Marvin Townsend, an Air Force veteran who lives in Gloucester, starts his business day with a test batch of a cake recipe handed down for generations.
The results set the timing for the rest of his daily baking — which produces about 1,500 cakes a week.
“They have to be perfect,” said his wife, Octavia. “I’ve seen him throw 24 cakes in the trash if they aren’t just right.”
Several years ago the couple turned Marvin’s passion for cooking and his own version of his great-grandmother’s cake recipe into a now full-time business venture. Generations Cakes have gone from the Townsends’ home oven to a commercial kitchen on Gloucester’s Main Street and from farmers’ markets and local stores to the shelves of Whole Foods Market in Newport News.
“This is a dream,” Marvin said. “This is our time.”
The couple sort of auditioned their cakes for Whole Foods prior to the opening of the Newport News store last fall.
“They loved the idea of the portion size and the flavors,” Marvin said.
The store wanted them to hit the shelves immediately but Marvin needed hip replacement surgery, which he had in January. Generations Cakes debuted in Whole Foods on June 4.
“The timing was perfect,” Marvin said. “Things are just kind of growing — we’re pumped up and excited.”
“The product they make is fantastic, but my favorite thing about them is the passion behind what they do and their story,” Amanda Urick, Whole Foods’ bakery team leader, said in an email. “Marvin and Octavia are just such wonderful partners! They’re a new vendor so our customers are still learning about their products. When Marvin and Octavia come in the store to sample the cakes, you hear and see the buzz from our shoppers.”
Beth Tamburello, a spokeswoman for Whole Foods, said the store likes to bring in a variety of unique local vendors to connect “the local community to the people who produce the foods we consume.”
“Our goal is to push our local vendors to succeed and help them grow their business,” she said. “It also helps keep us connected to the growing seasons and to the unique flavors and diversity of local crops and creations.”
Many vendors are found by work of mouth or through the store’s research team, while some approach the store about getting on the shelves themselves. The Newport News store, Tamburello said, currently works with vendors like Lois’ Produce on the Northern Neck; Acorn Pottery in Williamsburg; H.M. Terry Company Inc. in Willis Wharf, Va., which provides an exclusive oyster called The Salty Hog; and several local breweries.
In Marvin’s family, cooking has been passed down through the women. His great-grandmother Lucia Martin was a personal cook for the Symington family who were board members of the St. Albans School in Washington, D.C. His grandmother Mamie Garnett cooked for Leonard Mecker, an ambassador to Romania.
“With the caliber of people she baked for – presidents, vice presidents and so forth, ambassadors – to see our cakes in Whole Foods, she would be absolutely thrilled,” Marvin said.
Each generation, including his mother, has made the recipe their own. Marvin makes his cakes in several flavors, including lemon, key lime, black cherry, chocolate chocolate chip, and tequila shot.
“He gets in the kitchen and he gets in the zone,” Octavia said. “I leave him alone. This is his Zen time. He loves it. He does all the baking and I do all the paperwork and running around.”
Generations Cakes now occupies the commercial kitchen space behind Sweet Tooth Cafe and Bakery in downtown Gloucester.
“Things are just falling in place,” Marvin said. “Now we’re here and we’re in Whole Foods and we have opportunities to do other things. We’re excited about that.”
Hubbard can be reached by phone at 757-298-5834.
