The Sweet Hereafter

Cover Story 

A picture perfect, miniature chocolate cake, filled with real butter cream icing, wrapped in clear paper and tied with a light pink ribbon, sits in front of Heather Stewart, co-founder and owner of Winnipeg-based Lilyfield Cakes. It looks almost too good to eat, but she’ll have none of that.

“You have to try it now. I want to see your face when you taste it,” she beams.

This single-serve variation of her classic cake is the latest offering in her widely acclaimed line of divine desserts that has made her Winnipeg-based company a confectionary celebrity.

“The cake has always been organic,” explains Stewart. “That’s why it tastes so good, all the ingredients are real.”

That’s not only the appeal of Stewart’s product, but her personality as well. Seeing success in Hollywood, being invited to A-list events and having a celebrity clientele have not changed the bubbly entrepreneur, or her vision, from when she started her business eight years ago.

Stewart began the company in 2000 with good friend Deidre Herosian. The two women had a very personal connection that drew them together before they became business partners—both of their sons were born with missing limbs. As their friendship developed both women realized they shared a love of throwing parties and had a knack for not just creating gifts, but making the gift an entire experience through presentation. At the prompting of friends who’d been to many of the ladies well-planned soirées, they developed a signature “party in a box”.

Stewart says they spent a good year of trial and error perfecting the recipe (at least 60 tries in Herosian’s kitchen), designing the box and picking materials before even thinking about introducing the product to the public.

The Result - A Gift to the Senses

The cake, in Original Country Vanilla, French Chocolate, English Toffee or Exotic Coconut, is a dense, rich and moist fancy that can’t be replicated, even by your baba’s family recipe. This February, High Tea Bakery took over the actual baking of the cakes to help keep up with the product’s demand.

“They say they actually crave my chocolate cake. That’s high praise coming from them,” laughs Stewart.

But, it’s truly the handmade hat boxes that house the cakes, crafted from lavish fabrics and topped with unique adornments, that allow Stewart’s whimsy and panache to materialize. Inspired by music, classic movies and the people that fill her life, she gives each box an aura of its own. Miss Desmond, made of silver taffeta, black velvet polka dots and embellished with a feather boa, would definitely be a showstopper on Sunset Boulevard, while the technicolour tweed with purple parrot tulips is meant to covey the personality of her assistant—Sassie Cassie.

With the visual and taste senses taken care of, Lilyfield adds to the sensory experience with lightly fragranced tissue, carefully selected fresh cut flowers and a silver charm (a signature item) nestled inside with the cake.

While products range between $150 and $250, it’s obvious that the art of something being hand-made makes them priceless and promotable.

Their first year out, Lilyfield was featured in several prominent Canadian publications, including Canadian House & Home and Reader’s Digest, but their big break came when they were highlighted in the Valentine’s Day issue of Lucky magazine, a pop publication in the U.S. Other publications soon followed suit—everyone from Flare to People Magazine to The New York Times were singing the sweet praises of Lilyfield Cakes. The calls from Tinseltown started coming in as well.

Stewart states one of her first real celeb highlights was on Mother’s Day when Joan and Melissa Rivers devoted almost an entire episode of their TV Guide channel show to Lilyfield Cakes.

“That year we had a cake out called ‘Joan’, which was in fact named after Deidre’s aunt, but Joan doesn’t need to know that,” she laughs.

Don’t let those skinny celebs fool you, they like their sweets too. Lilyfield Cakes has served a slice to the likes of Halle Berry, Virginia Madsen, Jeff Beck, Ben Stiller and his wife Christine Taylor, Angela Bassett and Trace Atkins.

With the majority of orders coming from California, it’s no surprise that Stewart has been getting invites to some of the hottest L.A. events. This year she served up some classic chocolate cake, along with her new line of shortbread, at the Academy Awards Get Ready for the Red Carpet Suite at the Luxe Hotel in Beverly Hills. The Farrelly brothers, Joan Collins, Shawn Southwic (Larry King’s wife) and Allison Janney all dabbled in her delectables while getting dolled up for the 2008 awards show.

Stewart was also the icing on the cake at the 2008 Grammy Foundation’s annual signature Starry Night gala, where she rubbed shoulders with Tom Jones, David Foster, Katharine McPhee and Yoko Ono.

“I’ve never been to a more spectacular event,” she muses. “I took my son Jeff with me and he got to meet Jeff [Lynne] from E.L.O. They loved each others shoes. He thought it was so amazing.”

Stewart was even a little starstruck herself when she got to meet one of her favorite music icons, Burt Bacharach. “He was very charismatic and he had sparkly blue eyes,” she quips. “But, everyone is so nice, and they all wish each other well.”

She nonchalantly, but very genuinely, adds she’s going to skip the VH1 Music Awards and the Emmy’s this year, but will probably go to the Golden Globes.

Home Sweet Home

Stewart admits the call of New York or L.A. is always there, but says she really doesn’t anticipate leaving Winnipeg to expand the business.

“I love this city. There are a lot of great people and opportunities here,” explains Stewart. “And, of course, my family is here. You can’t replace that.”
Yet, with all the buzz in Tinseltown, Stewart and her chic confections are still relatively unknown in Winnipeg.

“I think because we don’t advertise and don’t have a storefront, everything’s online, people here don’t know about the product,” she says. “But that gives me great hope because it means there’s room for growth here.”

Speaking of growth, Stewart has begun expanding her line into one of the hottest categories in both L.A. and Winnipeg—going green. The Isca collection features a hat box made from recycled chipboard, tissue, vegetable dyes and hemp, topped with natural and decorative chicken feathers. This rustic gift was inspired by the First Nations traditions of Manitoba, and one of Stewart’s best friends from the past.

“Isca was one of my best friends in junior high. I always thought she had such a beautiful name, and she told me it meant ‘dream’ in Cree,” she explains. “So it only seemed fitting being from Manitoba and having an aboriginal influence in our lives that it be called that.”

In the aboriginal tradition of giving back to the earth, with every Isca package sold a white pine tree will be planted through the Billion Tree Campaign and a thank you card will be sent to the purchaser in honour of the tree planting from the Manitoba Forestry Association. The line also includes a traditional shortbread, delicately placed in a 100 per cent biodegradable box. The unique part is once the treats are gone, the seed paper box can be placed in flowerbeds or flower pots and wild flowers will abundantly bloom.

“I think it’s beautiful that even if the box gets thrown into a landfill, a flower will grow from it,” states Stewart.

Pay it Forward

How to grow a business is something that Stewart has been asked about many times from other budding entrepreneurs.

“We’ve gotten a lot of e-mails from people saying, ‘I have this great product, how do I begin to market it?’,” she explains. “My first piece of advice is always ask the opinion of someone you respect and that you think is fashionable. They’ll let you know whether the product is unique or trendy enough to make it. Then, even if things are tough, just don’t quit.”

She also recommends giving back as much as you take. Stewart donates a portion of all proceeds to The Rehabilitation Centre for Children, the charity that provided prosthetic limbs for both founder’s sons. She also helps organize Fashion Meets Music, a successful event that helps the Centre generate funds for equipment and programs to help children with special needs.

With her heart in her hometown, and her stamp on a well sought-after product, Stewart has found the recipe for her own success.

And, by the way, the miniature cake was sensational.

Heather Stewart with actress Cheryl Hines, the Farrelly Brothers and actress Allison Janney