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Small Business From home to a storefront Raven P.D. Dennis III, New York City By Amy Wilson , April 2003 Issue

Like many entrepreneurs, Raven P.D. Dennis III, 34, started his business at home, making his first sale at age 13 when the school secretary bought two coconut pies for $2.50 each. "I ran a cake business out of my apartment in Harlem for nearly 10 years, baking around the clock using my oven, my neighbor's oven and my aunt's oven two floors up," he says. In 1991, Dennis felt confident enough to look for a retail space. His odyssey from a one-oven apartment to a two-story bakery and cafe in the Fort Greene section of Brooklyn, though, took another decade.

His first problem was raising money for rent, equipment and renovations. Even though he estimates that he was bringing in around $60,000 a year before taxes and expenses, he had no receipts. So he couldn't establish how profitable the business was and qualify for a bank loan. "When you start a business, you've got to start a paper trail--whether it's a receipt for flour and eggs or cakes sold--and I hadn't done that," he says. Not easily deterred, Dennis turned to friends and family. But a lease fell through on one space, and a construction problem ruled out another.

His break came three years ago, when he found a former deli on sale for $30,000. After buying it (with the help of an inheritance), he turned around and sold the equipment that had been left behind for $15,000. Again, friends and family pitched in. His college fraternity paid for a cash register, and a cousin gave him a computer. He held his start-up costs to $78,000--what a contractor had quoted for renovations alone--by doing nearly all of his own labor, shopping at restaurant auctions and sleeping in the store instead of paying for security. Since Cake Man Raven Confectionery opened, profits have more than doubled. He sells his famous Red Velvet cake for $5 a slice. And the coconut pie that got him started is still on the menu--but now at $2.50 a slice.

--AMY WILSON

BIG FAT BROOKLYN Issue of 2002-03-04
Posted 2002-02-25

Marty Markowitz, Brooklyn's new borough president, threw the first of his annual parties celebrating the Chinese New Year in 1979, back when he was a freshman in the State Senate. A steadily growing guestlist has obliged Markowitz to change venues several times over the past twenty-four years, and to spread the proceedings over three nights, but the essential ingredients have remained the same: a mix of family, friends, cronies, and constituents, plus a few speeches, a little entertainment, and fourteen courses of Chinese food, liberally irrigated with plum wine and other mild spirits. Last week, on the second night of the party, which was held at the Ocean Palace seafood restaurant in Sunset Park, Markowitz dropped a bombshell to usher in the Year of the Horse. "Brooklyn is going on a diet in April," he told his four hundred and fifty guests. "So eat up!"

Markowitz, who is short and round, with assertive features and a full head of gray hair, dressed for the occasion in a black silk collarless jacket, which was decorated with red symbols that signify luck and longevity. As he darted from table to table-waving, blowing kisses, and bestowing hugs along the way-he explained his decision to put America's fourth-largest city on a weight-loss regime.

"I'm chubby, and most of Brooklyn is chubby," he said. "Obesity, or near-obesity, is symptomatic of a lack of self-esteem and not taking care of yourself. I mean, look around this room."

Markowitz plans to enlist the help of hospitals, schools, health clubs, and restaurants in support of his program, which he is calling "Lighten Up, Brooklyn." The goal: a borough-wide loss of two and a half million pounds, or one pound per resident. Markowitz himself will participate by dieting, taking aerobics classes on public-access television, and weighing himself in public.

Markowitz had no illusions that any of Brooklyn's weight would be shed at his party, and encouraged people to enjoy the bounty. "Pace yourself. I've done this twenty-four years-whatever you need, you order more," he told one group. When he spotted a woman complaining to a waiter that there wasn't enough Jumbo Shrimp with Honey Walnuts and Sauce to go around, he intervened on her behalf.

Markowitz's other duties as host included awarding citations to a variety of local politicians and civic leaders. One of them, Raven Patrick DeSean Dennis III, who does business as Cake Man Raven, had baked a cake in the shape of Borough Hall for Markowitz's inauguration party.

"If you ever need a special cake that represents a building or an institution, nobody puts the pounds on better than this man," Markowitz said.

Markowitz also gave an award to the owners of Ocean Palace, Jimmy and Linda Ching and Danny and Winnie Tsoi. "Ladies and gentlemen, a few years ago I went to China, where I encountered some problems with the food," he said. "Winnie was there for me, thank God, and she helped me communicate to them that I wanted Chicken Chow Fun."

