Keijuane Hester has gone from being behind bars to baking up a dream. The Durham native is preparing to serve thousands with his bakery, Favor Desserts, during J. Cole's Dreamville Festival next month.
"I took a wrong turn, wound up going to prison, doing 42 months in prison," Hester said.
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Hester was in federal prison serving three-and-a-half years on drug trafficking charges when he was assigned to work in the kitchen. Thanks to the mentoring of a fellow inmate, Hester traded cooking up drugs for cooking up cakes.
When he was released from prison, the next step in his life started with a carrot cake – a recipe he had gotten while behind bars.
Hester made the cake for his co-workers, and "just like that," he began moving forward.
"I took it to work the next day, and to my amazement, everybody just went crazy over the cake," Hester said.
With $30 and a hand mixer, Hester started cooking cakes in his mother's kitchen and selling slices door-to-door, mostly to businesses, barber shops, beauty salons and nail salons.
"I was switching all the way up from an illegal hustler to a legal hustler," Hester said.
When his business grew out of his mom's kitchen, Hester opened Favor Desserts in Durham in 2012.
The business has grown, allowing Hester to hire employees like Donald Mercer.
"He gave me an opportunity to come in and work with him and grow from there. Get me off the streets from selling drugs," Mercer said.
Mercer said he loves cutting cakes now.
"Even if you had a checkered past, that doesn't mean that's your end goal, Hester said.
Favor Desserts will be at Dreamville Festival at Dix Park April 5-6.