Sisters make their mark in decades-old family business

SPANISH FORT, Ala. (AP) - Given their talents and interests, sisters Lorrie Chambers and Karen Jones could have chosen any profession they wanted. But it’s hard to argue they could have done anything that would have made as many people happy - and better honored their family legacy - than opening up The Little Cake Shop on the Eastern Shore.

And it’s a calling they both perform as naturally as talking. As a matter of fact, in the span of the interview for this story, Jones cut out and decorated at least three dozen Easter cookies while Chambers iced a wedding cake and scooped out Mexican wedding cookies. All the while, they were chatting about times long past.

Although separated by almost a decade, the sisters both grew up in the various locales of the Mobile bakery that their parents had owned since 1965. Wyley and Sybil Burnett raised five kids in the venerable Pastry Shop bakeries, but it wasn’t their daughters’ destiny to own those same sweet spots.

‘Cake is my thing’

Instead, according to Chambers and Jones, their destiny took them - along with the family recipes - to Spanish Fort, to a property near the corner of U.S. 31 and Alabama 181.

Painted sunshine yellow, their bakery oasis across from Rockwell Elementary School was opened by Chambers in 1996. She said she chose the name because she wanted to keep it simple and start something all her own.

Chambers said that her future projections for The Little Cake Shop were rooted in optimism and an understanding of three basic facts: “There aren’t many people over here who do what we do; people have to eat; and what we do fundamentally makes people happy.”

She said, “It’s not like owning a funeral home. And the things we do, you can’t go get at Walmart or Publix or anywhere else. We knew people were going to like what we did.”

The two sisters marketed The Little Cake Shop the only way they knew how, by taking each day’s leftover cupcakes and cookies to fire and police stations, banks and offices, with their business cards sitting right on top.

Success came fairly quickly. For Chambers, the challenge was in keeping her books straight and managing the business side of baking.

“Math is not my thing, cake is my thing,” she said. “But you have to figure that stuff out, too.”

So the sisters found a bookkeeper in Fairhope and kept putting roller to dough like they’d always done. Their wheelhouse was cakes, cookies and assorted pastries.

Said Jones, “They say it takes usually three years for a new business to make a profit, but it didn’t take us three years.”

The sisters credit their parents’ mantra that “you have to do what you have to do” for being able to weather the lean times of the last recession.

“We had to gear back and watch every penny,” Chambers said. “All I can say is that we survived, but there were many places that were closing down around us.”

“But,” said Jones, “you don’t sit around and complain. You just figure it out.”

‘Here to bake’

Jones has a favorite picture on her phone: It’s of her newest grandchild, lying in the bakery scale. All of their grandchildren have been weighed there, she said, indicating a tradition that’s lasted the years.

They even have a daybed hidden away for when the little ones come to visit and need to nap, which sparks memories of when Jones and Chambers were young and rambling across the floors of The Pastry Shop.

Several years ago, the sisters needed to hire another baker, and chose a woman named Jessica whom they now describe as their “right hand.”

She came aboard and became the shop’s mixologist, making doughs and other recipes on the giant mixer, along with learning how to design cakes and work with fondant - one of the newer trends in cake decorating.

Eventually, Jones‘ son started coming by to see his mom and aunt, and he and Jessica formed a bond and eventually got married.

“I was the maid of honor at their wedding,” Jones said.

These days, the calendar in the back room is filled with hand-written names denoting upcoming cakes. This is the busiest season - March through May - and some weekends as many as five sets of brides and grooms will toast their futures in front of a signature cake from The Little Cake Shop.

The last couple of years have been slow when it comes to weddings, but things are bouncing back in a big way. Now, a lot of their orders come from folks in their 30s and 40s getting married, not twentysomethings.

And with a relaxation of marriage laws statewide, some of their newer customers are same-sex couples.

“We’re not put here to judge,” Jones said. “We’re here to bake.”

Looking at three months’ worth of weddings, graduations, birthdays and first communions, the sisters admitted they’re tired, and would like to retire someday. Chambers held out two hands full of crooked fingers and Jones mused about a passion for writing that hasn’t ebbed in 30 years.

But for now, the future resides on that calendar, and in the iPad and iPhone photo albums they peruse with floury fingers and smiles.

Nearby, in a wooden frame, is a photograph of their father from the 1970s. In it, Wyley Burnett is smiling and surrounded by dozens of America’s Junior Miss contestants, all posed in front of a giant cake that he made of the United States. It’s an image that his daughters look at with pride.

“I’m doing what I’m meant to be doing,” Jones said.

Chambers added: “Where else can you work doing nothing but making people happy?”

___

Information from: The Birmingham News, http://www.al.com/birminghamnews