On January 22, 2024, Cake Ladies Dream Shoppe burned and had to close their doors indefinitely. Thankfully, everyone got out of the building with only minor injuries. There was very little we could recover from the fire, due to smoke and water damage. The New Albany Fire Department arrived quickly and rescued the residents in the apartments upstairs. These were definitely heroes who put their lives at risk that day and everyday to save lives. Even though the business was gone…we had a lot to be thankful for.

On January 24, 2024, I posted on our FB page the outpouring of support from the community and dedication of our customers, encourages us to continue. It was our intent to revitalize, which is what Mom & Dad would have wanted. Needless to say, it would be a challenge. I told everyone, it is only the end of a building, not the end of our parent’s legacy. Our customers didn’t just mean the world to Cake Ladies, we’ve learned through their wonderful love and support, what Cake Ladies meant to the world. The Phoenix is a symbol of hope, life and of better things to come, born from the knowledge and experience of difficult and challenging times. Out of the ashes, we will rise again! At this point, we adopted a Phoenix for our new logo, not knowing whether we would be able to find a property to get reestablished.

It was a long 5 months looking for property but we were able to find a location only 1 mile from our old location. On July 5, 2024, we held our Grand Reopening at 421 W. Main Street, New Albany, IN. Needless to say, there were a lot of tears that day…and lots of blood, sweat and tears in June. It truly was a miracle we were able to restock our merchandise and rebuild the interior of the store in just 30 days.

In October, 2024, we had our very first float in the Harvest Homecoming Parade in New Albany. It very BIG event for New Albany. We were fortunate to win 2nd Place Vice President’s award. The float had a big birthday cake celebrating Cake Ladies 54th birthday in business. Rylee Damron and Luke Damron, Donna’s grandchildren and great-grandchildren of Mary and Danny Franzell, represented Cake Ladies on the float that day.

In October 2024, Donna started teaching Kiddo Cupcake Classes. Eventually, we offered Cookie decorating classes and candy making classes as well. Due to so many requests for cake decorating classes, we added Cupcake Bouquet decorating classes, teaching many decorating techniques including piping flowers, borders, shells and leaves. We now offer cupcake, candy & cookie classes for every holiday. We love including children in our classes as it allows families to enjoy spending time together, making memories and learning something that will have a lifetime lasting affect.

All of these events are featured on our FaceBook page, however we have been so busy getting the shop up and running, the webpage has been neglected. Hopefully, this will bring you up-to-date as we are starting 56 years in business…thanks to our loyal customers and the entire New Albany community. WE want to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. Please continue to support Cake Ladies Dream Shoppe online and in the store.

We’re On Fire, this time in a good way!