Meet Cassandra Burnett, owner of Lizzie’s Love Cakes

Surname: Cassandra Burnett
Hometown: Williamstown
Business: Lizzie’s Love Cake
category: Eat

New Jersey Family: Tell us about Lizzie’s Love Cakes and your mission.

Cassandra Burnett: Lizzie’s Love Cakes is a unique bakery specializing in making “not” upside down, moist bundt cakes, each with a special twist of familial love and tradition. The cakes are not simply desserts; they are embodiments of emotions and memories made to honor a legacy of love. In short, the mission is to amplify, expand and share love with those who may miss it, have never experienced it or long for it.

NJF: When did you launch Lizzie’s Love Cakes and what was your inspiration?

CB: Launched in November 2020, the bakery was born out of a deeply personal grief journey and a tribute to family legacy. My inspiration was to process the pain of loss, specifically the transition of my mother Lizzie. I now use the term transition because I gained a “love perspective.” By shifting my perspective away from loss, I was able to fully embrace the wisdom, courage, and love I gained.

NJF: Your cakes are baked with love in honor of your mother, aunts, grandmothers and countless other influential women. Can you tell us how they inspired your baking and ultimately your business?

CB: When I think of my mother, her sisters, and my grandmother, I appreciate that their love language was and is helpfulness. A kind compliment, a thoughtful word, a warm hug, or a homemade dish can literally save and/or heal. With that understanding, I was determined to carry on and even expand that legacy. As I created the recipes outside of the original Lizzie Love Cake, I let the memories of my aunts and grandmother guide me to the perfect combinations that fit their personalities and my memories of them.

NJF: How did you turn your passion for baking into a business? Where do you bake all your cakes and how did you build your team?

CB: Starting Lizzie’s Love Cakes was a significant milestone in my life. It brought me full circle from being a professional lawyer to an entrepreneur driven by love and a desire to heal. Yes, my cake company is helping me heal. I needed to heal from the true feelings I had when my mother died in 2012. It wasn’t until the pandemic of 2020 that I got honest with myself and asked myself: What is a heart’s desire? The answer led me on a journey of healing that wasn’t based on being a successful lawyer, birth mother, or loving wife, but on healing my broken heart by doing what brought my mother so much joy – nourishing other souls with her love of cooking and baking. So I did just that.

I bake in a commercial kitchen in Camden County. We are a family business. I bake everything myself. My husband shrink wraps the food, my oldest daughter labels boxes and cuts string, and my youngest daughter makes boxes. They are my support system!

NJF: What obstacles did you have to overcome along the way?

CB: Time management. Since I have a busy life – full-time job, activities for the kids, speaking engagements, youth director at my church, women’s conference (Hey Girl! Conference), etc. – time management is key. I have systems that work when I use them. When I work outside of my systems, it becomes overwhelming. And the practical resources to scale.

NJF: Tell us about your cakes and which is your best seller?

CB: I’ve always described my cakes as cakes of emotion: what you put in them, people will feel. I try my best to never make a cake in a hurry or a rush, and never in a state of excitement. Although my cakes are bundt cakes, they are not served upside down. The best seller is the original Lizzie Love Cake, my mother’s 7up sponge cake recipe.

NJF: Are your cakes mainly sold online and where do you ship to?

CB: My cakes are sold online, in pop-ups and in our retail shop at Sweet Amalia in Newfield. Our online sales are nationwide. I also offer Love Bites for private events.

NJF: What is the most rewarding part of your job?

CB: Seeing the look on customers’ faces when they bite into their first piece of Love Cake. I’ve described it as being transported to a place that makes you feel at home and safe. Yes, it can be a physical structure, a hug from mommy-mommy, or a smile from a best friend.

It’s also rewarding when we donate $1 from the sale of each cake to a nonprofit that focuses on children. My parents were foster and adoptive parents. My mother had a special gift for raising children.

NJF: What moment are you most proud of as an entrepreneur?

CB: Seeing the pride in my girls’ eyes when they hear the stories of my mother, their great aunts and their great grandmother. My girls are now proud bearers of their heritage and I think they know it.

NJF: What is the best piece of business advice you have ever received that you would like to share with others?

CB: Articulate your vision and keep it clear. There will be plenty of distractions, but stay true to your vision. Let your “why” be your guiding light. Also, optimize your process.

NJF: What is it like to balance raising children with running your business?

CB: Sometimes it can feel really uncontrollable. I have faith and a supportive husband to help me get through it. Faith is the substance of things you hope for, the proof of things you don’t see. I have an unwavering belief in the mission of Lizzie’s Love Cakes that motivates me, drives me, and gives me space to rest. And my husband is my biggest supporter, along with friends and family who have served as Love Assistants at pop-ups, bought lots of cakes, or told me how proud they know my parents are of me. What I described is that my community is what makes the uncontrollable manageable.

NJF: What do you like most about living in Williamstown?

CB: We love being customers of the small shops in Williamstown like Dairy Fresh and Nicoletta’s on Main. And we love our employees at the local post office. They always greet us with a smile when we arrive with our mail orders and handle each Love Cake with care.

NJF: What are your favorite things to do with your family in New Jersey?

CB: Going to the beach, of course. Our favorite is Strathmere! We also had an incredible outdoor adventure when we visited Dingmans Falls in the summer of 2020. When my girls were younger, we visited Storybook Land several times (they have the best funnel cake). Honestly, it’s always the time when we get to spend quality time with our family, from track and field competitions with the Omega Track Club to musicals at the Grande Theater in Williamstown to roasting s’mores in a backyard fire pit.

NJF: What’s next for Lizzie’s Love Cakes?

CB: We would like to partner with more retail locations, acquire more equipment and work towards having our own kitchen spaces.

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