Tickel’s other job is a cottage industry proving to be very successful. Her company, Angel’s Food Cakes, is a cake/candy making business she runs from her Centerville home. Tickel took a cake decorating class to learn the basics so she could make a wedding cake for a relative. “I never made that wedding cake,” she said, “but I sure practiced.” And that practice has proven to be just the recipe for her business.
In addition to her home kitchen, Tickel added a commercial kitchen in which she does her candy making and cake baking. “For the most part, my business has grown by word of mouth.” Tickel remembers her first real customer. “A woman and her husband were celebrating their 50th anniversary and asked me to make the cake,” she said. “I was so excited to have a real paying customer that I forgot to ask for my check.”
Tickel’s phone rang a while back, and it was the same woman asking Tickel to make a cake for their 75th wedding anniversary. “I couldn’t believe it. She had hung onto my business card for 25 years.”
Her love of making cakes and her love of transporting children have crossed paths on several instances. Tickel’s fellow bus drivers and George Sontag, director of transportation for Centerville schools, have all ordered Tickel’s cakes. “At Christmas I get a lot of orders for candy and some of the drivers help me make it.”
Tickel’s cakes involve a lot more than sugar, butter, flour and eggs. They take her artistic talent to create just the right cake for the right occasion.
Tickel makes a claylike substance using chocolate and corn syrup. She then molds the ‘clay’ into whatever she needs for the cake. Roses and other flowers are her specialty.
Tickel’s business is at a point where she needs to either turn away business or hire help. “I’ve already hired a fellow bus driver to help me out when I need it.” Tickel, for instance, called in her friend to help make 600 candy suckers for students at Centerville Primary Village North to help celebrate a new addition to the playground.
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