By Megan Sayles,
AFRO Business Writer,
msayles@afro.com
While New York is renowned for the cheesecake, a Black-owned bakery is ensuring Washington D.C. is known for the sweet potato cake. DC Sweet Potato Cake, established in 1988 relies on the sweet potato as its main ingredient for cakes and pies.
Formerly known as Delectable Cakery, the business was started by Derek Lowery, who used his mother’s family recipe to make the signature sweet potato cake. After facing some setbacks in the 2000s, April Richardson, the bakery’s lawyer at the time, was brought on as co-owner and president in 2009 due to her knack for turning companies around and team-building.
“I was known as the turnaround lawyer, and there was a bakery that everyone mentioned to me that needed help. The bakery was called Delectable Cakery, and they made the best products ever, baked with sweet potatoes,” said Richardson. “It was a mom and pop operation, and I learned that they had faced an eviction.”
An attorney by trade, much of Richardson’s legal career involved battling real estate fraud. She initially decided to supply Lowery with hundreds of hours of free legal services to try to revive the bakery. But, they needed more help.
“They were facing yet another eviction. I called the owner of the building, and I asked her if she could stop the eviction. She said, ‘Why would I do that?’” said Richardson. “I told her I could turn this company around, and she asked me to tell her how. I told her in 30 seconds.”
A couple days later, Richardson visited the building owner’s office and was told the eviction could be stopped if she joined the bakery as a co-owner. Richardson agreed.
“I wanted to do something different with the company. I didn’t want it to be a mom and pop shop because too many businesses that are Black-owned are mom and pop so we never make it into the millions,” said Richardson.
During her first year, Richardson gave the company’s baked goods to vendors, suppliers and partners free of charge in order to re-establish and strengthen their relationships. The bakery made no profit for a couple of years, but Richardson steadily grew the business, expanding its manufacturing capacity.
She chased down big, wholesale clients, and landed deals with Wegmans, Safeway, Starbucks and QVC. Today, DC Sweet Potato Cake’s is located two blocks from the White House, and it also has a sister location. Baked in Baltimore, sited in Richardson’s hometown.
“Since April came aboard it just took off. I mean I was pouring cakes by hand at one time. When she came along, we got machines that could pour the cakes and ovens that I could put way more cakes in,” said Carlos Mays, bakery manager for DC Sweet Potato Cake. “I was only able to bake 16 cakes at a time. Now, I can bake up to about 120 cakes at a time. It’s grown a lot.”
Mays, a cousin of Lowery’s, was working at KFC before heading bakery operations. His affinity for baking arose during his childhood while helping Lowery bake cakes during the holiday season.
Mays came to help out at DC Sweet Potato Cake per his cousin’s request. But, Lowery quickly talked him into joining the team full-time. He praised Richardson’s go-getter attitude— something he considers her best trait. Mays also commended the work ethic of the DC Sweet Potato Cake staff.
“The team puts a lot of effort in, and the product speaks for itself,” said Mays. “Without the team putting in the work that they put in, from the packaging to the frosting to the crew that comes in to clean up, it couldn’t work.”
Despite its success, DC Sweet Potato Cake still faces challenges in competing with big-name national brands as a small business. Although she noticed a surge in buying local during the COVID-19 pandemic, she thinks it’s starting to taper off.
She called for District residents to remember the importance of supporting local businesses.
“People are returning back to their habits, and they are forgetting all of the strides that we’ve made in terms of recognizing that local, homebred stores matter and that small businesses are what creates jobs in America,” said Richardson. “It’s interesting to see how many people will pass by our door and walk into a national chain, even though our products are superior.”
Megan Sayles is a Report for America Corps member.
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