Those who come to Bundt-ish expecting Bundt cakes baked in pans with fluted sides instead will find pound cakes in almost a dozen varieties, made by hand, baked in simple tube pans and decorated prettily.
The Atlanta business was founded in October 2021 by Johnny Washington and his wife, Stacey. Washington said the idea began when they were searching for a delivered pound cake during the early days of the pandemic. Not finding one, they recognized a niche they could fill.
Credit: Kim Evans KO Photography
Credit: Kim Evans KO Photography
Originally, they thought they would be making Bundt cakes — hence, the name. But, the more they experimented with recipes, the more they were drawn to cakes baked in the simple tube pans that reminded them of what their grandmothers made.
Washington fell in love with pound cakes as a child. “Eating a pound cake is like time travel for me,” he said. “My grandmother would bribe me to go to church by telling me there was a pound cake waiting for me at the end of the service. And, Stacey’s grandmother would send pound cakes from Orangeburg, South Carolina, to Stacey at Morris Brown College. Everybody in her building would rush to her room when the package arrived.”
Johnny Washington, the CEO of Bundt-ish, is a Mercer University graduate with a master’s in business administration. Stacey Washington is the president, responsible for the creative side of the business. With her grandmother’s recipes not available, she spent a year developing recipes and doing much of the baking herself. The couple wanted a cake that was dense, but moist, overcoming the objection they heard so often, that pound cakes are too dry.
“We went through what seemed like a thousand recipes,” Johnny Washington said. “A lot of our friends gained weight. Our friends’ friends gained weight. We got those cakes into the hands of people who would give us an honest assessment. Would they buy this cake?”
They searched for packaging that would be different from the traditional pink, brown or white bakery boxes. “When we found someone with this blue-green box,” he said, “we knew it was the color that would set us apart, and we knew those boxes had to be wrapped and presented with a big white bow.”
Credit: Elea Veselova Food Photography
Credit: Elea Veselova Food Photography
The couple launched the business with five varieties, including Church Lady Classic and Best Lemon Pound Cake Ever. Gradually, they increased the line to 11 varieties, including lemon-blueberry pound cake, a celebration pound cake (with colorful sprinkles inside and out), and a chocolate cookie crunch pound cake that has chocolate-filled cookie chunks baked inside and crumbled on top of the vanilla glaze. All are available for delivery anywhere in the continental U.S.
The Washingtons also have partnered with Macon-based Z Beans Coffee. “While we were in the development process,” Washington said, “a lot of people would say, ‘Man, this cake goes so well with my coffee in the morning.’ With that feedback, we knew we wanted our own brand of coffee.”
That partnership resulted from a Mercer University feature article about Washington being an alumnus, which led to him connecting with Max Burke of Z Beans Coffee, the son of another alum. Together, they created a special blend, and Bundt-ish began selling it in July.
More cake varieties are in the pipeline, but the couple also is looking at other items that complement cake, such as homemade toppings, and they plan to offer local pickup and delivery in 2023.
Washington said the biggest challenge is one that faces all business owners: remembering to focus on what’s right in front of you.
“When you get caught up in planning for six months from now, you lose sight of what’s important in this moment,” he said. “Take things one step at a time. I call it my ‘crawl, walk, run’ theory. It’s a process, and you have to go through it.”
Bundt-ish, A Pound Cakery. bundtish.com
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