In tough times, shoppers still buy quality cakes

CORNWALL — It’s the quintessential success story: A small business started out of a kitchen at home makes it big. And stays big.  Deanna and Blaine Matthews are taking their Matthews 1812 House into its 30th year this holiday season.

Of course, Deanna is no longer baking fruitcakes and brandied apricot cakes in a big, old Garland oven, while keeping an eye on the couples’ two daughters. When they started the business, their oldest was 1, the other was, well, still in the oven.

It was a marriage of different skills that made this family business a success. Blaine’s expertise in computerized finances was easily applied to the rapidly growing business — although it was certainly not his only contribution.

“There were times when she would get a ton of apricots delivered, and I’d have to haul them to the basement,†he recalled.

About a decade later, the couple took their business, named in part for the old Cornwall farmhouse where it began, and moved it to a building on Route 7 at the southern end of town. A bigger kitchen, a separate mixing room (for climate control) and a carousel oven allow them to meet volume sales.

But it’s still very homey. There are no conveyor belts. Each cake or cookie is made by hand. No preservatives are used. Items are frozen to preserve freshness when the Matthewses need to get a jump on inventory.

A sign out front invites visitors and retail customers to step inside. But Matthews 1812 House remains primarily a mail-order business. Some 165,000 catalogs were sent out in a recent mailing. Its 40 pages detail more than 120 products, from rum-soaked cakes to candied fruit and chocolates from carefully selected purveyors.

Customers are as close as Cornwall and as far away as Europe. Some orders come from individuals who simply must have the marzipan cake for their holiday party; other buyers are corporations shopping for employee gifts.

The Matthewses describe their customers as “very loyal.†That likely comes from a trust developed over the years.

“We spend quite a bit of time trying out new products, both ones we don’t make but will carry in our catalog, and ideas we come up with for baked goods. We have bake-and-taste sessions, where we will constantly adjust a recipe. We start with the 5-quart mixer, then the 20-quart, then the 60-quart, because the size of the batch can require adjustments. It’s always fun,†Deanna Matthews said.

One of their latest creations, Almond Roll Ups, took first place at the Connecticut Specialty Food Associates show this year. Their lemon rum cake is also a trophy winner.

The high-quality, handmade approach puts their offerings on the pricey side, but even the dicey economy isn’t stopping people from indulging. The Matthews have been gearing up for the holidays since the summer (Christmas orders start showing up in July). They carefully track trends. Three pages of sugar-free items are part of a trend that began about a year and a half ago.

“It seems people are looking for fewer calories, and they know we won’t sell anything that tastes sugar-free. They are also going for dark chocolate, because now we are told it’s good for us,†Deanna said. “Cookies are very popular this year, and anything with marshmallow.â€

She believes the latter may simply be because during stressful times, people want comfort food.

One of their more unusual items are “chocolate olives.†The green and black assortment is actually chocolate-covered pralines, artfully designed to  look as if they could float in one of the sweet dessert martinis that are now chic. They have become the “in†thing for wedding favors. Customers call to find out how many olives come in a container, then use them to fill engraved martini glasses for their guests.

For more information, go to matthews1812house.com.

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