Downtown St. Helens will soon have a new business to cater to the sweet tooth.
Lenore Thawley is moving her Lightning Cupcakes and Cakes business from Columbia Boulevard to downtown and renaming it Lightning Treats & Sweets.
Opening day is Saturday, June 29, at 291 South First Street and hours will be Wednesday through Saturday, from noon to 8 p.m.
Thawley, who has been featured in several publications, including Oregon Bride Magazine and Country Living, makes it a point to start work at 4 a.m., cutting fresh fruit, zesting, squeezing lemons and mixing chocolate peanut butter filling to keep her business buzzing.
As a “one-woman show,” Thawley bakes and frosts everything herself.
She was inspired to start her cupcake business following the death of her first-born son, Hunter, to Leukemia.
“We lost Hunter,” Thawley said. “I’ve got to do something. I could sit on the floor, cry and drown in a puddle of tears every day.”
Thawley and husband Todd moved to Oregon from Hollywood — where they were actors — and soon took Hunter to Doernbecher Children’s Hospital in Portland.
“We created the Healing Hunter Foundation,” she said. “We started this amazing nonprofit to give back to all the kiddos at Doernbecher … We know what it’s like. We know what parents need. We know what children need.”
A portion of Lightning’s tips go to the Healing Hunter Foundation, which enhances the lives of children touched by cancer.
“It’s all inspired by our little dude,” she said. “I would never have owned a cupcake company or run a children’s nonprofit had he not been in our life.”
Thawley said she started bringing cupcakes up to the hospital and, eventually, word got out and her cupcakes were in demand, prompting her husband to suggest she get licensed and get in contact with Hollywood cake artist Dorie Kinney.
“She did all of our cupcakes, wedding cakes and baby shower cakes,” Thawley said. “Everyone talked about her cakes after our parties.”
Through Kinney’s help, Thawley created her famous Red Velvet and Chocolate Peanut butter cupcakes.
“I started to get a knack for it,” she said. “Before I knew it, I was running a full-fledged bakery out of my house in Beaverton.”
Thawley added, “It became Lightning Cupcakes and Cakes and I did it for ten years, then we moved from Beaverton to Scappoose and it was right before COVID.”
Eventually, because of time commitments, Thawley had to drop cakes from her offerings.
“We started doing ice cream,” she said. “We started doing cupcake sundaes, we started doing these amazing fresh-fruit milkshakes.”
A wide variety of candies will now be offered at Lightning Treats & Sweets.
“Kids love candy and that whole freeze-dried candy craze is, like, taking over our children,” Thawley said.
Thawley continued, “I truly spent over $15,000 buying all of this crazy candy. It’s, like, freeze dried candy, gummi worms, amazing fine chocolates, every candy that every kid desires will be in my shop.”
In addition to candies, her new location in Downtown St. Helens will include cupcakes, cones, sundaes and fresh-fruit frosting milkshakes.
“It’s made with my homemade frosting,” she said.
Even still, cupcakes are always the go-to item at Thawley’s business. Top sellers include the Strawberry Shortcake, Raspberry Cream, Lemonlicious and Chocolate Peanut Butter cupcakes.
“People truly seek us out for our Chocolate Peanut Butter cupcake, which is so yummy with different flavors,” she said. “I’ve been doing it for 14 years. They’re the only cupcakes that I will eat, including my children. They are addicted to the cupcakes.”
Thawley is looking forward to moving to her new location and is bullish about the future of downtown and St. Helens in general.
“I’m so excited,” she said. “We’re in the boating community, so we belong to the Multnomah Channel Yacht Club. We would see St. Helens from the water all the time and I’m, like, ‘oh my gosh, this town has so much potential.’”
She added, “We’ve been waiting and waiting for something really cool and amazing to happen here and I feel like I’m getting in when it’s starting.”
Most Popular
Comments / 0