Piece of cake | Peggy Kovensky readies a big expansion of her nationally recognized cake company, New England Couture Cakes
Peggy Kovensky is ready to get out of her kitchen.
Since launching New England Couture Cakes in 2006, she's struggled to squeeze every ounce of sweetness out of the kitchen in the South Portland split-level she shares with her husband, Stan.
There's only one sink here, one stove and one 20-quart mixer. Extra equipment and decorating tables are crammed into the bedrooms and the living room. Couture Cakes wedding consultations with engaged couples, 75% of whom are from out of state, happen at a small glass table pushed into the back of the kitchen.
Kovensky, a 29-year-old native Nigerian who was trained in cake decorating in London, is known for curling and painting sugar dough to resemble real flowers, but perhaps her biggest trick thus far has been to make her company appear much larger than it is. She has only one part-time assistant to help build the cakes that take up to 70 hours to make. And though she's been baking up a storm, last year's $80,000 revenue, Stan says, "is just breaking even."
In May, Kovensky plans to take a risk her husband admits will make or break Kovensky's business. She's moving Couture Cakes out of the house and into a storefront on Broadway in South Portland. Kovensky hopes the move, which she had to cut advertising and take out a loan to finance, will allow her to double the number of cakes she makes each year — from around 60 to around 120, at prices ranging from $500 to $4,000. What's more, she hopes to lure the grab-and-go sugar lover with smaller treats like croissants and cupcakes at the spot's bakery counter.
"We'll be more visible to the customers," says Kovensky. "A lot of locals don't even know we exist. We get calls from potential clients and they say 'We didn't even know you were right under our nose.'"
Though Kovensky has kept a low profile, her cakes have not. Kovensky's creations have been featured in wedding go-to Grace Ormonde Wedding Style magazine and in People magazine. Stan says Charm City Cakes in Baltimore, the gourmet cake company featured in the Food Network series "Ace of Cakes," recently referred a client to Kovensky.
For businesses that can establish a name for themselves, there is certainly money to be made in the wedding industry, which accounts for the majority of Kovensky's clients. According to a 2005 study by The Fairchild Bridal Group cited by CNN, the average American wedding costs $26,327, a 73% increase from 15 years ago. About $125 billion was spent on 2.1 million weddings in 2005. But competition is stiff: Couture Cakes relies on word-of-mouth marketing, national press, and its website to target the kind of clientele that would value a one-of-a-kind, three-tiered, pearl-embossed diet destroyer.
Kovensky and her husband hope daily sales of smaller items from the store, which will be conveniently sandwiched between a nail salon and a tuxedo rental shop in a mini-mall on the former Captain Newick's restaurant site, will help stabilize Couture Cakes' revenue stream and complement the frenzied May-to-November wedding season. Kovensky intends to hire a second full-time baker and a part-time counterperson, and may host master cake decorating classes in the space.
Kovensky expects she'll be able to make as many as eight cakes a week and double her revenue. She also hopes to take one day a week off during the wedding season, something she hasn't done since opening her business two years ago.
"Last season, while we were in this space, we turned down as many cakes as we made," says Kovensky. "I'm very excited. I can't wait to get out of this space."
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