Name: Cassandra Burnett
Hometown: Williamstown
Business: Lizzie’s Love Cakes
Category: Food
New Jersey Family: Tell us about Lizzie’s Love Cakes and your mission.
Cassandra Burnett: Lizzie’s Love Cakes is a unique bakery that specializes in creating “un”inverted moist, bundt-pound cakes, each with a special touch of familial love and tradition. The cakes are not just desserts; they are embodiments of emotion and memory, crafted to honor a love legacy. In short, the mission is to amplify, expand and share love to those that maybe missing it, never experienced it or long for it.
NJF: When did you launch Lizzie’s Love Cakes and what was your inspiration?
CB: Founded in November 2020, the bakery was born out of a deeply personal journey through grief and a tribute to family heritage. My inspiration was to process the pain of loss, specifically the transition my mother, Lizzie. I use the term transition now because I gained a “love perspective.” Shifting my perspective away from the loss allowed me to fully embrace the wisdom, courage and love that I gained.
NJF: Your cakes are made with love in honor of your mother, aunties, grandmothers and countless other impactful women. Can you tell us about how they inspired your baking and, ultimately, your business?
CB: When I think of my mother, her sisters and my grandmother, I fully appreciate that their love language was and is through acts of service. A nice compliment, a thoughtful word, a warm hug or a homemade dish can literally save and/or heal. Armed with this understanding, I became determined to continue this legacy and even expand it. When creating the recipes outside of the original Lizzie Love Cake, I let the memories of my aunts and grandmother guide my tastebuds toward the perfect combinations that matched their personalities and my memories of them.
NJF: How did you go from having a passion for baking to launching a business? Where do you bake all of your cakes and how did your build your team?
CB: The inception of Lizzie’s Love Cakes was a significant milestone in my life. It represented a full-circle moment, from a professional attorney to an entrepreneur driven by love and the desire to heal. Yes, my cake company helps to heal me. I needed to heal from the real feelings from when my mother transitioned in 2012. It wasn’t until the pandemic in 2020 when I got real with myself and asked myself: What is a desire of my heart? The answer led me to a healing journey that was not based on being a successful attorney, present mother or loving wife, it was healing my broken heart by doing the thing that brought my mother so much joy-feeding others souls with her love of cooking and baking. So, I did just that.
I bake out of a commissary kitchen in Camden County. We are a family business. I do all the baking. My husband shrink wraps, my eldest daughter labels boxes and cuts twine and my youngest daughter makes boxes. They are my support system!
NJF: What are some of the obstacles you faced along the way?
CB: Time management. Because I have a full life-full-time job, kids activities, speaking engagements, youth leader at my church, women’s conference (Hey Girl! Conference), etc.-time management is key. I have systems that work if I work them. When I work outside of my systems, it becomes overwhelming. And, the practical resources to scale up.
NJF: Tell us about your cakes and which is your best seller?
CB: I’ve always described my cakes as cakes of emotion: what you pour into them people will feel. I do my best to never prepare a cake in a rushed or hurried fashion and never while upset. While my cakes are bundt pound cakes, they are not served inverted. The best seller is the original Lizzie Love Cake, which, is my mother’s 7up pound cake recipe.
NJF: Are your cakes mostly sold online and where do you ship?
CB: My cakes are sold online, at pop ups and in our retail location at Sweet Amalia in Newfield. Our online sales ship nationwide. I also provide Love Bites for private events.
NJF: What is the most rewarding part of what you do?
CB: Seeing the expression on customers’ faces when they bite into their first piece of Love Cake. I’ve described it as transporting you to a place where you considered home and felt safe. Yes, it can be a physical structure, a hug from mom-mom or a smile from a best friend.
It’s also rewarding when we donate $1 from the sale of each cake to a non-profit with a focus on children. My parents were foster and adoptive parents. My mother had a special gift in how she nurtured children.
NJF: What was your proudest moment as a business owner?
CB: Seeing the pride in my girls’ eyes when they hear the stories of my mother, their great aunts and great grandmother. My girls are now proud legacy carriers and I believe they know it.
NJF: What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever gotten about running a business that you want to share with others?
CB: State your vision and keep it clear. There will be tons of distractions, but stay tethered to the vision. Let your why remain your guiding light. Also, streamline your process.
NJF: What’s it like juggling raising kids with running your business?
CB: It can feel truly unmanageable at times. Having faith and a supportive husband is how I make it through. Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. I have an unwavering faith in the mission of Lizzie’s Love Cakes that motivates me, pushes me and provides space for me to rest. And, my husband is my biggest supporter along with friends and family members who have served as Love Assistants at pop ups, bought many cakes or told me just how proud they know my parents are of me. What I’ve described is that my community is what makes the unmanageable, manageable.
NJF: What do you love most about living in Williamstown?
CB: We love to patronize the small businesses in Williamstown like Dairy Fresh and Nicoletta’s on Main. And, we absolutely adore our local post office employees. They always greet us with a smile when we arrive with our shipping orders and make sure to handle each Love Cake with care.
NJF: What are some of your favorite things to do in New Jersey with your family?
CB: Of course, go to the beach. Our favorite is Strathmere! We also had an incredible outdoor adventure visiting Dingmans Falls in the summer of 2020. When my girls were younger, we visited Storybook Land several times (they have the best funnel cake). Honestly, it’s any time we can spend quality time with our family from track meets with Omega Track Club to musicals at the Grande Theater in Williamstown to roasting s’mores in a backyard fire pit.
NJF: What’s next for Lizzie’s Love Cakes?
CB: We would love to partner with more retail locations, secure more equipment and work toward having our own kitchen space.
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