Senator Charles Schumer turned up ("I'm here to chow down with everyone," he said) and left with several pairs of velvet slippers, which, along with bamboo back scratchers, were given out as party favors.

As the crowd dwindled, Markowitz spoke more about the weight-loss initiative. He said that merely pointing out the increased risk of heart disease, high blood pressure, and diabetes that comes with obesity wouldn't be enough to goad his constituents into action.

"I'm going to make it a contest- neighborhood versus neighborhood," he said. "People don't want to say, 'Hey, I'm losing weight for Brooklyn.' They want to say, 'Hey, I'm doing it for Flatbush' or 'I'm doing it for Bay Ridge.' "

Around eleven, as Markowitz and his wife, Jamie, who had put together a doggy bag for her husband, got ready to go home and rest up for the next night of the party, the Borough President took care of a few details ("Danny, don't lose that citation-I have to present it to you again tomorrow") and explained why his new diet wouldn't require him to give up eating Chinese.

"Look at those guys," he said, indicating a crew of lean waiters. "Not a fatso in the bunch."

- Adam Green

They're Raven About His Cakes By Darby Morris, Special to BET.com

Posted Oct. 29, 2002 -- Everyone used to wonder why Raven P.D. Dennis III spent so much time in the kitchen as a child. They called him the little cake boy in his native Lynchburg, S.C., because he was always baking.

"My grandmother taught me how to cook when I was 9. I had to have a hobby to keep me busy, " he remembers. At 13, his hobby began to turn a profit.

Now, 21 years later that little cake boy is known by his distinguished clients as "Cake Man Raven." He has a culinary franchise that features an elaborate selection of wedding cakes and all-occasion confections.

When songstress Nancy Wilson comes to town, she has a standing order for his Red Velvet Cake, the most requested sweet treat at his Brooklyn pastry shop. And Patti LaBelle can't live without his Lemon Pound Cakes. "Once I made one for her in the shape of a shoe and she refused to cut it, and she put it in her freezer. Then I had to make three more for her to serve to guests."

Raven has served up birthday bashes for a set of jazz legends: Dizzy and Ella's 75th, Cab Calloway's 80th, Lena Horne's 75th through 80th and counting. His popularity is represented in hip-hop as well, from the Fat Boys and M.C. Hammer to Jay-Z, P. Diddy and Busta Rhymes.

Though Raven has lent his creative creations to events such as the 1996 Olympics and the Grammy Awards, he started out modest in his grandmother's kitchen.

His first sale was an order of two coconut pies. "I was in the eighth grade," he recalled. "Ms. Gloria Jean Bowman, the secretary at my school, paid $5 for each pie and bought the ingredients." She also sparked his entrepreneurial mindset when she told him: "You
have to charge people something," she said. "This is a business."

Cake Man was a traveling baker before he settled down in Harlem, setting up shop in two apartments in the same building and using a neighbor's kitchen to keep up with his growing list of clients. "As long as I had an oven and a six-by-six space, I could do anything I needed to do." He stayed in Harlem 11 years.

Then he crossed the Brooklyn Bridge, where he has operated a two-story, 40-seat cafe for two years now."When you start your own show, you need at least about $50,000 to get started for renovations, utility bills, deposits and any other start-up costs."

Originally, the business was supposed to be a specialized bakery, Cake Man says. But now it's a seven-day-a-week operation, open until midnight on Saturday. He plans to expand his business over into adjoining shops next door and behind his current space.

In high school he juggled a job at Baskin-Robbins, where he earned commission for decorating cakes. But that didn't compare to his lucrative business on the side that had him filling orders in eight different states by the 11th grade.

During his senior year, he won a full scholarship to Johnson & Wales University in Rhode Island, one of the top culinary schools in the nation, where he earned a degree in Hotel and Restaurant Management. That was a slight change from his plan to become a mortician, when he intended to study mortuary science and biology.

Perhaps that's why he makes baking sound like a lesson in chemistry. "Baking is a science," he said. "If you do some basic things, you can make almost anything come out right."

For more information about Cake Man and his creations, go to 'www.cakemanraven.com' .

Darby Morris is a free-lancer based in New York City.

