Jennifer Hohner came to the U.S. from Nuremburg, Germany, in 2000. She earned a design degree and took a job as a graphic designer in the surf apparel industry. Five years later she was laid off. It was a shock, but in the back of her head, there rumbled an echo from the past. “I had always been interested in baking,” she says. “My grandmother Lischka taught me how to bake and gave me her recipe for Christmas cookies. I decided to use some of my own design ideas to create miniature cookies in six different flavors, which are all variations on her Linzer cookie recipe.”

She also had a unique presentation idea that set her apart from competitors. She packages these delectable delicacies in vintage jars with a distinctive label bearing the name d’Lischka. All the packaging, as well as her web site and presentation materials, are a result of her education in graphic design.

The tiny cookies made in the whimsical shapes of crescents, stars, hearts and aces may be small, but they pack a wallop of flavors that conjure up a tenderly lit kitchen in the south of Germany, where Grandma Lischka prepared her holiday treats.

Soon Jennifer’s idea began to take off like yeast on the rise. The operation outgrew her kitchen, so she rented one part time from a wedding renter. “I used the kitchen during the week when there were no weddings,” Jennifer said. “It gave me a place to work without the expense of leasing a retail space. It was a perfect solution, because I wasn’t sure I would ever need a store. We were selling by word of mouth. I provided cookies as favors for baby showers given by my friends. People who had been to the showers told their friends about these little cookies in glass jars, and we were off.”

Jennifer does not see her graphic design career as a bittersweet memory. Far from it. “I don’t feel I’ve given up on a dream,” she says. “I always wanted to own my own business. And I have found a way to continue in graphic arts, designing all of our promotional materials and packaging, as well as our web site.”

Like most successful entrepreneurs, she finds herself looking into the future. A second business is not out of the question, and she is working on placing her line of petite pastries in some of the boutiques located on Second Street in Belmont Shore.

“The main thing I’ve learned is that — as much of a shock as it is to be laid off — everything will be okay,” Jennifer says. “Now I’m ready to take my business to the next level. I’ve learned that everything is doable. You just have to shift your energy sometimes.”

Melody Brandon’s Sweet & Saucy Shop is the result of what was meant to be a temporary break in her teaching career. She had one year left at CSULB, and was working as a teacher’s aide.

“I had begun to realize that teaching in the school system was not what I wanted to do for the rest of my life,” she says. “I became disenchanted because it seemed there was no opportunity for me to use my own ideas in the classroom.”

So, she took a break and got married. And she soon took a giant, head-first leap into the world of flour, butter and sugar, starting a dessert catering business out of her home. Life was getting sweeter every day. “I always loved it,” she says. “Even when I had to work 12 or 14 hours straight.”

Melody decided to go to pastry school at the Le Cordon Bleu California School of Culinary Arts in Pasadena, qualifying herself as a pastry chef.

She started the Sweet & Saucy Shop a little over a year ago, with a web site and blog on desserts that included recipes and other information. “We got 6,000 hits in one day,” Melody says. “We began right away to get internet orders and referrals.”

At first, she rented kitchens as she needed them. But it soon became obvious that she needed a storefront. She recently opened the first Sweet & Saucy shop at 6400 Stearns St. The venture was a family affair. “My dad is a plumbing contractor, and he supervised construction on the interior of the store for three months,” she says. “My sister Sara Francabanderia designs cakes and sugar flowers that are indistinguishable from the real thing.”

The idea has blossomed into a brisk business that has branched out to include baking and decorating classes in the store, where customers can receive customized, specialty training in everything from fondant wedding cakes to specialty sugar cookies. Customers may also order designer cakes for a special occasion or simply get their sweet tooth satisfied.

The shop specializes in custom desserts that taste as good as they look. “We create gorgeous, delicious, modern-looking desserts,” Melody says. “I have to say I love working for myself. I have complete creative control. I don’t have to sell my ideas to someone else.”

She also uses what she learned in her previous career. “What got me into teaching was the fact that I loved it. I have taught pastry classes at community colleges, and we will be expanding our baking and decorating classes at the shop.”

At 23, Melody has already found her niche. She gave the public a sample of her idea and they came back for more. She now has an impressive presence in the industry.

