Dan Byers and his brother Levi Silva had a serious conversation about pancakes.
Day Byers with sons Grant and Blake
They both loved making pancakes with their kids. There’s something about kids and dads and pancakes that
Levi Silva, left, and Dan Byers
is fun and a bonding experience.
“I made them in different colors and with different ingredients,” Byers says. “It was fun, interactive. It brought us together.”
Son Grant started calling them Daddy Cakes.
So when Byers’ commercial real estate work slowed in 2007, he and Silva discussed various business ideas. That’s when Newport Beach-based Daddy Cakes was born.
“I said this was either the best or the dumbest idea I’ve ever had,” Byers said. “My wife wasn’t sure, but it’s been really good.”
In a year-and-a-half, Daddy Cakes has introduced nine flavors such as Sensuous Strawberry and Blueberry Bonanza Blast. Annual sales have passed $200,000.
The tough part was figuring out how to compete with Bisquick and Betty Crocker.
The brothers decided not to compete. They would position the Daddy Cakes brand as a premium product with high-quality ingredients and real fruit and one that doesn’t merely deliver breakfast but creates fun and family togetherness.
“We knew we could make great pancakes, but we wanted to take it beyond a great product and engage the user, give them a great experience,” Byers says.
They put cartoon characters on the packaging, because, after all, pancakes aren’t serious business; they’re fun. Daddy Cakes packs a toy inside each package with suggestions of several games to play.
“I think we did a pretty good job with our packaging. We studied the psychology of what would appeal to people. We studied the dynamics of color, of what stands out on the shelf and what stimulates appetite.”
The container is yellow with red lettering. The cartoon characters are embossed, giving the tin a feel as well as a look, he explains.
Daddy Cakes are on the shelves of specialty stores: all the Mother’s Markets, Farm to Market in San Juan Capistrano, Hershey’s Market on Balboa Island, Promelis Markets in Costa Mesa and Newport Beach, Pacific Ranch Market in Orange and Irvine Ranch Market in Newport Beach.
And, if you can believe it, the Golden Door Spa in Colorado, where Silva lives.
They also sell online. Click here. Prices range from $7.99 to $16.
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Good for you guys !
No wonder the OCR has a problem. In stead of buying ad space, they give it away to a person making overprice pancake mix.
I wish them lots of luck but I really don’t see myself paying upwards of $8 for pancake mix even if it was organic. Also, it might be the adult in me but I actually find the yellow of that container nauseous.
Is this an advertisement or a food news story? Hate to sound pessimistic but I don’t get it? Sounds like he should get back into the think tank but good luck at a really bad economic time.
Marketing to children with a name like sensuous strawberry. You can bet a lot of mom’s won’t be buying this for their kids!!
first of all, why does a story about a business succeeding have to cause such negativity?
few things:
whatever: “instead” is one word, so stop hating. the piece is supposed to be inspirational, not a call to attack the register!
hanhster: if you read all the business stories on the success of CPK, you’ll see that much research has gone into the color yellow, but you’re entitled to your own opinion. thanks for sharing.
bruce: did you read the piece? did you ever stop for a second and realize that the company is doing well as a result of the economy? at least they had the guts to go for it.
steverino: i’m not sure about the overall marketing strategy, but mothers buy, so they are marketing to moms. but, i must say, out of all the comments, yours is actually the most thoughtful.
i’m not sure why an uplifting story at such an erratic time would bring out so much hate. i’m not even a huge pancake lover, but i checked out the site and it looks like the guys are having fun and the product is of quality, so why all the negativity?
Hi,
It’s Dan from Daddy Cakes®. Our “Think Tank” is more of a “Batter Bowl” than an actual tank…….
I really appreciate everyone for reading the article and submitting their comments. We realize that there’s a lot of people under significant amounts of pressure these days - trust me, taking the steps to push forward into starting any business in today’s economy has increased risks, challenges, and pressure……especially when we have donated, or made contributions to, more than 5,000 pancake breakfasts during our first year in business to charitable or community based organizations such as the AYSO (American Youth Soccer Organization) and the ELKs Lodge (who reportedly are only surpassed by the U.S. Government for their contribution of funding students in advanced studies/college scholarships).
We created Daddy Cakes to bring people together and provide a great alternative and experience at home being more people are needing to dine in vs. dining out. Daddy Cakes are not just for kids, having fun is for everyone. There is nothing inappropriate about using “Sensuous” in the naming of our “Sensuous Strawberry Sensations” as implied. After all, the definition of “Sensuous” is “given to, or furnishing satisfaction of the senses” - We see no reason anyone should need to blush on this simple word - perhaps more of us should explore ways to live more of a sensuous life everyday.
Really appreciate your comments and for all the people that have been such great supporters of Daddy Cakes, we want to say “Thank You”. We are a relatively new company in Orange County and it’s not necessarily the easiest time or place to start a business, but we are glad to be here and very happy we have been able to help community based organizations this last year make their fundraisers more successful.
May we all be successful in discovering one thing today that is sensuous.
Thanks again for your thoughts and comments.
Have Fun!
(Hanhster: Check out the tin in real life…..the color on computer screens doesn’t always reflect reality. There’s much more to our product than what can be discerned from an online photo)
Jan,
I love this story! Good for them! We will be sure to give them some coverage over at OCbizblog with a credit back to you.
Steve Averill
Good luck guys!
I’m a single dad in Huntington beach with two young girls and I make what I call a “daddy mcmuffin” breakfast sandwich for my girls and they love it (ok, don’t sue me McDonalds for copyright infringement!).
Anyway, I also love to make pancakes with them and put fresh fruit in like strawberries, blueberries or bananas, or spread them with blueberry fruit spread and sprinkle powered sugar (I call it snowing).
Lots of fun and they taste great.
OCR’s latest infomercial….
sorry, but I don’t shop at any of those overpriced places anyway. and though I enjoy convenience of something like microwaves, the rest of the time I make breakfast items like pancakes from scratch. it’s either/or for me.