About us, Dolores & Sue

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One of the largest cake and candy businesses in the USA. Family Owned since 1980.
Well over 25,000 items! We carry all items from the current Wilton® yearbook, plus thousands of products from other vendors, We import specialty items for you too!

Sugarcraft, Inc. 3665 Dixie Hwy.(Rt.4), Hamilton, OH 45015
Come visit our large retail store!
LOCATION: We are on Route 4 just as you enter Hamilton coming north from Fairfield. And fom the new freeway, Route 129, which exits off I-75, North from the Cincinnati circle freeway I-275. Turn left (south) at the end of the Michael A. Fox Highway then onto Rt. 4 and we are exactly 2 miles south... on your right
MAPS From far away | Closer | Closer | Closest
Our hours are: open 9:30am every day. Close 5:30pm Mon. thru Thurs., Fri. til 6 and Sat. til 4pm EST

_{Who are we, how this all started
..(and remained...)}

_{My name is Dolores (Inlow)
McCann. I started decorating cakes in 1965 when my children were small.
Having a home business, I had the best of all worlds. And I would do it
again in a heartbeat! I managed to make money and STILL be home with my
children to enjoy and watch them grow. I worked at home until my 'baby'
- last child married and left home. I have the best and most supportive
husband any woman could be lucky enough to marry! He has been by electrician,
plumber, gardner, carpenter and more. Bob McCann is still the best thing
that ever happened to me!}

_{HOURS AT HOME: For many years at
home, I would hurry and do my cakes in the early morning, then pack a lunch,
gather the kids together and head for the pool on out biking for the afternoon.
All I had to worry about was returning home by 4pm so people could pick
up their cakes. I maintained steady "hours" of 4-6pm daily so my customers
knew what to expect. Of course I had more cakes to do for the weekends
and worked a lot harder on Thursdays and Fridays...and delivered wedding
cakes on Saturdays, plus accepted appointments for brides to order their
wedding cakes. I spaced appointments about 1 hour apart, or between deliveries
of finished wedding cakes. I kept a few cake tops for the brides and made
a little extra money that way. I delivered most of the wedding cakes and
customers picked up smaller ones.}

_{STARTING OUT: I am
basically self-taught. There weren't any classes available in my area "way
back then." My first few years in cake decorating were spent experimenting
and reading every cake decorating publication I could get my hands on.
The first book I bought was "DECORATING CAKES FOR FUN AND PROFIT" by Richard
Snyder. Then I sent for a Wilton catalog. It wasn't a yearbook then. (1965)
It was good for more than one year and cost only 50¢. This catalog
had a pink cover and was all wedding cakes. There was a wedding cake pictured
on the left-hand page and the instructions on the right-hand side. Wilton
products made up the last half of the catalog, just as today. I hadn't
learned to do wedding cakes then, BUT the book contained an icing recipe
using vegetable shortening (CRISCO). The recipe was what I needed to help
me learn to make roses. For a long time, I just made cakes for my family,
friends and my Girl Scout troop. Later people started calling me and asking
me to make their cakes. My children's friends told their parents about
my children's fancy birthday cakes and THEY wanted one too! I had no idea
I could make money and have such fun besides! Being an artist at heart,
this became a very fullfilling ambition for me. I had a couple of friends
who helped spread the wrod...and I never forgot them on their special days
either.}

_{CAKE SHOWS: A place to learn
and get good ideas! Finally, cake shows became popular in my area.
There were seminars by the judges where we could find out how they "did
it." The shows helped me find out about local classes. Nothing or no one
helped me learn about gumpaste as much as Geraldine Kidwell of Milton KY!
She is THE expert. Jerry Kern and Kay Ogden were great with flowers. I
love this medium. Amoung other courses, I eventually attended a 2-week
comprehensive class from Mildred Brand at Country Kitchen, Ft. Wayne IN.
I met a lot of cake decorators there. That was nice too. (Lucky me!) I
have a fat manila envelope full of diplomas.}

_{ICES (ices.org) "International
Cake Exploration Society: Then came ICES, organized in 1975 .
I am a charter member. I missed the first few conventions when my kids
were small. But I finally got to attend the one in Albuquerque NM in 1980.
I will never forget my first morning at that convention! My family and
I had just settled down to breakfast when in walked Richard Snyder (now
deceased). I recognized him from his picture in my first book I told you
about above. I was in 'decorators heaven' for sure!}

_{ICES is a lot different
than it was then. It was much smaller and a lot less formal. Seminars were
free and were held by the teachers and authors. We could come and go as
we pleased. I'm so glad I was fortunate enough to have been a part of that
wonderful time in cake decorating history.}

_{At the Albuquerque
ICES show I met Bonnie Yusko (OH state rep for ICES) and she asked me to
take her place as Ohio ICES representative. (She had acquired the position
from Kay Ogden-now deceased and ICES Hall Of Famer). It would be 4
years before I found someone else interested in taking my place as rep.
I had the pleasure of organizing the Ohio state ICES meetings, which are
still held by subsequent reps in Columbus twice yearly. I became so comfortable
with ICES that I also did wedding cake workshops at the conventions - "A
wedding cake from start to finish" completed in one hour or less.
I considered this a "pay-back" for all the wonderful "helps" ICES had previously
provided me with a great way to meet a lot of the members.} _{I would have loved to volunteer for the ICES Board of Directors too,
but I am deaf, so made that job too difficult for me to do.}

