Courtney Casch always enjoyed baking cakes for her family and friends, but when the pandemic led to more time at home, she decided to turn her hobby into a business.
A family friend, who sold homemade pies, encouraged Casch to pursue her business and gifted her kitchen equipment which led to the establishment of CC’s Country Cakes.
Casch is well known for her carrot cake made with a variety of spices and real butter, she said.
Her grandmother Barbra Niles was a truck driver for many years and she would sample carrot cake all over the country while on the road, Casch said. Out of the hundreds of recipes she’s tried, nothing compared to Casch’s spiced carrot cake recipe.
“They’re a dessert, not a centerpiece,” she said.
CC’s Country Cakes made its first appearance this spring at the newly established St. John’s Market in Vancouver, but Casch wanted to connect to the Ridgefield community by selling at the local farmers market which opened in June.
If customers aren’t a fan of carrot cake, Casch also offers German chocolate, red velvet, and cookies and cream flavors for cake slices and cupcakes.
“If you take a bite of my cake, you’re going to be transported to a time where you’re small, wrapped in a blanket next to the fire and grandma’s got those homemade cupcakes pulled out of the oven,” she said.
After Casch decided to pursue her at-home business, she quickly realized obtaining a cottage food license would take some work.
To sell the cakes Casch bakes in her home, she had to list out all of the ingredients, even additional items found on the flour bag label or baking soda can. Everything needed to be labeled by weight as well.
The pandemic caused delays in licensing, she said. Casch submitted her application in December then received approval in mid-March.
“I called the supervisor and he said he’s the only person in the entire Northwest region to approve all of these requests,” she said. “It normally goes a lot quicker than that but COVID-19 made it difficult.”
Casch attributes her love for baking to her other grandmother, Sandy. After her mother died, Casch stayed at her house in Ridgefield to attend high school.
When she told Sandy she was starting a cake business, her grandmother said she used to decorate cakes she would later sell to others.
“I guess I’m following in her footsteps and I didn’t even know it,” Casch said.
After she graduated from high school in 2009, she moved around the Pacific Northwest with her husband, Walter Casch, but Ridgefield felt the most like home, she said.
Casch is the mother to twin five-year-olds who are about to start kindergarten this year.
“My daughter will tell me all the time that she wants to be a mom and a ‘cake lady’ when she grows up,” Casch said.
