Piece of Cake


November 20, 2011

Man pouring cake batter in kitchen

By Jennifer Eder

Alex Chavez cracks eggs, mixes his batter, molds the crust and coaxes another cheesecake into existence to sell through his burgeoning business.

But 28-year-old Mr. Chavez isn’t in a bakery or a restaurant. He’s in the closet-sized kitchen of his 500-square-foot Adams Morgan apartment, baking cakes in his tiny oven, which can only hold one at a time.

On the television in the background, CNBC is flashing stock prices. His Blackberry lights up with a new email from his boss at Capital Source, a commercial lender headquartered in Chevy Chase, Md. And as he cooks, Mr. Chavez sneaks in some glances at this economics textbook on the kitchen table.

While he’s a budding cheesecake entrepreneur, he also juggles his full-time job as a credit analyst and his marketing and economics classes for his part-time MBA program at GW’s School of Business.

“It’s a lot to balance, but I’m making it work,” he said. “Cooking is my creative outlook. I can’t draw. I can’t sing. I can’t paint. Really cooking is the only creative thing I can do.”

Although Mr. Chavez is an avid cook, his dessert making had always consisted of buying pre-made cookies at Harris Teeter or picking up a baked good at CakeLove on U Street.

But on a lazy Saturday morning last December that all changed when Mr. Chavez watched Tyler Florence make a cheesecake on the Food Network’s Tyler’s Ultimate. He was immediately inspired to try and follow Mr. Florence’s recipe. So he walked a few blocks to Harris Teeter, bought the necessary ingredients and got to work. He wasn’t satisfied with his finished product, but he didn’t want to give up. So he began tweaking the recipe. He did away with the lemon zest and the sour cream, and he substituted French vanilla for pure vanilla – a decision he calls “the kicker.”

“Whatever art there is to cooking, there’s a science to baking. There’s no question about it. It has to be exact,” Mr. Chavez said.

Eventually, he took one of his cheesecakes into his office to get some feedback, and his co-workers told him that he might be on to something.

After a lot of trial and error, Mr. Chavez started selling his cakes in June. He bought a domain name (District Cakes), made a logo, and began marketing his product. Soon he was selling a cake a week, and one of his best customers was his accounting professor Ira Holmes, an adjunct GWSB professor.

Despite the early success, Mr. Chavez was nervous about telling his family and close friends he was trying to become a baker.

“My parents are great and are tremendously supportive and so are my friends, but everyone kind of gives me the same look at first. They’re like ‘really?’” he said.

Mr. Chavez doesn’t quite fit the baker stereotype. He does Crossfit – an Olympic-style training workout – at least four mornings a week. He plays on a competitive soccer team on the weekends. During the day, he works on a capital asset financing portfolio, and in the evenings he’s in lecture halls at GW studying how to run a business.

But to Mr. Chavez, cooking – and now baking – is therapeutic.

“There’s just so much fulfillment from being able to take raw ingredients and put them together into something you enjoy,” he said. “I’ve always loved having tangible end results. Baking fulfills that for me.”

Mr. Chavez offers two types of crust – plain and chocolate – and six flavors: plain, chocolate, chocolate swirl, strawberry, strawberry swirl and mocha.

To better understand his competition, Mr. Chavez has tried lots of different desserts in D.C. including cupcakes and frozen yogurt, and in his assessment, they’re mostly fads.

“I think D.C. is always ready for the next big thing. It’s becoming more and more of a food city. Do I think mini cheesecakes are the next big thing? I can’t say for sure, but I hope so.”

While he is hopeful, he’s also realistic. About 50 percent of startups crash within the first 12 months, Mr. Chavez said. So while he does think District Cakes could take off, he doesn’t want to rush it.

“I want to make sure the product is up to everyone’s expectations visually. The taste is what they want, and the price is something they can afford,” he said.

For now, he’s relying mostly on word of mouth to get more business, but he hopes to get into a local farmers’ market soon. He’s soliciting feedback from area chefs, working to create additional flavors and hoping to become a success in a market where he sees untapped potential.

“I think people would flock to it, and I don’t see why my cakes can’t be the face of D.C.’s cheesecake,” he said.

To place an order with District Cakes, email Alex Chavez at [email protected] An order of six mini cakes is $20.