Cardinal Quirks: Melody Kuzniar-Giglio Takes the Cake

In her day-to-day work, Melody Kuzniar-Giglio is a crucial part of the engine that keeps St. John Fisher College Athletics running in top form.

In her day-to-day work, Melody Kuzniar-Giglio is a crucial part of the engine that keeps St. John Fisher College Athletics running in top form. She provides support to the athletics administration staff, including the more than 80 full-time and part-time coaches, scheduling spaces for practices and meetings, maintaining team rosters, managing student workers, and coordinating department recruitment and mailings. A women’s lacrosse standout for SUNY Geneseo, Kuzniar-Giglio knows college athletics inside and out.

As skilled as she is at choreographing the many moving parts of Fisher Athletics, she has hidden talents that take on a more creative—and delicious—slant: custom cake decorating.

“I started making cool cakes when my kids were little because it’s something that my parents did for me and I always loved it,” says Kuzniar-Giglio.

While at home with young children, she taught herself decorating techniques with the help of YouTube and found design inspiration from Pinterest. As her skills grew, so did the cakes she would make for baby showers, weddings, and birthdays, to name a few.

Her creativity didn’t stop at cakes. One day, not liking the pillows on her couch, Kuzniar-Giglio decided to head to YouTube to learn how to sew. As with her cake-decorating abilities, her sewing skills grew quickly. She started Layla Anne Luxury, a small business selling home decor and nursery items at craft shows. She’s made pillows, kitchen towels, curtains, and baby blankets for clients around the world, including items for a silent auctions hosted by NFL legend Bill Romanowski.

Today, with her days busy at Fisher and many evenings and weekends committed to her two children and their activities, Kuzniar-Giglio doesn’t take as many orders for cakes and pillows, but she still enjoys baking and sewing. While she hopes she can inspire her children to pick up the hobby, it hasn’t happened yet. And when asked who creates the cake when it’s time for her birthday, she responds, “Wegmans,” with a laugh.