look and wishing each other good luck. It’s genuine.”
As she moved across the stage, flexing and posing under the bright lights, Smith-Johnson felt a deep sense of pride, a feeling magnified when she was awarded multiple medals.
“The whole process has been fun,” she said. “It’s a proud moment. I’m excited my family gets to see me do this and I hope that it positively influences them. My kids will see what mom did, all while running a business that’s going crazy.”
Contact IndyStar photojournalist Mykal McEldowney at 317-790-6991 or mykal.mceldowney@indystar.com. Follow him on Instagram or Twitter/X.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: One Facebook favor turned into a full-time dream for The Cheesecake Lady Indy
Reporting by Mykal McEldowney, Indianapolis Star / Indianapolis Star
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
