Eugene patisserie offers specialty nuptial cake
■ The cake shop adds real flower
decorations to wedding cakes.
and can accommodate special diets
By Gabe V. Kjos
for the Emerald
When Jennifer Wassermiller got married,
she turned to her friend Catherine Rein
hart, who was running a bakery out of her
garage with her sister Cheryl, to make her
the perfect cake.
“It was a simple cake, but beautiful. It
was a dark chocolate three-layer cake with
gold leaves on the side,” Wassermiller said.
She was the first person to order a wed
ding cake from the Sweet Life Patisserie,
and she hasn’t forgotten the experience.
“When you order a cake from Sweet Life,
it is the beginning of a lifelong relationship.
It’s a combination of love and artistry in
stead of moneymaking,” she said.
The bakery moved from Catherine and
Cheryl Reinhart’s garage in 1997 to its cur
rent location at 755 Monroe St. It now
makes approximately 150 to 200 custom
wedding cakes a year, Catherine Reinhart
said, but without the creativity of both sis
ters and a trip to a bridal show, their wed
ding cake operation might never have
come into existence.
“We went to a bridal show, and to pre
pare we did a bunch of demo Styrofoam
cakes,” Reinhart said. “We covered the
cakes with real frosting and real flowers.
People just flipped, and they said, ‘We
have to have you do our wedding cake.’”
The bakery offers many varieties of wed
ding cakes. They range from a two-tier that
can serve 30 people to a five-tier that can
serve 300. According to Reinhart, the aver
age cake people purchase is a three-tier
that serves 100 people.
Sweet Life’s services include consulta
tions, cake samples, cake pillars, fresh
flowers on the cake, and delivery and set
up in the Eugene and Springfield area.
There are also many different cake styles
available, but there isn’t a typical cake that
everyone orders.
“So many people get so many different
designs — there are about 400 pictures in
(the album) and we have about 100 more
in the back, and they are all different,”
Reinhart said. “Each one is different be
cause of the flowers they want on it or the
way it is set up.”
Another option the bakery offers is vegan
wedding cakes and cakes for people who
are lactose intolerant. Reinhart said the bak
ery began considering the idea one day
when a customer asked for a cake without
eggs. It was tough for the bakery to make ve
gan cakes because of the lack of cookbooks
with vegan recipes in them, she said.
is#
Photos by Jonathan House Emerald
The Sweet Life Patisserie offers a wide array of wedding cakes, including the one shown (upper left), which contain a thoughtful helping of sweet messages. Cake decorator
“Q” Regan whips up frosting (below right) during preparations for another cake, and later adds a real flower as a finishing touch (upper right). The bakery, located at 755
Monroe St., also features a large selection of vegan cakes and pastries.
Then, “someone gave us a chocolate
cake recipe that was (vegan); we started to
experiment with it more, and it turned out
that everyone liked it,” Reinhart said.
Because of the many different varieties
of wedding cakes available, Reinhart rec
ommends people receive a consultation
at the bakery to decide what kind of cake
they want. She also suggests that if peo
ple are planning a summer wedding,
which is typical, they should consult
Sweet Life in January or February be
cause cake decorators get swamped in the
summer months. If they are planning for
a wedding that is not in the peak of sum
mer, they should schedule a consultation
a month or two in advance.
The bakery creates many delicacies oth
er than wedding cakes, such as parfaits
and the Chocolate Orgasm Pave.
Reinhart strives to make everyone hap
py, no matter what they order. She always
hears great things about the bakery, she
said, but even on occasions when people
don’t get quite what they expect, they say
they will be back.
“Even the customers who complain are
so happy,” Reinhart said.
“It is rare for someone to be less than de
lighted,” cake decorator QLara “Q” Regan
said. “The best thing about our cakes is
that they are as delicious inside as they are
beautiful on the outside.”
Gabe V. Kjos is a freelance reporter for the Emerald.
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