When Diane Schneider moved her bakery from her Newbury Township basement to a unit in Newbury Center nine years ago, she didn’t know what to expect.
When Diane Schneider moved her bakery from her Newbury Township basement to a unit in Newbury Center nine years ago, she didn’t know what to expect.
For 25 years, she was known to area residents as “the cake lady.” Weddings, birthdays, graduations, bar mitzvahs — her cakes graced all kinds of celebrations.
As her children grew, so did demand for her baked goods. Her market outpaced her kitchen’s capacity, she said in a recent interview.
“It was too much. It wasn’t a good system,” she recalled. “It was, move forward or stop taking business.”
D.S. Cakes and Sweet Cafe opened at the Newbury Center plaza in 2014 next to the Artisans’ Corner Gallery, Zeppe’s Tavern and Pizzeria and, later, the Anytime Fitness gym and a nail salon.
Schneider discovered her new, more visible location required more than delicious cakes, cupcakes and cookies to satisfy foot traffic.
“It wasn’t enough to just have a bakery. I realized I wouldn’t survive without more,” she said, adding she introduced wraps, soup and quiche to her customers.
“Every single thing we were trying, people wanted more,” Schneider recalled, and the coffee crowd found her. “People wanted food in the morning. It became a niche bakery and café.”
By her fifth year, Schneider knew, once again, demand was outgrowing her capacity.
Her kitchen could hardly contain her growing workforce and the antique chairs and tables in the café were rarely empty. The catering business stretched her to make another leap of faith.
“I have 20 employees. I need them to do the amount of business I do,” she said.
About two-thirds of her workers are in their 50s and 60s and semi-retired. They each work two or three days a week in the kitchen or behind the counter, determined by their individual talents, she said.
“They are hard workers and they show up,” Schneider said, adding their great camaraderie helped her keep going. Her 1,700 square-foot unit was becoming very crowded as business grew.
“I was constantly having to hire more people, but I had no place to put them,” she said. “It was becoming unprofessional.”
Branching Out
As a result, Schneider went to the plaza owners, Chuck Gates and Nacy Panzica, to discuss her problem. They agreed to build a second suite next door if she committed to lease half of it.
By 2019, the bricks and mortar were in place and Schneider was making decisions about how to outfit her soon-to-be kitchen twice the size of the old one and researching demand for a party room in the community.
Her plans skidded to a halt with COVID-19. Like many businesses, she made adjustments. Employees donned masks. Customers distanced themselves but continued to stop by for comfort food, keeping D.S. Cakes and Sweet Café from closing its doors.
For several winters, Schneider watched snow blow around the new, unoccupied unit, her dreams in suspended animation. The owners of the plaza passed away, leaving the project in limbo for a while.
“It’s been pretty crazy,” she said.
Her customers kept asking about her plans. So, once again, she took that leap, but coming off the pandemic was a rude awakening.
“Every single thing had tripled in cost, across the board,” Schneider recalled, adding, however, she typically saw the positive angle.
“I credit Nacy and Chuck for putting the building up before COVID or we’d never have been here,” she said, sitting in her large, new café the end of March — three years after the onslaught of the pandemic.
Although she had planned to open in January when she moved out of the smaller unit, supply-chain delays and a shortage of workers in the construction trades put off the start of business by three months — one more victim of the pandemic economy.
The new kitchen, gleaming stainless steel, is twice the size of Schneider’s previous space and she organized the equipment for the most efficient production of tasty products.
Her practice of using preservative-free ingredients and farm-fresh eggs for four kinds of quiche keeps people coming back.
Health-conscious gym members walk right across the parking lot to the café to pick up high-protein shakes and Schneider’s antioxidant almond protein bars with local maple syrup filling after their workouts.
“People who want to know what’s going into their bodies come back again and again,” Schneider said. “It took a while for people to buy our products. They are a little bit more expensive. But I’m still amazed at how far people will come for them.”
Family First
Schneider said she loved baking as a child. In a family of 10 children, that was a boon. As a young adult, she took classes and worked in restaurants learning the industry from the inside out, but it got old.
“I got tired of working for other people. I felt called that I could do more,” she said.
So, Schneider started baking at home, surrounded by family, where she developed her skills through trial and error.
“I learned the hard way. I wish there had been YouTube then,” Schneider laughed.
She built her customer base slowly, handing out free samples and seeking feedback on her experiments.
A constantly popular choice is the pirogues her staff makes and freezes. Schneider said her family was getting together at the party center to make the stuffed pastas that they traditionally cook and serve on Easter, she said.
Family pitched in when she decided to relocate. She had a new canvas to work from and her sons, Jacob and Kevin, and son-in-law, Ben Elia, contributed their skills.
Schneider pointed out the beautiful hand-made walnut table tops and chairs in the party room, the counters and, especially, the sliding barn door that closes off the party room from the café.
Time to Party!
Most of Schneider’s immediate family of more than 50 members lives in the area and getting together for holidays and celebrations has become an issue, she said.
While most families are not that large, she realized many people don’t have time or space to hold showers, graduation parties or holiday get-togethers.
Besides providing an event space for more than 50, Schneider’s kitchen staff can cater the party so the host can have fun, too.
D.S. Cakes and Sweet Café has an online menu for catering with selections of two breakfasts, two brunches and five lunches including many of the items available in the café.
The party room also has a raised dais, so everyone seated can see the gift opening or the entertainment, Schneider said.
Business and community meetings are welcome, as well. She installed a big screen beside the dais for presentations or entertainment.
“They trust us to actually host (the event), as well,” she said,
A Bright Future
Besides her regular customers and the café’s growing reputation as a gathering place for coffee and conversation, Schneider said she expects to benefit from tourists who flock to Geauga County to enjoy the Amish culture, maple syrup and multiple annual events.
Punderson State Park books cabins and camping throughout the year for visitors — another source of hungry customers. It’s not just her café that will benefit, but many businesses in Geauga County.
“The Amish and Punderson are such a draw for outsiders,” she said. “They are looking for something – they want to be here.”
