Lara's Bakery Palm Valley
Website Correction & Social Media Revamp
A beloved Palm Valley bakery empowering adults with autism needed a website that actually worked for their business. We untangled a messy Square setup, fixed broken menu syncing, captured fresh photography on-site, and rebuilt the site structure so customers can easily find seasonal offerings and place orders.
Web Design & Development
Current State
Lara's Bakery Palm Valley now has a website that finally makes sense—both for customers browsing gluten-free treats and for the team running the bakery. Visitors can explore the current seasonal menu with accurate pricing and availability, see beautiful photos of the actual pastries being made on the organic farm, and understand the bakery's heartfelt mission of empowering adults with autism.
The Square online ordering system now works the way it should. When the bakery updates their seasonal menu in Square, those changes actually show up on the website. No more confusion about what's available or outdated pricing. The site structure guides visitors naturally from learning about Lara's story to browsing the menu to placing an order.
For the business owners, everything is more manageable. Menu updates happen in one place and sync correctly. The site reflects who they actually are—a small bakery with a big mission, nestled among the oaks and moss of Palm Valley.
Original Platform
Issues with Previous Site
A Square Setup That Wasn't Quite Square: The previous developer had configured the Square POS and website builder, but the pieces weren't talking to each other properly. Seasonal menus weren't syncing between the point-of-sale system and the website, meaning customers online saw different offerings than what was actually available in the bakery. This created confusion and missed sales opportunities.
Reverse Engineering a Convoluted System: Square's website builder is powerful but can become a tangled mess when set up without a clear plan. Like many drag-and-drop editors, it's easy to create something that looks okay on the surface but is structurally chaotic underneath. We had to dig through layers of nested elements and workarounds to understand what was actually happening before we could fix it.
A Website That Didn't Tell Their Story: The original site didn't reflect what makes Lara's Bakery special—the mission of empowering adults with autism, the beautiful organic farm setting, the care that goes into every gluten-free pastry. The structure and content didn't guide visitors toward understanding the bakery or placing an order. The owners knew something was off but couldn't pinpoint exactly what needed to change.
Outdated Photography That Didn't Do Justice to the Product: The existing photos didn't capture the warmth of the bakery or the quality of the baked goods. For a business built on handmade, artisanal treats, the visuals need to make people hungry—and the old images weren't cutting it.
Improvements Made
Rebuilt the Square Integration from the Ground Up: We dove deep into the Square ecosystem to understand how the POS, inventory, and website were supposed to communicate. After mapping out the disconnects, we reconfigured the integration so seasonal menu updates flow correctly from Square to the website. Now when Lara adds a fall pumpkin pastry or removes a sold-out item, customers see accurate information online.
Untangled and Restructured the Website: Rather than adding more band-aids to the existing mess, we methodically worked through the Square site builder to clean up the underlying structure. We reorganized pages and navigation so the site flows logically—from the bakery's mission and story, to the current menu, to easy online ordering. Everything now has a purpose and a place.
Collaborated Closely with the Owners: We didn't just guess at what the site should be. We worked hand-in-hand with Lara and her team to understand what mattered most to them and their customers. Through multiple conversations and revisions, we built something they're genuinely proud of—a site that feels like their bakery, not like a generic template.
Fresh Photography That Shows the Real Bakery: We visited Lara's Bakery in Palm Valley to capture the bakery as it actually is—the beautiful farm setting, the team at work, and the pastries fresh from the oven. These authentic images now give visitors a true sense of the place and make those gluten-free treats impossible to resist.
Key Features
Accurate Seasonal Menu Display
Working Online Ordering
Fresh On-Location Photography
Clear Navigation and Site Structure
Synced Square POS Integration
Social Media
Lara's old Instagram account was locked out and inaccessible—a frustrating situation, but also a fresh start. We helped her set up a new account and hit the ground running with the photography we'd already captured on-site. Those same images of fresh pastries and the beautiful farm setting now fuel a consistent social media presence.
Before, posting to social media was one of those things that kept falling off the list. Running a bakery takes all your time, and crafting posts felt like a luxury she couldn't afford. Now we handle it. We create the content, write captions that actually say something, and schedule posts on a regular rhythm. No more sporadic updates whenever there's a spare moment—there's a real plan behind every post.
The difference shows. Better photos. Captions that tell the story of the bakery and connect with the community. A posting schedule built with intention, not scrambled together last-minute. Lara gets to focus on baking while her social media keeps working in the background, bringing new customers through the door and keeping regulars engaged.
