Retiring cake-maker is looking for a bakery to take over recipes
David Glass seeks shop in the area to continue legacy
Cake-maker extraordinaire David Glass closed his South Windsor bakery and moved to Vermont 10 years ago, but he has made bimonthly runs to Bloomfield since, delivering cakes and truffles to a sellout crowd that could never get enough of his confections.
But now, Glass, 73, and his wife and partner, Vivie, 63, are retiring, and Glass wants to hand over his proprietary recipes — including his signature Ultimate Chocolate Truffle Cake, up to 50 types of truffles, dozens of cakes, bar cookies, as well as caramels and chocolate bark — to another baker “as close as possible to the Hartford area.”
“We want somebody who is either a talented baker or somebody who desires to be a talented baker, somebody who can bake cakes and truffles just the way we do, preferably somebody with some kind of a factory space like what we had originally, so they can satisfy all our customers,” Glass said.
The New York Times has said his Ultimate Chocolate Truffle Cake is “considered by many chocolate lovers to be the ultimate dessert.”
Bakers who are interested can email Glass at davidmarkglass@gmail.com or call him at 860-462-7520 to discuss the terms of the business transfer. In the email, bakers should include “why do they want to do this, what kind of facility do they have,” Glass said.
When Glass chooses a successor, he and Vivie Glass “will start an intensive training program, for as long as necessary, until they can make the cakes perfectly,” he said.
Glass, a native of West Hartford, baked and sold desserts in the Hartford area — in Hartford, then Bloomfield, then South Windsor — starting in 1981. He became renowned for his flawless touch with cakes, selling to an eager public and to commercial operations such as Whole Foods, Omaha Steaks, Stew Leonard’s, Trader Joe’s, Zabar’s, airlines, upscale restaurants
and a major Canadian supermarket chain.
The couple moved to Colchester, Vermont, in 2012. One of their sons had just died and they wanted to be closer to their other sons and their grandchildren. Since then, they have operated an emaillist
ordering system and have driven orders down to Bloomfield every other Sunday afternoon. Customers line up in a long queue in the parking lot behind the Wells Fargo bank on Jerome Avenue. The Glasses will continue to cater to their customers this way until the new baker is fully trained.
“I would say that .01% of our business is in Vermont and 99.99% is in Connecticut,” he said. Demand in the Hartford area is so high, he said, that he has had to turn down “20 to 30% of our orders.” He said there is a possibility of clientele in New York City too.
Glass said he wants to spend more time with his sons and grandchildren and to write books.
“I want to write books about my apprenticeships in two three-star restaurants in France, and one about traveling around the world,” he said.