Violent robbery stuns bakery owner's friends
Jen Angel, who runs Angel Cakes, in grave condition after ordeal
A woman gravely injured Monday afternoon when she was dragged by a car after a robbery in a parking lot is a well-known, highly respected owner of an Oakland bakery, according to shocked friends who still were trying to process what had happened.
Jen Angel, as she is known professionally, was in grave condition Thursday at an Oakland hospital. She is the owner of Angel Cakes, a bakery which has a large Bay Area clientele. Angel is unlikely to recover, according to a statement from her friends and family issued later Thursday, citing information from doctors.
Angel, 48, a longtime caterer
and baker, opened her business in 2016 in the Victorian that once housed TJ's Gingerbread House, a local landmark.
The Fifth Street bakery, which specializes in cupcakes
and custom cakes, was open for business Wednesday with shaken employees filling orders.
“We are still kind of overwhelmed,” said a clerk who was awaiting updates on Angel's condition and any fundraising efforts.
Outside the bakery, longtime friend Jeremy Smith tried to sum up how much Angel means to him.
“We were in community together. Jen was the one who built that community,” he said, describing the love he and his partner shared for Angel. “Her mother is devastated. Jen had a huge chosen family in the Bay Area.”
Smith's partner, Michelle Nogales, talked about how Angel had gathered that chosen family for herself and for others.
“She brought a lot of love into the world, but what to me was more important is she brought people together who could love and support each other.”
Angel created her business in 2008 and opened the Fifth Street site in March 2016.
According to the bakery's website, Angel Cakes “is a smallbatch bakery” that in addition