June's Cakery whips up 30 years of baking

So when June Buchanan died of a sudden heart attack eight years ago, Ella Buchanan did what her mother told her.

She took over June’s Cakery, the company that started in June Buchanan’s personal kitchen, abiding by her mother’s words.

Buchanan became sole proprietor Jan. 1, 1997, and led June’s Cakery into its 30th year of business March 1. And like any good baker, she’s sprinkled her own flavor into the company motto: “If it’s not good enough for me to take home, you’re not taking it out with my name on it.”

Buchanan was no stranger to the baking business – she’d cooked “under mother’s feet” since the age of 10. But she knew nothing about running a business.

“I didn’t know if June’s was going to go without June,” Buchanan said. “I’d just as soon still be the one in the back baking cakes.”

But now the business rested solely on her shoulders.

“My entire world changed,” Buchanan said, as she quickly turned from baker to full-fledged owner, doing everything from ordering and inventory to baking.

“I really wasn’t prepared for that. I worked with Mother for 18 years before that, but I still had no intentions of being the owner.”

She ran the shop alone for five years. “I was just so unsure of what I was doing, I was terrified to have employees,” she said.

Buchanan credits her older sister, Elaine Owen, for helping with the financial records. Owen, who passed away unexpectedly four years ago, had a master’s in business administration from Drury University. “I’ve always said, if it hadn’t been for my older sister I would be in jail, because I wouldn’t have paid the taxes right or something,” Buchanan said. “I really had no knowledge of any of that side at all.”

With experience, she’s added a staff of three part-time employees. Buchanan still carries most of the load, working on average 50 hours a week. She works as many as 70 hours weekly during the peak wedding seasons in June and September.

Those months carry the company’s revenues.

“Wedding cakes are where the money is in this business,” Buchanan said, adding that the company grossed $81,000 last year after a couple of soft years for the industry.

That’s a lot of wedding cakes at $1.85 a slice. Buchanan’s specialty is the traditional white wedding cake with butter cream frosting.

“We have married off thousands of people,” she said, adding that the shop creates 100 wedding cakes a year on average. Sixty-five percent of all the cakes Buchanan produces are sold are for weddings.

Meanwhile, baking supply sales have steadily grown and now comprise 60 percent of sales. Buchanan also teaches baking classes at the store.

Buchanan does little corporate work, though a Springfield appraiser has discovered her treats are a good way to thank customers and those that bring in business. For five years, Cathie Page of Page Appraisal Co. has sent associates Buchanan’s seasonal goody trays.

“Everything that she fixes, is just like grandmother made it,” Page said. “People will say, ‘You did a great job.’ And I’ve got to say, ‘I had help.’”

June’s Cakery’s largest creation on record served 3,000 people during a bicentennial celebration at the fair in 1976. The cake design was a huge American flag.

“The Marines had to help move it,” Buchanan said. “I remember baking and baking and baking forever on that thing.”

Whatever the project, large or small, Buchanan continues to bake everything to order.

“I still crack jumbo eggs every day,” she said. “I don’t use commercial mix – I do use Duncan Hines. We still make frosting from scratch.”

Buchanan said the best part of the business is putting smiles on customers’ faces.

“I get to deal with people in the good side of life,” she said. “When they come through my door, they are wanting to celebrate something.”

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