All the best entrepreneurial stories start in one place and take you somewhere you never expected.
For real estate mogul and philanthropist Biddy Mason, her journey began in 1818, when she was born into slavery in Georgia. Her path led her to freedom, midwifery, and ultimately to becoming one of the wealthiest women in California through strategic real estate investments.
For Aisha Price, founder of the cake business Peachy Sweets, it started with a simple desire: to bake a birthday cake for her daughter. That act of love evolved into a growing business — one that’s now touching lives far beyond her own kitchen.
On May 9th, Price was honored as the first-ever recipient of the Biddy Mason Award for Small Business Excellence, presented by Catapult and the Fabulous Friday Society Foundation, a community empowerment collective that uplifts Pittsburgh’s culture and small businesses.
The idea for the award was sparked when Danielle Edmond, founder of the Fabulous Friday Society, began learning about Biddy Mason’s life and realized that her story is still often overlooked.
“By creating this award, we aim to keep Biddy’s legacy alive and inspire future generations to lead with courage and compassion. The award is meant to celebrate unsung heroes whose work uplifts others and creates lasting change, just as Biddy Mason did.”
Catapult and the Fabulous Friday Society Foundation put out an open call for nominations, with nominees evaluated according to four criteria: inspiration and justification, achievements and impact, character and ethics, and originality and authenticity.
Price was ultimately chosen not only for her commitment to running a successful custom cake business — where she’s known for her elaborate cake designs and going above and beyond for her customers — but also for her unwavering commitment to giving back to her community. For nearly a decade, she’s volunteered with the Icing Smiles Foundation, creating custom cakes for families impacted by the critical illness of a child.
“When I learned it was the Biddy Mason award, it meant a lot to me,” Price reflected. “I was like, ‘Wow — this award is really tied to who I am as a person.’ Because Biddy had the community heart; she did so much to help and protect people.”
A journey that started with a boxed cake
Price’s entrepreneurial story began in 2004, when her daughter was born. As a stay-at-home mom, she wanted to make her daughter’s birthday cakes and begin experimenting in her kitchen with box cake mixes.
“I just had a strong desire,” Price said. “I started watching all the cake shows, and then I said, ‘You know what, I’m going to do it.’ So I got in my kitchen, and I just started.”
That first attempt didn’t go as planned — she ended up buying a cake instead — but she kept at it. Eventually, she was baking more cakes than she knew what to do with.
On a toy donation trip with her daughter in Las Vegas, where she lived at the time, she noticed children living in transitional housing and asked if she could start donating cakes to them. That spirit of giving would become a hallmark of her work.
In 2012, Price, her husband, and daughter moved to Pittsburgh. That’s where she found Icing Smiles and started volunteering formally. But her path wasn’t linear. To support her family, she put her passion on the back burner and took full-time jobs at UPMC and Comcast for seven years.
“My husband and I had to work full time, which threw me into a state of depression for a very long time,” she said. “But the Lord really came through for me. People from church and their friends eventually started asking me to make cakes again. Things grew from there.”
In 2023, Price was laid off from Comcast — a moment that turned out to be a blessing in disguise. She enrolled in Bidwell Training Center’s culinary program and took the leap to pursue her cake business full time.
“My husband and I talked about it, and we committed to it,” she said. “I did the year there, and I found out about Catapult from one of my culinary teachers.”
Legacy building: one cake, and one property, at a time
In 1856, a Los Angeles court granted freedom to Biddy Mason and her children — a landmark decision given the legal restrictions on Black testimonies against white individuals at the time. 10 years later, after working as a respected nurse and midwife, she purchased a lot on Spring Street (known today as Broadway) in downtown Los Angeles in 1866 for $250. That Spring Street lot later became one of the most valuable pieces of real estate in the city.
Through careful investments, Mason grew her wealth and used it to support others — buying more properties, aiding families in need, and founding the city’s first Black church, the First African Methodist Episcopal Church of Los Angeles. By the time she died in 1891, she had amassed a fortune of $300,000 (roughly $10 million today), becoming one of the city’s most influential figures.
Today, Price is forging a legacy of her own. In 2025, she joined our Catapult Culinary cohort, where she’s gaining the tools to grow Peachy Sweets into a sustainable business.
“When I started this program, I didn’t have a business plan. I didn’t have a mission statement. Now, I feel very confident going forward. I’m excited about the financial module coming up, because I’ve been wanting to create a business bank account, and I haven’t done that yet.”
Like Mason, Price’s mission isn’t just about profit — it’s about purpose.
A ministry, not just a bakery
Mason famously said: “If you hold your hand closed, nothing good can come in. The open hand is blessed, for it gives in abundance even as it receives.”
For Price, that idea is baked into everything she does.
