Mary Carter Cake Decorating Memphis Tn

CAKE SPECIALIST: Chris Faherty is the third generation of his family to work at Mary Carter Decorating Center, a cake decorating specialty store at 3205 Summer Ave. -- PHOTO BY TOM WILEMON

"We are no bakery. We are more like a Lowe's or a Home Depot. If you want to do it yourself, if you want to do it with high quality, you come to us."
– Chris Faherty
Manager, Mary Carter Decorating Center

Mary Carter Decorating Center
Hours: 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Mondays through Fridays, and 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturdays
Employees: 5
Location: 3205 Summer Ave.
Web site: www.bakingstuff.com

Switching from selling paint to specializing in cake decorating supplies may seem like a risky proposition, but the family behind Mary Carter Decorating Center made it work.

This small business in Highland Heights at the corner of Summer Avenue and Malcomb Street celebrates its 5oth anniversary this month – the first chapter as a Mary Carter Paints franchisee and the second chapter as a cake decorating specialty store.

"A small business making it 50 years – especially switching industries – says something," said Chris Faherty, manager of the business and grandson of its founders.

The switch doesn't sound like such a stretch to hear him tell it.

"We are no bakery," he said. "We are more like a Lowe's or a Home Depot. If you want to do it yourself, if you want to do it with high quality, you come to us."

Family affair

Faherty's father, Jim Faherty, teaches cake decorating, and his mother, Kathy Faherty, shares her expertise of candy. The candy classes are free, but the tuition for the five weeks of cake classes is about $50 plus supplies.

A newlywed since New Year's Eve, Chris Faherty said he hopes his wife, Toni, also will enjoy working in the business.

The shelves of the store are filled with pans, cookbooks, icings, fillings and just about any other kind of cake decoration that can be imagined. Behind the counter, there's three generations of family pictures including childhood photographs of Chris Faherty.

His grandparents, Leo and Ruth Faherty, started the business as a paint franchise. However, they decided to find a new focus when the Mary Carter Paints label was discontinued during the 1960s.

"My grandmother branched off into cake pans, some chocolate molds and chocolate and she just kept on going," Chris Faherty said. "She really loved to bake and do cooking. That's kind of how we got our start."

His mother worked in the store and brought him along. His first task was painting small plaster holiday pins of turkeys, pumpkins and leprechauns. After he graduated college, his father gave him another task – to build a Web site.

Faherty told his father he had a buddy who could do that.

"I don't want a one-page Web site," Faherty said his father replied. "I want the whole store on a Web site."

Faherty had a degree in marketing, not Web design. He went back to school to learn the skills to bring the business into the Internet age.

Fulfilling cake desires

The store's Web site, www.bakingstuff.com, is a total e-commerce site. Everything the store offers can be accessed on the site. Recipes are also available, such as apple caramel cake, a creation by Kathy Faherty.

Most of the sales still come from walk-ins, Chris Faherty said, but many of those customers come because they know the store has what they want.

Other customers come because they don't know what they need. These are the people who want to serve cakes in the shapes of pyramids, football stadiums or other creations.

"They have a really good imagination, and they come in here to learn how to construct the thing," Faherty said. "They know what they want to do, but they don't know if they need a dowel rod here or there or what type of cake plate to use. We wouldn't want their cake to fall."

However, many longtime customers are more traditional bakers like Betty Wilson. Her specialties are coconut cakes and German chocolate cakes.

"They have all kinds of supplies for icings, for candies, for fillers that you put between the layers," Wilson said. "All those products are good. They make suggestions on what not to do so you won't have a problem."

She said she still remembers the first advice she received at the store from Ruth Faherty.

"I came in because I was having trouble decorating my cookies," Wilson said. "My purple icing kept turning blue. She told me to put milk in the purple and it keeps it from turning blue."