FORT WORTH, Texas — Tareka Lofton needed something.
Her business at Loft 22 Cakes is built around elegant wedding cakes and she had around 30 weddings cancel as lockdowns went into place.
“That was my first initial thought like there is no way we are going to make it through this without our weddings,” Lofton said. “I literally prayed. I was like, ‘I don’t want to close. You’ve got to help me, Lord,' give me some inspiration.”
She started quarantine cakes with PSAs on them like "Wash Your Hands"and "Don’t Touch Your Face," but an employee came up with the idea for selling the one thing everyone is selling out of: toilet paper, but in cake form.
“We’ve done airplanes. We’ve done whole stadiums and you would’ve thought that would’ve been like the big thing, but it’s tissue paper,” Lofton said. “Who knew?”
She’s gone from nearly closing to having to get another phone line installed this week.
“The phones have blown up,” she said. “The voicemails are, you can’t leave a voicemail. A lot of calls are dropping because so many people are calling at one time.”
They’re $50 each including tax and, in keeping with CDC guidance, can feed up to about 10 people.
“Those cakes have just tickled people,” Lofton said. “I can’t tell you how many people just found them hilarious.”
She’s already sold 200 cakes in two weeks, and she has about a two-day wait now. She’d hire more people if there weren’t health concerns.
“We’re like in over our heads now,” she said. “They’re all over Fort Worth. Even our mayor has had one.”
The inside can be either funfetti or chocolate, and they’re particularly popular for birthdays.
“The tissue paper cake has been like the only thing that they had for their birthday, the only thing that just made it funny, made it better,” Lofton said.
Lofton needed something to keep her business going, but the cakes have taken off because everyone probably needed something to brighten the day.
“People desperately need some reason to feel a little lighter,” she said. “In the middle of this dark time, people are still finding reasons to smile and laugh and come together.”
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