Interview by Abernathy Cochran intern and Gainesville High School senior John Jessup
Meet Diane Acuna! Diane owns Acuna’s Cake Shoppe with her husband Joel. Diane is the mother of Ema (17), Ava (13), and Lea (7). Acuna’s is located at 343 Northside Dr. in Gainesville and offers daily cupcakes, mini cheesecakes, special order cakes and more!
We want to thank Diane for spending time with us recently and telling us about her life and love of Hall County.
Q: What inspired you or led you to get into baking?
A: “Honestly, I guess my kids. Even before Pinterest you have those moms who just want to do stuff like that for their kids but I was never really that great at it. I could show you some of my kids’ birthday cakes and they just looked like a hot mess. I used to work at Walmart, I was going to school to do physical therapy and I was working there. They put me in the bakery to do the donuts and then when I would finish the cake ladies would show me how to do cakes. I just thought it was really cool to actually have like the piping bags and all the different tips and the actual tools to make cakes with. And then my husband bought me my own little piping tip sets and that was over 10 years ago and I just kind of picked it up from then. We’d watch videos on YouTube of how to decorate and make my own fondant and decorations. We really didn’t really have any formal training.”
Q: Tell me a little bit about your family.
A: “I’m married to my husband, Joel Acuna. We have three children; Ema, 17 years of age, currently studying at Gainesville High School; Ava is 13, student of Gainesville Middle School; and Lea is 7 at Centennial Arts Academy.”
Q: What do you love most about what you do?
A: “I just like meeting people. Through our work, we meet so many great people and make friends with them, that’s probably the main thing. It’s really cool to be part of one of the most important days in somebody’s life.”
Q: What are a couple of your favorite restaurants in our community?
A: “That’s a tough one. We’re so busy so we don’t get out much. We love a lot of the local restaurants like Avocados and Atlas Pizza.”
Q: What’s your favorite cake?
A: “I like vanilla cake with either lemon filling or raspberry almond filling.”
Q: How long have you lived or worked in our community?
A: “I have lived and worked here all of my life. I like to tell people I was born at the same hospital that my kids were born at.”
Q: Who is the most interesting person you’ve met here in our community?
A: “I don’t know a ton of interesting people, like I said, I don’t get out much. But I would probably say Pam Ware, the former Gainesville High School Theatre Director. She’s lived and worked in the community for so many years. She has a lot of interesting stories.”
Q: If you could travel anywhere in the world right now, where would it be?
A: “Bora Bora is my bucket list trip, and my husband’s is Iceland. So really either of the two of those would be amazing to go to.”
Q: What is one of your favorite movies or TV shows?
A: “ I don’t really watch movies. I know I’m weird. For TV shows, anything like true crime. My husband thinks I’m crazy because I’ll literally fall asleep while watching crime documentaries.”
Q: What advice would you want to give or leave with people?
A: “Work hard and never think that something is out of your reach or impossible. If you’re willing to work hard, you can achieve anything you set your mind to. I never went to college, but found something I wanted to do and just worked really hard and never thought that we would be where we are today.”
Q: What current or former local business makes you the most nostalgic about our community?
A: “Definitely Skate Country. We have a customer that’s coming in a few times. His uncle bought it and all his uncle’s cars are there. Or Lakeshore Mall because I used to love the carousel that was in the mall and even just the food court and like I’ll never be able to share that with my kids.”
Q: What is your favorite thing or something unique about our community?
A: “I love the lake. I don’t really get in much but I think we take it for granted. The beauty around here is amazing, we don’t appreciate it as much as we should because we see it every day, like the parks and the lakes, a lot of towns don’t have things like that. So I really appreciate the beauty of the landscape in our community.”
Q: Where do you see yourself in five to 10 years?
A: “Still here, hopefully still working and continuing to grow our business and continuing just to be a part of the community.”
Q: What is something on your bucket list besides the Bora Bora and Iceland trip?
A: “I’ve actually never been legit camping so maybe to take my family on a camping trip.”
Q: What is your go-to band when you can’t decide what to listen to? Or any musical artists?
A: “I don’t listen to a ton of music and when I do I can’t pinpoint one certain artist. I still listen to Pandora when everybody else has Apple Music or Spotify. So I’ll listen to anything from Fleetwood Mac or Andrea Bocelli, 90s country. My music is like all over the place.”
Q: What is the most beautiful place you’ve ever been?
A: “Zion National Park. That was a bucket list thing. We did it for our 10 year anniversary. It was so cool.”
Q: What’s your favorite month or holiday?
A: “I like fall, October, and my favorite holiday is Christmas because family comes together and you kind of take time to slow down and spend time with the family.”
Q: What would you rate a 10 out of 10?
A: “My husband’s tacos.”
Q: What is one or two of your favorite smells?
A: “I have this wax warmer and it’s called Rustic Woods and I just really like that smell. And then I like the smell of fresh rain or fresh cut grass.”
Q: Who inspires you to do better?
A: “My kids.”
Q: What are some trends in cake decorating right now that you are seeing or some trends you see for next year?
A: “The naked cakes, like semi naked cakes. We do a ton of lime texture cakes, the semi naked cakes, some cakes that I would like to do more palette knife techniques. I like to work with color…I just think color in the wedding cakes is really cool.”
