Computer ad gives global attention to local cake baker

EDINBURG - Cynthia Ebrom has long been a star in the world of cakes.

Now, she's a star on the Internet as well.

Ebrom is featured in a new Internet campaign Dell launched toward small businesses on Tuesday.

"They (a video crew) were here and interviewed me for four hours," Ebrom said. "And they gave me this new laptop to test. It's all been very exciting."

Austin-based Dell, the world's second-largest computer maker, picked Ebrom and her company Cynthia's Cakes to show off their new small business-oriented laptops, called Vostro. Ebrom's video will be shown on Dell's Web site during the next few months, said company spokeswoman Jennifer Davis.

Cynthia's Cakes is a highly touted cake company across the nation that is located in northeastern Edinburg. The company sells cakes ranging from $400 to $15,000 and has become a star with wedding planners and brides alike.

Ebrom became involved in Dell after submitting a different project to the company in early 2007.

Dell picked Ebrom's project and the ad was shown on two giant screens in New York City's Times Square. Later, Dell contacted her again for the new advertising campaign.

Ebrom also made a Dell computer-shaped cake when company founder Michael Dell spoke at the University of Texas - Pan American's HESTEC conference in 2002.

"I'm not sure quite how it happened, but we were glad to do it," Ebrom said.

Ebrom had hoped to upgrade her computers when the opportunity from Dell came in, she said. Since she received the laptop a few weeks ago, she's been using it take orders when she visits customers.

Technology is certainly nothing new to the Edinburg resident.

She built a Web site for her Edinburg cake company in 1995 when the World Wide Web was still in its infancy and has taken orders from as far as Sweden ever since. The Internet helped her come up on the national stage, she said.

She now gets a large number of referrals and business from the Internet.

"When we first saw the Internet taking off, we said ‘we need to be a part of this,'" Ebrom said. "This thing was going to be the future of business."

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Kyle Arnold covers business, the economy and general assignments for The Monitor. You can reach him at (956) 683-4410.

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To check out Cynthia's ad, visit www.dell.com/community or check out Ebrom's Web site at www.cynthiascakes.com