Is That a Cake or a Turkey?

Sara Pickens has a fallback plan when it comes to cheering a person up: Let 'em Eat Cake.

The phrase may sound familiar to area residents — it's the name of Pickens' bakery on Vasco Road.

Let 'em Eat Cake was started in 1987 by Pickens' mother, Anne, who had a passion for baking cakes. She ran it out of her home in Middletown, a town of about 1,000 residents in Lake County.

When the Pickens family moved to Utah, they opened their first standalone business. Pickens and her sister, Dawn, helped their mother run the bakery.

The family eventually returned to California, where Pickens took over the business in 2005 and moved it to Livermore.

While Pickens observed her mother in the kitchen, she honed her skills through trial and error. She taught herself many of the designs used in the bakery's cakes.

Pickens says nothing is more fun for her staff than to try and bring a customer's ideas to life.

All the goodies are made from scratch, and the more off-the-wall and wild the project the better, she says.

For example, a Thanksgiving cake she created was topped by a turkey made of sweets. 

Another cake was Hollywood inspired. It featured film strips around a cake that was topped with a director board.

In addition to cakes, the bakery's menu includes cupcakes, cookies, pot pies, baked sandwich loafs, cinnamon rolls, lemon bars, pizza, soup, and hot and cold beverages.

Got a special request? Pickens recommends giving the busy bakery two- to three-weeks'  notice.

It's a demanding but sweet business that Pickens says is all about making people smile.

Her secret? Let 'em Eat Cake.