Caribbean-American Chamber of
Commerce To Honor Entrepreneurs

The Caribbean-American Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Inc. (CACCI), is pleased to announce that its 17th Annual Entrepreneur of the Year Awards Gala will be held on April 25th at the New York Brooklyn Marriott Hotel, 333 Adams Street. John Imperiale, Sr. Vice President of JP Morgan Chase is the chairman for this event that will pay tribute to successful business entrepreneurs and an academic leader who have made significant contributions to economic development in New York State and the Caribbean.

Honorary co-chairpersons are: Jason Martin, President/CEO, Management Consulting Group, Inc., and Christiana J. Bridgewater, Esq. Attorney at Law, CPA.

This year honorees are: McAlister Abbott, Managing Director of Antigua & Barbuda International Financial Group; Jack C. Bharat, President/CEO of Liberty Office Supplies & Equipment, Inc.; Gary Demsak, President of GFD Courier Corporation; Raven Dennis, III, President of Cakeman Confectionery; Perry and Marlene Ellis, Owners of Royal Tropical Bakery & Restaurant III; Claudette Murray, President of Miracles Can Happen, Inc.; Hon. Noel Spencer, Councilman & Entrepreneur of Spencers of Jamaica; Hon. Dr. Kendall B. Stewart, Councilman & Entrepreneur of Unique Foot Care, Inc.; and Thomas H. Watkins, Jr., Publisher of The Daily Challenge Group.

In addition, Special Recognition Awards will be presented to: Dr. Edison Jackson, President, Medgar Evers College, City University of New York, and Jean Leon, Sr. Vice President, Kings County Hospital Center.

CACCI president Dr. Roy A. Hastick, Sr., spoke enthusiastically about this year's honorees: "As we honor the outstanding contributions of our illustrious honorees for their sterling record of accomplishments, we look forward to continuing relationships with our partners, and helping to nurture fledging small business persons who are also making their mark in the business arena."

For further information on the dinner and/or membership, contact CACCI at (718) 834-4544 - website: cacci.org - e-mail: rahastick@msn.com.

Brooklyn Bridge Turns 120

June 2, 2003 By Jesse Serwer

A 10-foot high, 14-foot wide birthday cake and a massive crossing of pedestrians, runners and bicyclists highlighted the Brooklyn Bridge s 120th birthday celebration on Saturday, May 24.

Unfortunately, the weather wasn t one of the Brooklyn Bridge to the World celebration s other highlights it was overcast all day, and rained periodically. But people from Brooklyn and all over the world still came out to celebrate the world s most famous bridge with Mayor Mike Bloomberg and Borough President Marty Markowitz, among others. While the event was a far cry from the spectacle of the bridge s centennial 20 years ago, it was loaded with activities intended to generate interest not only in the bridge and its history, but also in the borough as a whole.

As Dan Wiley of the Brooklyn Center for an Urban Environment demonstrated anchorage, compression and tension the principles behind the bridge to children in Empire Fulton Ferry State Park
(aka Brooklyn Bridge Park), free tours of Park Slope and Coney Island left from Cadman Plaza.

The views crossing Brooklyn were only the beginning of an incredible day throughout New York City, Markowitz said. This was an opportunity for people to experience events all over the borough
and everything else that makes Brooklyn what it is today.
Actors in Victorian costumes strolled both parks, while Robert Anderson and Rick Peddle of Iron Workers Local 361 showed kids, and even some adults, how to use a spud wrench in Brooklyn Bridge Park.

The event was capped off by nighttime concerts from the Brooklyn Philharmonic and Johnny Maestro and the Brooklyn Bridge, Beetroot, and a laser show. The 10 feet by 14 feet cake courtesy of° Fort
Greene s Cake Man Raven was unveiled with 120 candles by Grucci.
For those who couldn t make Markowitz s Big Crossing early in the morning, Dave Frieder (better known as Dave the Bridge Man ), a photographer who has climbed 15 of the city s bridges, and guide Carolyn Meiselbach of Brooklyn Day Hops, provided pedestrians with insight into the bridge s history and workings.

It s the most wonderful and elegant bridge but I hated it when I was a kid, Meiselbach said, recalling a childhood trip with her parents and siblings to the then-cacophonous bridge .° I said please
take the Brooklyn Ferry next time not that awful bridge. The bridge was reborn.

Bridge For Sale?

Crossing over the bridge from Manhattan amid tourists and other casual pedestrians on Saturday, David Luftig was on a mission.

