For Heavens Cakes delicious Cake Bites Featured on Peter Perfect.
Santa Monica, CA
For Heavens Cakes unique Cake Bites are featured on Peter Perfect
on The Style Network. See Lisa Donahue and the staff of For Heavens
Cakes on The Style Network, spotlighted for the entire episode:
Let Them Sell Cake! premiering at 6am, today, Saturday May 24th!
Peter helped us bring our Cakes Bites out to the community and
gave the shop an incredible make-over! Special thanks to Peter
Ishkhans and The Style Network for an incredible opportunity and
a fantastic experience! Be sure to tune in and watch then email
us and let us know what you think! And do not forget, our Cake
Bites are now shipping throughout the continental United States!
Order Cake Bites Now! Click Here
Her success is sweet
Los Angeles Daily News
Monday November 26, 2007
By Angie Valencia-Martinez
Staff Writer
THOUSAND OAKS – Lisa Donahue was a stay-at-home mom with a sweet tooth and too many disappointing experiences with chocolate cake.
“I kept trying to find a chocolate cake to satisfy me. I couldn’t find it,” she said. “I thought I’d just make it myself.”
Her quest for the perfect chocolate cake propelled her into the bakery business, starting in her own kitchen at home.
“It snowballed,” Donahue said. “I was producing 100 cakes out of my house. The I had Nordstrom knocking on my door.
“I was growing too fast by word of mouth. Then I had to make the decision. Do I do it as a hobby or cross that line?”
One year ago this month, the Westlake Village entrepreneur opened For Heaven’s Cakes – which has grown into a fantastically successful business serving clients nationwide.
But running the Thousand Oaks bakery is no cakewalk Donahue says. She devotes up to 18 hours a day to keep it running smoothly and make the customers happy.
At times, it means missing her son’s soccer games or not being able to tuck them in at night.
Still, Kelley, 10, and Cameron, 9, are her biggest fans, bragging to friends at school that mom owns a bakery.
“I tell them, ‘If it wasn’t for you two little monkeys, I wouldn’t have been housebound and been inspired to bake a cake,’” said the single mom. “It’s all because of them. This will be their business one day.”
The 38-year-old baker picked up her first spatula at the age of 6 baking cookies and banana bread for girlfriends.
At the age of 28, she found herself at home with two boys, ages 1 and 2, bored and craving sweets.
So she put on her apron and began tinkering with cake recipes, giving birth to what would become her best-seller: The Chocolate Bomb.
Within months she was running an at-home cake company from orders gathered at play dates and get-togethers with friends.
Roseann Bleiweiss of Calabasas encouraged her friend to start her own business.
“Her cakes are so different from anything else. A slither of a piece makes you feel like you’ve eaten a whole cake… They’re so rich.
“She slowly built her business by word of mouth. She’s a real good inspiration for mom’s everywhere.”
Her biggest boost came from friends who work for Statement Calabasas Magazine and introduced her sweets to celebrities.
Then came the calls from restaurants, hotels and other shops ordering her chocolate, carrot, marble and lemon cakes.
She opened For Heavens Cakes at 804 Thousand Oaks Blvd., in Heritage Plaza, and celebrated the store’s first birthday in November.
Located next to a bridal gown store, the shop has a stylish look with a private tasting room decked out in pink for brides- and grooms-to-be.
Donahue’s bakery also features mini cakes and cake bites – miniature versions of her cake line which includes a selection of about 20 cakes.
She has started to ship her cakes nationwide from order she gets on the Internet and she hopes to one day open a chain of For Heavens Cakes.
“I don’t sleep anymore,” she said laughing. “I need a vacation.”
“I thought I was going to be a stay-at-home mom forever. You just don’t know what life is going to give you. To me it gave chocolate.”
Visit For Heavens Cakes at www.forheavenscakes.com
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Itty Bitty Indulgence
Ventana Monthly
February 2008
Chocolates have been the traditional front-runner for Valentine’s Day for ages, but perhaps it’s time try something a little different. Love Bites, A.k.a. Cake Bites, are bite-sized cakes that come in a variety of flavors including chocolate, marble, orange, and lemon. Chocolate, also called “chocolate bomb,” is a dense, moist devil’s food cake encased in semi-sweet chocolate that, according to For Heavens Cakes owner Lisa Donahue, is Quincy Jones’ favorite. Visit Lisa and enjoy her cake bite samples while lounging in her pink-walled tasting room.
For Heavens Cakes, 807 Thousand Oaks Blvd., Thousand Oaks, 805-497-6111. www.forheavenscakes.com, call for delivery options.
Cake Bite gift sets start at $10
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A Slice of Heaven
Calabasas Magazine
Nov/Dec 2004
LISA Donahue NEVER OWNED AN EASY-BAKE OVEN AS A CHILD, but that didn’t stop her from winning her first cooking competition at the tender age of six when she created a prize-winning gingerbread house at school. Years later, as a stay-at-home mother with two infants, “I couldn’t find good cakes anywhere,” recalls Donahue. “So I decided to start baking them myself.” What began as a hobby is now a flourishing business. Founded in 2001, Donahue’s company, aptly named For Heavens Cakes, offers more than 20 varieties of gourmet cakes, which she delivers to restaurants, caterers and private residents alike.
