You may have seen the Pasteles La MoreliAna food truck serving up delicious pastries around the Greater Birmingham metro by now. The family behind the truck has been in business since June of 2022, and has been building up a reputation around the city for their flavorful desserts. While the truck is relatively new, the Pasteles La MoreliAna brand has been an online sensation for years now. Their internationally famous baking is now able to be experienced first-hand in the Magic City, and people from all over are coming to try it.
I was able to speak to Joana Maldonado, the company’s CEO who is often the first face seen when ordering at the truck. She shared that the business is named after her mom and the company’s owner, Ana Araujo. “She’s the face behind the whole food and pastry truck. She started YouTube maybe 10 or 11 years ago and now she has over a million followers on her channel. On Facebook, she has 2.4 million.” Ana also has hundreds of thousands of followers on Instagram and TikTok. It’s safe to say she’s well-known. The name comes from combining Ana’s name with Morelia, the capital city of Michoacán, Mexico where she grew up.
Joana explained that as Pasteles La MoreliAna gained a large online following, more and more people began messaging the family asking how they could try some of these now-famous cakes and pastries. They initially looked at physical locations, but many of the owners were nervous to give the business a chance since it would be their first store. Joana’s sister and Pasteles assistant manager, Marlen Maldonado, suggested they should look into a food truck. The family eventually found the perfect automobile fit - a former coffee truck - through Facebook Marketplace in Tuscaloosa.
Joana left her job of 7 years to help her mom begin the process of creating a successful food truck. This included everything from paperwork to brand design to setting the menu and pricing out each item. They started working on the truck in February of 2022 and opened in June. Joana was in the final semester of getting her Marketing degree from UAB in the Fall of last year, which led to many busy days during the business’s earliest days. “I was in class from like 11 to 3, then I’d open up at 4:30 and close at 7,” she shares, “Even if it was two hours, I was like I have to put myself out there and try to get as many customers as I can while I’m in school. I think the Fall semester had the hardest months.”
The truck quickly found fans on their weekly stops and at large Birmingham events like Dia de los Muertos and Fiesta Birmingham, with many people becoming repeat customers. “People come from Florida, Texas, Georgia, Tennessee, and the other states around to meet her and try her pastries,” Joana shares, “They’re so cute and they get so excited to see her.” Ana lives on a farm outside the city and is often requested to come in to meet a fan when she’s not working on the truck. She’ll still be in her farming clothes and tells her daughters “Give me 10 minutes to look cute.”
Ana is even recognized at flea markets around the state, and doesn’t always understand why she’s so widely admired since she’s such a regular person. “She has a strong Latina personality. Straight up Latina. Feisty,” Joana explains, “Maybe they liked her attitude about everything, but I really could not pinpoint what made her gain all of those followers. The way she is in her videos, that’s the way she is in person. I would say she’s down-to-Earth and real.
Classic Mexican desserts like tres leches, flan, and jello are what Pasteles La MoreliAna is known for online, and the food truck certainly delivers in all of those categories. The tres leches cakes come in coffee, chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry along with seasonal flavors including cinnamon and pina colada. The truck is also known for creative menu items that aren’t typically spotted around Birmingham. Mini doughnuts, strawberry churros, and their famous Hot Cheetos Mexican street corn greet astounded first-time customers. “Their tastebuds are very surprised at the menu selection but so far we’ve had a really great response.”
The family behind Pasteles La MoreliAna is proud to make their mark in the Magic City. “It means that I’m bringing the Mexican culture to the people of Birmingham. I know there are the food trucks and restaurants, but I really wanted to bring the sweets,” Joana shares, “I feel like we have such amazing desserts and sweets that people need to try and give a chance. Let people know that the Mexican community is here presently. We are strong in Birmingham, we want to keep growing and really show the love of sweets to Birmingham.”
We are certainly grateful to be the home base for this worldwide food phenomenon.