_{At ICES I had opportunities
to meet all the "biggies." I even took a cake to share at my first show
- a graduation cake, dummy of course, just like I had made for my daughter
Sue's high school graduation. THEME "You've Come A Long Way Baby" cake
at top of page link.....This cake was featured in Wilton's (out-of-print
now) Celebrate book 6. I won first place and $250.00 for it. While on this
subject, once before this I had entered Wilton's Celebrate 2 contest and
won first place for a shaped roller skates cake for my younger daughter
Joyce. (Pictured
on my web site-see link).}

_{REALLY GETTING INTO THIS:}

_{TEACHING: In 1975-76 I taught
cake decorating classes for Sears (through Wilton) when the very first
department store classes were offered in our area. Then around the area
for groups, and in my own store for many years.}

_{My children grew
up. My youngest married in September and the following Spring I opened
a retail cake decorating supply shop and bakery called "SUGARCRAFT" and
began offering classes in cake decorating there.}
_{At first we did
custom cakes and sold a few supplies. The shop has grown to become one
of the largest shops of it's kind anywhere. I use to have orders
for as many as 14 wedding cakes at one time. Once I remember, we had 14
wedding cakes - 5 with stairways and fountains. It was all Sue and I together
could do to get them delivered through out the day. We've grown and eventually
bought a professional oven that holds 6 full sheet cakes at once...where
does it end! Daughter Sue manages the retail part. Luckily, my daughters
now have had the luxury of making a living and still have THEIR children
with them.}

_{We've moved 5 times, lastly
moving into our beautiful well-planned new building in 2008, where we will
remain. I kept very little profit and put most of it back into the business
so I could stock more supplies. Cakes make money right now, supplies take
many many years to turn a profit. (You can see how many by reading this!)
You need to clear 5% after all expenses. 5% of $100,000.00 is just $5,000.00
- which darn sure isn't much when you think how much you make on your cakes!
You have to grow bigger to make a good percentage in retail. We closed
our bakery at the last place we were before we built. In 2008 we only sell
supplies. Probably 25-30,000 different products!}

_{Early in 1998 I decided to quit
doing wedding cakes. There wasn't room in our small kitchen any longer,
for Joyce and I both. About this time the Internet and computers (sugarcraft.com)
became easier to use. I saw the potential for selling supplies worldwide.
The present location was too small for the volume of sales on Internet
so in the fall of 1998, we moved the store and the bakery again.
We stopped doing cakes then. Joyce now has her own bakery in another location.}

-------------------------------

_{BOOKS
I'VE WRITTEN: Since I live close to Cincinnati, where Bakery Craft
is located, they asked me to do the first bakery "flip" cards for Super
Markets. They told me what theme-plastics they wanted to use and we devised
the scenery together. Finally, Bakery Craft published the wedding cake
book called "TRADITIONS" (now out of print). I did all but two of
the wedding cakes for the book.}
_{BOOKS I have written:}
_{I've published
a book called "100 PETITE DOLL PAN CHARACTERS YOU CAN CREATE." This book
is something I had wanted to do for a very long time. It gives such versatility
to the petite doll pan. I couldn't afford many cake pans when I worked
at home, so this pan helped make one pan do the work of many.}
_{A recipe book
containing cakes and candies. And another containing my favorite cooked
candy recipes.}
_{"Wedding Cake
Workbook" - my life in a book! Every hint I ever heard of and explains
how (I) do cakes. All the above books are sold exclusively by at Sugarcraft.}
_{Sue devised a
Reference book showing ideas and what book to find them in. It is very
out of date now, but is still usefull if you own the books...and could
be updated easily.}

_{I still do paper work, print
all the mail orders, do computer maintenance and pay the taxes and bills.}

Would I do it again? NO WAY! Having a 'real' business, it is important to make enough money to pay the overhead FIRST. So it is almost impossible to create artwork cakes that take much time. I do miss that. I wouldn't dare 'play' with gumpaste the way I did when I worked from home. Taxes and record keeping involve much of my time. No time to play. I found out customers aren't nice to business people like they were to me at home. At home, they treated me like I was doing them a favor...now they treat me as if they are doing me a favor! Its okay to go into retail if you aren't very creative, don't care too much about perfection and don't have husband and children who would like to see more of you. Working 12-14 hours a day as a 'real' business owner outside the home is sometimes a lot less than fun!

_{I am one of those "computer
nuts" too. I keep several computers "tuned up." I insert hard drives and
upgrade software. I created our web site in 1996 with the help of my grandson
Christopher. I do all the maintenance and additions or corrections to our
web pages by myself. Sue and I are almost overwhelmed with this mail order
over the web. Long hours and hard work is what it is now. I have the best
employees in the world or I don't know what we'd do. Our production and
service capabilities enable us to ship the majority of our individual retail
orders in 24-48 hours. We are proud of the special recognition we have
received from our full range of customers for our outstanding service performance.}

_{......Other times, you can find
me out on the water someplace fishing and boating with my husband Bob,
who is retired. ;o)}