“I am focusing on working with wedding planners,” she says, “and I love it. The wedding industry incorporates all the things I love. We specialize in providing custom designed cakes with mini-desserts in the same design.”

More importantly, she has gained true confidence in her abilities and her choices. “I would tell others who are considering going into business to make sure it’s your passion,” she says. “If it’s really your passion, you can’t fail.”

Patty Newkirk’s Creative Cakery has been providing centerpiecestyle desserts in Long Beach since she started it with her daughters, Laurie and Nancy, in 1983. The business served two important needs in her family.

“I had always been a stay-at-home mom,” she says. “Once my daughters graduated from high school, I was looking for something to do. Once they graduated from college, they needed something to do. So we started the business with the thought that once it got going, I would just bow out and leave it to them to run.”

It didn’t quite work out that way. Patty is still in the store most days, supervising operations and maintaining personal contact with her still-growing customer base.

“I had always loved planning parties, but I wasn’t so fond of having parties,” she says. “I always felt responsible that everyone have a good time. A cake shop was a way to be involved in the fun of planning parties without having to go the whole nine yards.”

Timing was on their side. “The bundt pan had just come out,” she says, “and everyone was crazy over carrot cake. It was a good time to come out with a different sort of cake.”

On a designer home tour, she noticed a small, elevated compote with flowers in the center and velvet ribbons dangling from the sides. A tasty idea was born — she could make small bundt cakes and fill the center with flowers, fashioning cakes that were as pretty to look at as they were fun to eat.

“I knew nothing about how to get started,” she says. “I went to see Don Phillips, who owned Phillips Chicken Pies, to buy an oven. I told him what we planned to do and asked him if he knew of a kitchen facility that would be reasonable for us to rent.”

It happened that Phillips had a location at Seventh Street and Redondo Avenue that was being operated by his son. “But his son didn’t like it,” Patty said. “Don rented it to us, and he let us use his business license. The place became Creative Cakery and Phillips Chicken Pies.”

The highly successful chicken pie business was an ideal launch pad for an innovative new dessert product. The cheerful little cakes were picture-pretty on the dessert table, and an event-celebrating public enthusiastically embraced the carrot and zucchini cakes made with honey and whole wheat.

The flared design of the bundt cakes was a perfect platform for rich and creative designs that came straight from the imagination of Patty, Laurie and Nancy. The unusual fluted cake shape offers interesting decorative possibilities when frosted and decorated with ribbons, toys, and miniature props, to signify various special events.

“We had lots of walk-in traffic,” Patty says. “We grew by word of mouth. And our customers asked us to make our cakes available through the mail. We did some mailings and put out a brochure. We had lots of orders, which we filled ourselves in the beginning.”

The shop became known for its ability to fill orders with lightning speed, made possible by a unique idea. The cakes are frozen immediately after baking. They are then frosted and frozen again. “Otherwise, everything would get all runny,” Patty said. “And since the basic cakes are frozen, we can keep a running inventory of two of each size and flavor, unfrosted.”

Flavors soon became more complex. From the basic carrot and zucchini cakes, the women developed cakes based on ideas contributed by friends and customers. Chocolate with chips, lemon, poppy seed and banana butterscotch soon became favorites with customers.

Now, a staff of 10 works in the store, which moved to 6467 E. Pacific Coast Highway in the Marketplace shopping center. And Patty’s still there.

“If I had retired like I thought I would, I would be a creative person with nothing to create,” Patty says. “I love our customers. I remember some of my customers today coming in as babies years ago. It’s really fun here.”

Like many businesses, Creative Cakery started off on a trial-and-error basis. “If we had known how complicated it would be, we would have been scared to death,” Patty says.

Today these three entrepreneurs are fulfilling dreams woven like spun sugar into the fabric of their lives. One was forced to make a change. One simply decided to change directions. And one was taking the next step as a mother of two grown daughters. All took the ingredients they had on hand — an idea, the urge to succeed, courage, creativity and energy — and whipped up a recipe that you could say has led them to their “just desserts”.



To learn more about these three unique enterprises, log on to their web sites:
dlischka.com
sweetandsaucyshop.com
sweetandsaucyshop.com