When Bill Burns’ younger sister talked him into taking a cake decorating class with her he reluctantly agreed but had no idea it would lead to the opening of his own bakery in Platte City, The Cake Guy.
He ended up loving cake decorating and he realized that learning to bake was an important part of the process. While working at Panera Bread for 10 years and later at Harley-Davidson he often spent his weekends in the kitchen creating baked goods for his family. But about 11 years ago he began to hope that one day he could start his own bakery.
“When my sister wanted to take a decorating class and said she wanted me to go with her so she wouldn’t have to go by herself I said ‘no’ lots of times and then she said she would pay for it so I said ‘yes’ because it was my little sister,” Burns said.
He had always been artistic and when he started experimenting with designs with icing on cakes he said he thought it was pretty cool.
The Cake Guy is selling Pop 15 cake pops, which are ketchup flavored in honor of Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes.
When he opened The Cake Guy in December 2019 in Platte City he was immediately inundated with holiday orders.
His business is located in a Main Street store front previously occupied by restaurants and grocery stores. He has painted the interior and built a new counter in the bakery and once the new business is more well known in the community he hopes to hire more help.
“I’ve seen a pretty good stream of customers so far but it seems like the most come in when I’ve got nothing left,” Burns said.
Many of his customers are coming in for cake pops. “There’s still people coming in to order cake pops even though I think they’re kind of dying down in places,” Burns said. “Mine are decent sized ones compared to some of them. I’ve been told I have the best ones around.”
He is on his own right now and does all the baking and decorating himself until his business grows. “I think people expect more right now but I can’t offer more,” Burns said.
He offers cupcakes in the display counter along with the popular cake pops. The most popular flavors for his cake pops are the traditional strawberry, vanilla and chocolate. A customer requested an almond-flavored cake and he’s done raspberry and banana cakes that have turned out to be popular requests. If someone wants a particular flavor he will make it if he can. He has never turned down a cake flavor request.
Burns will soon offer Black Rifle coffee from the veteran-owned and operated Black Rifle Coffee Company based out of Salt Lake City, Utah. A lot of the proceeds from the coffee go to help veterans with PTSD.
When he adds more staff he also plans to open an Irish Kitchen sometime in 2021 in the building and offer Irish food that will change with the seasons. When he opened the bakery he knew that somewhere down the line he wanted to offer an Irish menu, which is part of the reason he chose the building on Main Street since he wanted the restaurant to have a rustic feel without requiring a lot of remodeling and decor change.
“I do a lot of Irish cooking at home,” Burns said. “All I really need right now for the bakery is from the counter back to the kitchen so I’m hoping to find a use for the large front area of the bakery. I want to have imported wines and beers with the Irish food but I don’t want it to turn into a club. It will be a dinner venue. I’m not going to have a bar where people can just sit around and drink and eat and watch sports. I don’t want to run a pub or tavern. First and foremost it will always be a bakery.”
Specialty, custom-ordered cakes are his focus and while cake pops are popular he has to devote most of his time to baking and decorating the cakes. Burns said traditional white wedding cakes are making a big comeback.
“Although wedding cakes might seem really challenging they’re actually pretty easy to bake and decorate,” Burns said. I’ve been doing it so long I’ve got it down pretty much but the ones you think will be really easy are sometimes the most challenging. And the ones that you think will be a challenge are actually pretty easy. Sometimes you think a cake will be really easy and then the two-hour cake turns into a five hour cake.”
He hopes to start offering Irish soda bread in March.
He’s already had a couple of kids’ birthday parties in the front area and he wants to utilize it fully at some point. It can be rented for any type of party.
The walls of the bakery are lined with scores of framed photos of celebrities. Burns makes the cakes for a convention held once a year where he gets to dine with famous people. The photos include many celebrities who are cutting into his cakes, including Adrienne King who was a cast member in the movie “Friday the 13th.”
“She actually called me up in October and asked me to send her some stuff,” Burns said. “She has a winery in Oregon and she makes Crystal Lake wines after Camp Crystal Lake from “Friday the 13th.” So I sent her some stuff and two weeks later a delivery truck pulls up and she sent me three cases of wine, all autographed.”
In advance of Super Bowl 54, Burns made cake pops with flavors such as tequila lime, chocolate Jameson and Pop 15, a ketchup flavored pop in honor of Patrick Mahomes.
Burns said the photos of celebrities provide a great conversation piece when people come in and look at all of them.
The Long Island, N.Y. native’s father worked for TWA so they moved to the Kansas City area when Burns was a teenager. He’s also a Navy veteran and the anchor from the refueler and supply ship he served on is in Platte City.
“I was in four years and it was a good experience and sometimes I kick myself for not staying in,” Burns said. We were pulling into port all the time so I got to see a lot more places on that ship than if I’d been on another ship. They decommissioned it in 1999. They took it all apart and gave the anchor back to the city.”
His favorite part of opening The Cake Guy is seeing the reaction of customers when they see their cakes. When he started baking and decorating it was just for friends and family and they always wanted to know where he got the “cool cakes.”
“It snowballed from there,” Burns said. “Years ago I would have an extensive sit down with people about the design of their cake, but now they just tell me they like something and then it’s up to me to come up with 100% of the design. Some people send me pictures of cakes and I will make a cake based on that design. People’s reactions make me smile.”