Instagram-famous dessert shop Sweet Daze is closing in Richardson

“I am shocked at how intensely people can enjoy ice cream and cake,” says Holly Nguyen, creator of the Sweet Daze dessert shop in Richardson.

“Tears: There have literally been tears when we’re out of something,” she says.

Sweet Daze’s donuts are often bright in color and dusted with glitter.(Ryan Michalesko / employee photographer)

Fans have come from different cities, states or countries to try the colorful, trendy “designer desserts” from Sweet Daze, as they are sometimes called, such as 24-carat cheesecake, biscuits and creme-tres-leches cake, Unicorn donuts and pastel-colored cake pops.

Sweet Daze’s Birthday Cake Ice Cream and Cinnamon Toast Crunch Soft Ice Cream are two cold treats fans seem to be going crazy for.

But on September 17th, Nguyen closes the pastry shop that she founded as a 24-year-old entrepreneur with no pastry experience. The lease for her mall is expiring, and she says she wants to focus more time on another business she’s involved in, OMG Tacos, and a separate commercial development project in Celina.

“I wish I could do anything,” she says.

Almost all of her employees are under the age of 21, and Nguyen says her team has made great strides in the short four years. Nguyen says she still made many of the custom cake orders herself.

And while the pandemic devastated many restaurants, Nguyen said her dessert shop was booming with a grab-and-go model. The shop was busier than ever.

“I spent more nights at Sweet Daze than I did in college,” she says.

Cake, with a straw through the middle? Sweet Daze serves lemonade and pieces of cake, and yes, you eat them straight out of the cup.(Courtesy Sweet Daze)

The black velvet ice cream, which tastes like red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting, is one of the store’s trademarks. Nguyen was inspired to make black ice cream after it became popular online.

Another popular Sweet Daze order is a piece of cake that sits on top of a lemonade mug. Nguyen originally styled it this way for Instagram: “Back then, you couldn’t post multiple photos; you could only post one. We have a chance to show people [what we have],” She says.

“People were really confused,” she says, but they decided to sell the cake and lemonade together, as in the photos. It caught on. The store continues to sell a variety of cakes and seven sodas in flavors such as watermelon, lavender, charcoal, and guava.

Nguyen followed trends or made her own by betting mermaids, sparkling geodes, glittering galaxies, and pastel rainbows on almost every type of sweet treat. She looks back on the beginnings of Sweet Daze:

“As a young woman from a minority, nobody would give me a rental agreement without any experience,” she says. She found a lease on Campbell Road, Richardson, in a badly burned bakery and turned it into a cute little shop with a gourmet suite.

“I did what I could with what I had,” she says.

Sweet Daze is located at 581 W. Campbell Road, Richardson. It closes on September 17, 2021.

For more food news, follow Sarah Blaskovich on Twitter @sblaskovich.

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