The top-selling Chocolate Bomb is a decadent sensory assault of fudge, devil’s food, and just about every other variety of chocolate imaginable, and the 20/20 Delight Carrot Cake (so named because carrots are good for your eyes, natch) has proven to be an effective way for pharmaceutical reps to get a fott in the door at local ophthalmologists’ offices. Most incredible of all: Donahue is entirely self taught. “Ever since I was a little girl, my mom could never get me out of the kitchen,” she says with a laugh. “And today I’m still there.” Thank heaven for that. – Juan Morales
For more information call 888-991-CAKE
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Woman in Business – Success Stories
Westlake Magazine April/May 2007
After inspiring the Westlake Village community with For Heaven’s Cakes since 2001, Lisa Donahue is starting to take the cake business by storm, as she expands from coast to coast. What was once a wholesale company has become a retail store with clients like Nordstrom, Lake Sherwood Country Club, and Westlake Village Hyatt. As the business’ name continued to grow beyond the state and the interest in For Heavens Cakes increased, Donahue discovered Cake Bites – bite-sized cake samples. Within the next month, Donahue expects to ship Cake Bites to consumers throughout the nation.
In addition to Cake Bites, Donahue believes to be “leading the way in wedding cakes.” For Heavens Cakes offers its customers an exclusive, high-end experience to accompany its high-end cakes. With a private tasting room, and an accommodating staff, the bride and groom can enjoy the cake selection process free of stress and chaos. Donahue’s cake tasting room, however is not limited to bride and groom access: For Heavens Cakes also bakes for main events and other occasions. Private cake testing is complimentary and open to the public, but appointments are required. Check out www.forheavenscakes.com to get a sneak peek at the unique cake tasting room. Tel. 805-497-6111.
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For Heavens Cakes unique Carriage Cake featured at Jillian Barberie's baby shower.
Santa Monica, CA
Shutters Hotel
The event was all smiles Sunday as Jillian Barberie and about 50 of her good friends celebrated the coming birth of her baby at the luxurious Shutters Hotel on the beach in the heart of Santa Monica.
And our adorable Carriage Cake was selected as the cake for the celebration.
Congratuations, Jillian!
Local businesswoman has her cake and eats it, too
By Nancy Needham nancy@theacorn.com
JANN HENDRY/Acorn Newspapers
AS GOOD AS IT LOOKS- Lisa Donahue displays one of the sweet-tasting creations from her Thousand Oaks-based business, For Heavens Cakes. One of her specialties is called the Chocolate Bomb.
Just about everyone has had a craving for a chocolate cake, but Lisa Donahue turned her craving into For Heavens Cakes, a successful Thousand Oaks business.
"I was a stayathomemommy for my two young sons, and I could not find anything just right to satisfy a craving I was having for a chocolate cake," Donahue recalled.
With little baking experience, Donahue set out to make the ultimate chocolate cake. The result she called the Chocolate Bomb.
Donahue's original dessert soon became a favorite among family and friends, who asked her to bring her Chocolate Bomb to get-togethers. Then other people began asking her to make it for a family gathering or their child's birthday party. The more people who ate it, the more who wanted to serve it at their next event.
The bomb just exploded.
Before she knew it, Donahue was being asked to make 10 cakes a week. So she became certified as a food handler and made sure she was following all the legal requirements to start selling her creation. Ten cakes a week turned into 100 cakes a week. Then Nordstrom, coffee shops, restaurants and a variety of other places began ordering from her.
The Chocolate Bomb gave birth to other cakes- carrot, lemon and vanilla. Cakes then came in various sizes: cupcakes, mini cakes and even teensy weensy cake bites about the size of a boxed chocolate. And, yes, she sells them in boxes as if they were chocolates- but, make no mistake, they are little bites of cake.
Donahue packages her cakes elegantly and calls them couture cakes. In November 2006 she opened her first retail store and is now selling directly to the public. Some might be inclined to purchase her creations or send them as gifts just for their presentation. But how they taste is most likely the reason her cakes have caught on.
"I designed them like cakes I like to eat, and I like rich, dense and intense," Donahue said.
She knows the taste is memorable, which is why she's opened up a tasting room at her bakery. Those interested in ordering a wedding cake can make an appointment to come in, sit down and take time to taste and decide.
Her bakery is also unique because cakes aren't on hand inside a refrigerator waiting to be purchased by those who just drop in. Anyone interested in having a cake must order first. Most of the time a morning order will result in an afternoon cake, but 24 hours' notice is best, Donahue said.
She's also starting to mail her cakes. One customer had Donahue's signature chocolate cake sent to Iraq to surprise her husband, who's serving in the military, on his birthday.
Donahue realizes there are some people who come in for a cake and want to walk out with a cake, and she's expecting to someday have such a setup available. But right now her business is in its infancy, and customers just have to plan ahead and be patient.
On the business's website, www.forheavenscakes.com, a regular-size cake costs $45. Mini cakes start at $12 each. A box of 32 cake bites costs $39. Donahue also sells specialty cakes in a variety of shapes, including an autoshaped Bentley cake.
For more information, call (805) 497-6111. For Heavens Cakes is at 804 Thousand Oaks Blvd., in Heritage Plaza.
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