I have an idea on how to make money for the city, said Luftig, a Brooklyn-born pharmacist who now lives in Queens. What is the most famous thing that you can t buy? What if you could buy the Brooklyn Bridge for a split second and get an official certificate? Luftig got the idea to sell off the bridge while paying hefty parking fines a few months ago. He communicated his idea to the Bridge Authority and was told that the massive liability involved would make such fundraising impossible, but he said if the city wants to make money they could

find a way around it. It would have to have zero impact. They could shut it down for a strict amount of time maybe an hour maximum, like when they do fireworks, he said. So he crossed the bridge Saturday to see just how much people would be willing to spend to say that they owned the Brooklyn Bridge. It could become a bragging rights thing, where you get rich people who try to outdo each other by bidding on the bridge, Luftig suggested. At Brooklyn Bridge Park, he asked the first wealthy-looking person he saw if they would pay $1,000 to own the bridge for a split second. That sounds about right, the man said.

http://www.brooklynskyline.com/news_article_print.asp?na=392 Page 1 of 1

Low Gets a Cake, But We'll Eat It, Too

Friday, October 17, 2003

A 13-foot red velvet cake is the centerpiece of today's South Lawn birthday bash.
By CARLA ZANONI Columbia Daily Spectator

After sitting in Butler Library all week studying for midterms, many Columbia students might need to do a double take at the strange vision before their eyes at the 250th Birthday Bash: a "three dimensional" 13' by 13' frosted cake in the shape of Low Library.

The red velvet cake will be the focus of this afternoon's revelers as Columbia kicks off a year-long celebration of its 250th anniversary.

The "to-scale" version of Low Library will be large enough to feed a minimum of 5,000 people.

Harlem native Raven Patrick De'Sean Dennis III, more commonly known as "Cake Man," has spent months planning the gargantuan treat. The red velvet cake is a traditional Southern recipe, passed on by Cake Man's South Carolinian family. The unique red coloring of the cake is created after a chemical reaction takes place during its baking process. Decorated with cream cheese icing, the cake will accurately represent every facet of the library's architecture, featuring a solid cake dome, ten ionic columns, and the Low Steps leading to the building.

"But the crowning glory of the cake will be the new stained window that's been hidden under that tarp for so long," Cake Man said.

"The new window will have the number 250, in honor of the anniversary."

Several months ago, Cake Man arrived on Columbia's campus with a preliminary draft of his cake plans. He showed the detailed architectural blueprints to event organizers after developing them under an architect's supervision. The plans were based on multiple photographs of the library, including aerial and rooftop views, in order to create a realistic replica of the historic building.

Cake Man's main concern revolved around proper support for the cake, as it must be held up by an intricate network of aluminum and wood beams.

"We're hoping that this will be the world's largest cake structure in the world," Cake Man said.

According to Cake Man, the technical aspects involved astounded the Columbia officials. But he was not surprised, explaining that he sees baking as a science and each recipe as a mathematical equation. Cake Man said that a 13' by 13' cake must be created through the same kind of precise planning and calculations necessary in architecture.

Beyond the actual baking and construction, serious consideration went into the method necessary to transport the cake from the bakery, Cake Man Raven Confectionary in Fort Greene, to Morningside Heights. Assembly of the frame began early this week until 3 a.m. yesterday, when a flatbed truck carried the structure across the Brooklyn Bridge, up through Manhattan into Harlem. Settling at Triple Candy, a new art studio in the area, Cake Man set to work.

Surrounded by volunteers, professional advisers, friends, and relatives, the cake began its final trip at 3 a.m. today. The cake was delivered early this morning onto the Morningside campus, awaited by news crews and press, eager to catch a glimpse of the much-heralded cake. Cake Man will spend the remainder of the day applying finishing touches to the cake.

This is not the first colossal cake Cake Man has built. He was also commissioned to create replicas for

anniversary celebrations for the Brooklyn Bridge, Riverside Church, and the Empire State Building.

Many of these jobs are a direct result of Cake Man's involvement in area community life. He situated his bakery in Fort Greene after he was unable to find a suitable affordable space in Harlem, and has since become an integral part of the neighborhood.

"I wanted to be somewhere where I could help out the community," Cake Man said. "The man selling the building wanted something different on the block, not another deli or drug store. It was a perfect match."

Within the past three years, Cake Man has deeply rooted his business in the community, sponsoring a youth talent show, spearheading a tree-planting initiative in Fort Greene, and using free space in the store for swing dancing lessons and community events.

"I got into this working field for the people to see what can be done, not only to serve celebrities," Cake Man said.