FOOD & LIFE

The icing on the cake ball

For one Austin company, little spheres of batter and frosting have made a world of difference

By Amira Jensen
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Wednesday, September 30, 2009

In a small rented kitchen in North Austin, five people in white chef coats bustle around as the scent of pumpkin spice cake wafts from the oven and frosting sweetens the air. With the holidays coming up and their cake balls now selling in 19 Whole Foods stores, Austin Cake Ball is going to need a bigger kitchen.

Austin Cake Ball, formerly Cake by Bridges , started in 2008 and caught its big break at April's Texas Hill Country Wine & Food Festival . Cathy Cochran-Lewis of Whole Foods Market Inc. ran across their booth and found a dessert she loved. She told owners Stacey Bridges and Ben May that they needed to get in touch with a Whole Foods bakery buyer.

"Really, at that point, it was kind of a wide-eyed thought," May said.

After May and Bridges made arrangements with Whole Foods' southwest regional bakery coordinator, Janet Chaykin, Austin Cake Ball's confections became available two months ago in Whole Foods stores in Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Colorado and Arkansas for $1.99 apiece.

Before you could just walk in and buy one cake ball at a time at Whole Foods, the only way to get the bite-size desserts from Austin Cake Ball was to order them online or on the phone by the dozen for $24.95 (which you can still do at 826-4824 or www.austincakeball.com). Now customers can pick and choose their flavors one at a time from the pastry case. The company's production volume has nearly tripled, May said, and the business has had to hire three more people to help in the kitchen.

When buying for Whole Foods bakeries, Chaykin said she looks for products that taste good and will please customers. "We have the opportunity to introduce our guests to a great quality product," Chaykin said. "For us, they are here to stay as long as our guests enjoy them."

Austin Cake Ball makes 11 flavors, but the flavor options at Whole Foods are limited to lemon drop, espresso brownie, Italian cream and vanilla. Austin Cake Ball had to alter its recipes to match Whole Foods standards, such as no bleached flour or artificial flavors, and these four flavors have passed the test without compromising their taste, May said. Nestled between the mini-raspberry cheesecakes and fresh fruit tartlets at Whole Foods, these miniature treats fit right into their new home.

Bite-size treats

Back in the kitchen, Bridges grabs a chunk of pumpkin sheet cake with her gloved hand and crumbles it into a bowl. She then drops white frosting into the mix, massaging it with her hands to distribute the "glue" evenly. She passes the bowl to a woman in white working next to her, who begins scooping the mixture into golf ball-sized balls and placing them on a cookie sheet. May is cracking eggs for the next cake, while another man dunks the cake balls into a chocolate coating. Bridges switches gears, takes a decorating bag and with deft hands begins to decorate the cake balls one by one. They make 2,000 cake balls a week on average. Last week , they made an exceptional 5,000.

"It's the ebbs and flows of holidays and regular orders," Bridges said. A Whole Foods-friendly version of Austin Cake Ball's pumpkin spice flavor will appear in stores starting in October.

Austin Cake Ball isn't the only local business that specializes in these round, moist delights. One of those is the Holy Cacao trailer on South First Street, which offers individual cake balls on popsicle sticks in flavors such as Velvet (red velvet cake, cream cheese frosting, white chocolate coating) and Grasshopper (dark chocolate cake, mint butter cream frosting, chocolate coating).

Austin Cake Ball's main business is still custom orders. Karen Strong ordered from Austin Cake Ball for her daughter's wedding reception and said it helped make the experience unique and memorable.

"Stacey gave us a wide range of flavor choices and customized the delicate decorations to complement the wedding colors and themes," Strong said via e-mail. "Not only did they deliver the yummy, beautiful cake balls to the reception, but Stacey also created a lovely presentation and delivered a special personalized box of cake balls to the bride's dressing room before the wedding."

Austin Cake Ball fills custom orders for events ranging from birthdays to corporate gatherings, such as this year's Ballet Austin's Fete-ish ball. Some customer flavor favorites include red velvet, German chocolate and Italian cream cake. Beyond cake balls, the company also creates cakes and cupcakes.

"Cake in general is such a big part of happy times," Bridges said. As the night progresses, the room fills with cake balls in different stages of creation. Bridges and May plan to move to a larger facility in October to help get through the busy holidays; then they'll look for the right location to build out their own kitchen. "We see the cake balls' popularity increasing. Some people come for cake and leave with cake balls."