Danny Alvarez and Angela Piccinin have been putting smiles on faces in Wilmington since 2014 when they took over Cape Fear Rum Cake.
It was originally opened in 2010 by Kris Bell and Richard Roehl, who were friends of Angela’s parents. They had started the rum cake business with a family recipe after leaving the corporate world.
The company is named after the river basin that flows through Wilmington. It was frequented by pirates and would cause shipwrecks because of the shifting sandbars.
When Alvarez and Piccinin moved to the area and were looking for work, Kris and Rich needed help completing orders so they started to bake with them part-time. When the original owners spoke of moving to Thailand, Angela and Danny asked how they could take over the company because they didn't want to see the great product disappear. They had many jobs working together over the years and loved working side by side
“I have sprung many wild ideas on Danny throughout our relationship. I think this was one where it was easy for him to jump on board. I can’t believe it’s been 10 years,” Angela said.
When Cape Fear Rum Cake began, the original owners had six different flavors to choose from. Since then, Danny and Angela have been able to expand that over the years, and now patrons can find 30 different kinds of cake.
Throughout the year they consistently run nine of the flavors: golden vanilla, funfetti, coconut, pineapple, painkiller, pistachio, red velvet, dark chocolate and cherry chocolate. The rest of the flavors that rotate seasonally are: lemon, carrot, hummingbird, blueberry lemonade, strawberry, dark chocolate orange and azalea cake, blueberry, key lime, banana chocolate chip, s’mores, moon pie, pumpkin chocolate chip, maple pecan, caramel apple, chocolate peanut butter, dark chocolate raspberry, gingerbread, eggnog, chai, dark chocolate mint chip and Mexican hot chocolate.
Patrons can purchase three different sizes, the five oz. which serves 1-2 people, the medium 16 oz. which serves 6-8 and the large 32 oz. which serves 10-12 people.
According to Angela, Golden Vanilla is the most popular flavor because “it's a traditional rum cake and a guaranteed crowd pleaser.”
The next fan favorite is the painkiller which is based on the mixed drink —orange, coconut, pineapple and nutmeg. The owners started it as a seasonal item at the beginning of the pandemic, and ended up having to keep it because everyone loved it so much.
Next up is the dark chocolate raspberry, which is a top selling seasonal cake and that they run all winter.
When they originally took over, Danny was the baker, and she was the glazer and packager. Everything else they did together. Now, the couple have a family and had to adjust for the children so Danny manages the day-to-day operations while Angela handles paperwork and marketing so that she can be available to help take care of the children: nine-year-old Oliver, six-year-old Eugene, and the new addition to the family Louise who is one.
According to Angela, Oliver was helpful when it came to folding boxes during the pandemic.
Rum cakes are most often found on islands, and connoisseurs can’t just walk into any store to buy one which might be one reason why the store has become so popular. But, inaccessibility isn’t the only reason according to Angela.
“It's delicious! The rum keeps it so moist and the vacuum seal locks in that natural preservative to keep it fresh for at least six months, which is amazing,” Angela explained.
Although the couple enjoyed baking, owning a rum cake shop was not exactly in the cards for the couple. They met in art school in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. She was going to school to be a fashion designer and actually worked in the industry for four years. Danny was in school for animation and planned on going into video gaming.
Angela also was a photographer and shot weddings and family vacations a lot while both of them also worked for a bakery that specialized in cupcakes and wedding cakes.
That sparked an interest they did not know would be life changing. Their paths changed when they decided to leave Florida.
They lived in Philadelphia for a few years, but were tired of the single digit cold weather when they decided it was time for another change.
During a visit with her parents who lived in Raleigh, they helped the couple work on a 1973 RV that they decided to use to go on a cross-country trip. After the trip the couple decided Wilmington was where they wanted to be.
Her family had been vacationing in Carolina Beach every summer since she was a baby, and her parents moved to Kure Beach while Angela was living in Florida. Her and Danny had visited them for a few months in 2007 before they moved to Philadelphia and they loved it. She also had a brother who lived in Carolina Beach, and in 2011 they went to visit and never left.
“We moved up and down the east coast pursuing careers in art and fashion. Realizing that we needed to find a city we would be happy to start a family in, we sold all of our possessions and set out on a 10-month RV adventure that took us across the United States, and landed us right back in Wilmington NC. We had always loved Wilmington! It just took us a 20-state adventure to figure out how much we loved it,” Angela explained.
Now, they are the boss of their own life and doing something they love to do every day. They get to not only make people smile with their cakes, but also spend time with their family and visit the beach anytime because they are only a few miles away.
“Being our own bosses is the best. While it can be extremely challenging at times, we truly enjoy wearing a variety of hats every day,” Angela explained.
They do hope to expand the business even further one day, but with a relatively new family, they believe it is not the right time.
“We have enjoyed our slow growth over the years, but are always looking to expand, as soon as we catch up some sleep from adding the one-year-old,” she said jokingly.
For now, anyone who lives in the Wilmington area can still enjoy a delicious rum cake from their storefront which is located on Front Street. And those out of town can place orders online to be shipped.
They ship anywhere, even internationally. They also have gluten free options and merchandise that people can buy.
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