Los Gatos bundt cake enterprise actually pans out for longtime mates – The Mercury Information

It’s hard to imagine anyone investing thousands of dollars to open a new retail store in today’s economy — especially one that sells nothing but cake.

But that’s exactly what two South Bay couples did this past October, and at a time when good economic news seems nowhere to be found, their story is one of sweet success.

Nothing Bundt Cakes is a store that sells just that — nothing but Bundt cakes. Longtime friends Eric and Joni Curtis and Brent and Leah Rodemeyer opened their franchise store at 421 N. Santa Cruz Ave. next to Walgreens on Oct. 15, and since that day, orders have been pouring in for the company’s decorative and delicious cakes.

In just six months of business, the store is doing so well that the two couples have bought up sole franchise rights for all of the South Bay and the peninsula, from San Jose to Burlingame, and plan to open three more stores over the next few years.

It’s a Bay Area success story that’s practically unheard of in today’s dismal economic times — and a dream come true for the Curtis and Rodemeyer families.

Sweet dreams

Leah Rodemeyer says, the two couples have been friends since their college days.

“We all went to Chico State together, and were all from the Bay Area — I grew up in Cupertino, Eric in San Jose, Brent was from Danville, and so on,” she recalls.

After college, Leah says, Brent and Eric dreamed of opening a business together.

“For years, they talked about going into business together somehow — some kind of small business, like maybe a restaurant. It was funny, all the ideas they used to talk about all the time,” she says.

Eventually, the two couples went their separate ways — the Curtises moved to Henderson, Nev., and the Rodemeyers to Folsom — but they always kept in touch. For a while, the Curtises owned and operated an excavating business in Henderson. Brent ran two Kentucky Fried Chicken franchises after college, and later started work for California Audio Tech, a high-end loudspeaker manufacturer. Leah was a stay-at-home mom.

Needless to say, a cake business was the furthest thing from any of their minds.

“Did I ever see myself frosting and decorating cakes?” Brent says with a laugh.

“No, definitely not.” “I was never a baker,” Leah says matter-of-factly.

But out in Nevada, Joni Curtis fell in love with a Las Vegas store called Nothing Bundt Cakes.

“For every occasion over those eight years, we purchased that store’s cakes,” Joni recalls.

“The company started as two ladies, just baking cakes out of their homes, and eventually they opened up a storefront,” Leah explains.

One day, the Curtises learned that their beloved local cake store was offering franchise opportunities. They broached the subject with the Rodemeyers.

“They asked us if we wanted to go into business with them. By that time, I had been a stay-at-home mom for 101/2 years, and Brent was working in the audio industry, but we were really looking for something new and different,” Leah explains. “So we flew out to Vegas to see the store out there, try the cakes and do a bunch of research on the business.”

“When Eric and Joni brought the idea to our attention, everything changed. It was a pretty easy decision to go ahead with it, because the seven other franchises that had already opened were doing so well,” Brent says. “I had seven other stores to look at as examples, and they were [thriving], even in a bad economy. That really prompted us to want to do it — if the stores can do well in a bad economy, they can do even better once the economy gets better.”

“The product really did it for us,” Leah says. “When we read the franchise overview, we knew it would be a hit. We really liked the business model.” Los Gatos takes the cake “At first, we were unsure of the location, because we were still living in Henderson,” Joni recalls.

“But once we decided to move back to the Bay Area, it was the perfect fit to start a location here. We moved to Los Gatos, and were very excited to open a store in our hometown.”

“There’s just something to be said for opening a store in your hometown,” Leah explains. “We were greeted with open arms. The town of Los Gatos and the Los Gatos Chamber of Commerce have been so great to us, and the people in the community have been extremely supportive of our business.”

The concept behind the Nothing Bundt Cakes franchise is simple and sweet — the store offers three different sizes of Bundt cakes, 10 flavors and roughly 40 ways to decorate the cakes for every imaginable occasion.

