3rd Anniversary For Let's Eat Cake

Saturday, 18 April 2015 06:20

Owner of Let's Eat Cake Rene Hoelscher far right

The bakery is celebrating with sales and door prizes.

WOODSTOCK - Let's Eat Cake is happy to be celebrating a sweet anniversary.

Saturday marks the third anniversary of the local bakery, but it was no cake walk to get there. Owner/Operator of Let's Eat Cake Rene Hoelscher said there was a time when she wasn't sure the store would ever open it's doors again.

"I missed my second anniversary here at the store because the fire was March 21st and our anniversary is April 18th so we missed that. It was a long struggle for ten months of being closed. Ever since we've been opened though it's been really busy and we've had a lot of response from the community, so it's been good."

The fire referenced by Hoelscher refers to a blaze last year that caused massive devastation at several Dundas street businesses. The fire originated in a storage room housing items belonging to a local theatre group, where it's believed some improperly disposed of rags caught fire. The fire then spread throughout the adjacent businesses. Hoelscher's business suffered major damage.

"We had a lot of smoke damage and water damage in here as well. And there was also a structural support beam that was compromised as well. So it took a long time to get engineers in here as well to figure out how they were going to go about it and fix it because they were actually trying to tell the landlord that they would have had to kind of condemn the building. So they had to work really hard in figuring out how they were going to get it to work without having to let go of the building."

Hoelscher is trying to put the whole incident behind her by throwing a big anniversary celebration. From 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. sales can be found at the store, as well as door prizes donated by local businesses. A princess will be on hand from noon until 1 p.m. to hand out treats, followed by performances from the Enchanted Theatre Company who will be putting on skits until 3 p.m.

Let's Eat Cake is also giving back to the community that helped get them back on their feet; a Facebook article prompted Hoelscher to bring forth a trial version of a Pay It Forward initiative.

"Someone could come in and buy either a coffee or a muffin for somebody and then they put post it notes on a board so somebody who's down and out or just needs a pick me up - they can go in and pick what they want and bring it up to the counter." Hoelscher says the response from the community has been great, and she can see the positive effect it is having on those who make use of the program.