Even in 1999, when CakeLove was just a reserved Web address and his Washington kitchen a lab for buttercream dreams, Warren Brown was concocting an ambitious business plan for the bakery he would open.
"A shop on one corner is cute, but it won't get you anywhere," Brown says. "I always wanted to grow the company."
A year after Brown opened the first CakeLove in 2002 on U Street, a resurgent neighborhood in Northwest Washington, the Love Cafe opened across the street. CakeLove storefronts in Silver Spring and Arlington, Va., followed.
Brown's lavish confections and personal magnetism swiftly propelled him into the pantheon of celebrity chefs, complete with a Food Network stint and cookbook contract.
Now, Baltimore developer Struever Bros., Eccles & Rouse has invited Brown to set up shop in East Baltimore. CakeLove opened Friday at 2500 Boston St.
With CakeLove's arrival, Baltimore can claim a second baker who has hosted a Food Network show, along with Duff Goldman of Charm City Cakes. As the host of Sugar Rush for two years, Brown visited the kitchens of confectionary artists around the country. The program was not renewed last fall, although reruns occasionally air.
With its pastel palette and harbor view, the storefront in the Can Company's flagship building in Baltimore is the "prettiest-looking CakeLove there is," Brown says.
CakeLove's Silver Spring kitchen will supply cakes and other baked goods to the shop daily, with icing and fillings to be made on the premises. The shop will be staffed by local employees put through Brown's rigorous training process.
Like its companion stores, Baltimore's CakeLove will feature a cornucopia of Brown's signature sweets, slathered with buttercream, chocolate ganache, fresh raspberries, caramel, toasted coconut and a slew of other natural ingredients.
Brown, 37, is perhaps his company's most attractive natural ingredient. Lanky, with a mop of slender dreadlocks and conversation laced with hipster slang, the former government attorney comes across as a laid-back guy loping effortlessly through life.
His breezy demeanor belies his effort to become "a very serious player in the dessert industry." During frequent soliloquies on lemon curd, Italian meringue buttercream, the magic of potato starch and "bite resistance," Brown's inner cake geek emerges in full force.
His friend Kit Miller remembers when Brown started a "gastronomy and law club" that applied the process of legal analysis to developing new flavor combinations and dishes. "He loves tasting things and breaking down what's in food," the Washington attorney says.
After leaving his job as a litigator for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in 2000, Brown baked his way through The Art of the Cake: Modern French Baking and Decorating by Bruce Healy and other classic references. "I didn't know there were so many ways to get to the destination of a chocolate cake," he says.
To survive, Brown relied on savings and income from occasional cake sales. He charged $10,000 on his credit card for equipment, including a retooled KitchenAid mixer.
Arriving at the recipes for cakes such as "Cynthia's Sin" -- named for a top-secret reason after CakeLove employee Cynthia Gooding -- is a science. But "it's also about having your wits about you," Brown says.
When whipping a meringue, for example, Brown instructs baking assistants to listen for the solid "thunk, thunk, thunk" -- an aural signal that the contents have reached the correct consistency.
Brown distances himself from the pastry chefs he interviewed for Sugar Rush, best known for their visual effects. That includes Goldman, who turns cakes into grand pianos and rowhouses on Ace of Cakes. A cake should be round, Brown says. A "cake is not a soccer ball, nor is it a head of Abraham Lincoln."
Brown also rails against artificial trans fats and faux chocolate on his blog, blog.cakelove.com. "I'm just making it the way someone's grandmother made it back in the day," he says.
When it came to developing a brand, though, Brown didn't look to someone's grandmother. Soon after he went into business, Brown met a man awed by the fact that he had the gumption to leave a stable job for the uncertainty of finicky doughs and moody meringues.
In Brown's mind, that moment crystallized CakeLove's allure for all those working stiffs who yearned for the same courage. They may never escape the daily grind, but at least they could savor vicarious freedom through a Toffee Crunch chocolate cake or a Strawberries & Cream vanilla cake.
As does Goldman, Brown has detractors in foodie circles who don't believe the quality of his cake merits the attention he gets. It's not Brown's cupcakes, but his "story" that sends customers to CakeLove, says Don Rockwell, founder of an eponymously named online food community.
"I don't know if people actually eat these cakes and enjoy them or are just so captivated by the story of a lawyer turned baker that they just want them to be good," Rockwell says.
Since Brown has left day-to-day baking duties to expand CakeLove, he can't be on every bakery site for quality control, Rockwell says. Foodies bristle as well at Brown's reminders that cakes, kept chilled per health-code regulations, must be served at room temperature for their true flavor and consistency to be appreciated.
"Cupcakes need to come with instruction??," said one poster on DonRockwell.com. "Way too high maintenance for me. I just want to eat them."
CakeLove's pastries are also pricey, another quibble. A 14-inch cake from CakeLove's case can cost $175. Cupcakes are $3.
Brown's response to all the "rancor on the Web about CakeLove" is to stick to his standards and offer solutions, such as the temperature guidelines.
About those prices, Brown says that a 14-inch cake can feed as many as 60 people. Ever the analyst, he is developing a cake cutting guide with a geometric diagram that shows "how to get more slices."
The criticism hasn't stopped Brown. Although he won't provide details, he says that CakeLove is profitable enough to permit "expansion opportunities." CakeLove outlets are slated to open soon in Tysons Corner, Va., and the new National Harbor development in Oxon Hill. In April, his cookbook, Cake Love: How to Bake Cakes From Scratch, hits the shelves.
In between openings, Brown plans to marry Pamela Young, a consultant with Chatham Financial in Kennett Square, Pa., this fall. The couple met at the Love Cafe in 2005 when Young was using the free Wi-Fi.
The two quickly discovered they shared "advanced musical tastes" and had both attended the same Pixies concert in Providence, R.I.
They may not share the same taste in cakes, but no matter. "At my wedding," Brown says, "there will not be one but a plethora of cakes!"
stephanie.shapiro@baltsun.com
Warren Brown
Age:
37
Hometown:
Cleveland, Ohio
Lives in:
Washington
Education:
B.A. from Brown University, class of 1993, majored in history; law degree and master's in public health from George Washington University in 1998
Philosophy in 10 words or less:
"Direct yourself to greatness, answer your calls, answer to yourself."
Favorite cake:
Almond cake with orange buttercream and a hint of chocolate
Fiancee's favorite cake:
"Pam's favorite cake is anything with cream-cheese icing!"
Current favorite band:
Destroyer
Brown demonstration
Visitors can meet CakeLove's Warren Brown on Saturday as they explore the new residential community Overlook in Baltimore's Clipper Mill. In a state-of-the-art kitchen in a model home, Brown will demonstrate baking techniques and guide guests as they prepare cookie dough, scones and buttercream from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Free. Call 410-727-6633 or visit clippermillhomes.com.
[Stephanie Shapiro]