As customers walk into the charming storefront, they are greeted with cheerful decorations and the sweet smell of cake. The glass display case at the front counter is filled with individual and packaged “bundtlets” for those who just want a single serving to enjoy on the spot or take home.

Then there are examples of the two larger Bundt cakes the store can decorate specially: the 8-inch cake for $21, or the 10-inch cake, which can serve roughly 18 people, for $31.

The cakes come in 10 palate-pleasing flavors: marble, white chocolate, pecan praline, white chocolate raspberry, lemon, carrot, cinnamon swirl, red velvet and the store’s most popular flavor, chocolate chocolate-chip. They are all topped with rivers of the company’s signature white cream cheese frosting, spilling down from the center.

Where the cake goes from there is up to the customer. For $7 to $8.50 extra, the store offers roughly 40 different decorative themes for everything from a simple office party, birthday, baby or bridal shower, to holidays such as Easter, Fourth of July, Christmas and bar mitzvahs. Cakes can also be frosted to celebrate sporting events, express sympathy and extend get-well wishes or congratulations.

Just name the occasion, and the owners say it’s likely they have a design for it. For the non-occasion, there are the Just Because and the Humorous cakes, as well as designs for him and for her.

The center of each Bundt cake can be filled with a flower or bow — which the store employees hand-tie and spin into festive arrangements — and special touches like stickers, bumblebees, bunny rabbits and pompoms are added to make each Bundt cake a work of art. Each cake is served on a color-coordinated plate of blue, pink, yellow or dark brown.

Despite its name, the store does offer a few different things to help make any occasion more festive: individually priced party items such as card games to break the ice at bridal or baby showers; aprons; novelty cake cutters in shapes such as the popular high-heeled shoe; scented and color-changing candles; seasonal plates, platters and cake stands; piggy banks; and even baby clothes, such as onesies that say “Mommy’s Little Bundtlet” on the front in the store’s signature colors.

Recipe for success

It took just two months for the Los Gatos location to take off, say the owners. Once the winter holiday season was upon them, things got booming, the four owners say.

“Basically, we had just enough time to get our feet wet and get some confidence behind us before the holidays hit,” Leah recalls. “Christmas was crazy! We had a line out the door, the lobby was full, and all sorts of people were waiting.”

“The night before Christmas Eve, we must have been here until 2 a.m.” preparing cakes, employee Carma Nelson recalls. For her, it was quite an orientation, since she had just started working for the store that week.

Leah says she knew things were going good when for Thanksgiving, a local company ordered a whopping 1,100 bundtlets for their employees.

Now, with a busy Easter behind them as well, Leah says, things are only looking better for the store with each passing day.

“The community has been wonderful. We still have new people coming in every day, who live in Los Gatos but have never heard of us before,” she says.

It seems their six employees are feeling much the same.

“I love working here. It’s the best job I’ve ever had,” says 19-year-old Nelson. “For once in my life, I don’t hate getting up and coming to work.”

To celebrate the store’s good fortune and formally introduce Nothing Bundt Cakes to the community, the mayor of Los Gatos and members of the chamber of commerce will hold an official ribbon-cutting ceremony for the store on May 9. Festivities will include wine tasting, a traditional cake walk, a hula hoop contest, a Bundt pan toss, raffle prizes and, naturally, cake sampling.

Also in the works over the next month or two: The Rodemeyer family, who currently call Morgan Hill their home, will officially become Los Gatans, as they move into town to join their business partners.

“Our kids already go to school here. We love it here,” Brent says.

Nothing Bundt Cake is located in the Walgreens shopping center at 421 N. Santa Cruz Ave. in Los Gatos. For more information, call 408-395-2959 or visit www.noth ingbundtcakes.com. The ribbon-cutting ceremony with members of the Los Gatos Town Council and Chamber of Commerce is open to the public and will take place at the store on May 9 at 10:30 a.m.