One of the first cakes Joe Marich made was a retirement cake for Mary Strassmeyer, a reporter who wrote the widely read column, “Mary, Mary.”
Now, after having made more than 5,000 wedding cakes, 200,000 birthday cakes and millions of pizza bagels, Joe and his wife, Maria Marich, owners of Cakes by Maria and Joe in Eastlake, will be taking off their aprons to retire by the end of the year.
Located at 34522 Lakeshore Blvd., the pair have owned Cakes by Maria and Joe for roughly 10 years. Prior to their Eastlake business, they were the owners of the Willoughby Baking Co. Over the years, relationships with customers and their children have been built with just the start of creating their wedding cakes.
“Making wedding cakes is our real passion,” Joe said. “Having the honor of being part of a couples most special day is truly amazing. Making their dream wedding cake and then their baby reveal cakes has been exciting to say the least. My wife would get the sealed ultrasound from the expecting mother and hide it from me until it was time to bake a pink or blue cake for fear I would tell someone.”
Joe’s start in the bakery business began at Hough Bakeries in 1976 with his mother, Rose Marie, in the cake decorating department. Joe also filled in different departments where he got to work with who he described as some of the best bakers who ever came to Cleveland.
After marrying Maria in 1985, the two thought about having their own bakery. When the Willoughby Baking Co. on the corner of Lakeshore Boulevard and Vine Street became available, they went for it and then decided to downsize to concentrate on cakes for all occasions.
“That’s when we opened Cakes by Maria and Joe. We have even hired daughters of some of our original salesgirls,” Joe said. “We’ve made over 30 wedding cakes for couples whose parents got their wedding cake from us 25 to 30 years prior.”
Every two years, there is a different trend in wedding cakes from how they’re decorated to the flavors used, Joe said. As of now, there is what is called a naked cake, which is a cake that has a different flavor for each tier and that is iced thinly so people are able to see the layers of the cake.
“Wedding cakes can be pretty crazy. It can be a lot,” Maria said. “It looks so easy and it’s actually not, but we can definitely do a four-tier cake in about an hour. You don’t sleep. The phones never stop.”
Together, Joe and Maria have experienced weekends where they’ve had to create 14 to 18 wedding cakes. Now, because of the effects from the pandemic, many halls are booked for people who didn’t get married last year.
“We’re doing wedding cakes on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays,” Joe said. “It takes an hour to bake, and another hour and a half to decorate.”
Maria still recalls the first day that she picked up a piping bag.
“When we had the Willoughby Baking Co., Joe’s mother did the wedding cakes,” Maria said. “She was working across from me and I saw she was stressed out, so I picked up a piping bag. After watching them for so long, it came natural. She pushed everything toward me and said, ‘This is it. It’s your turn to take over.’ Unfortunately, she died within the year, so I stepped right in. I never picked up a bag until that particular day.”
The shop still keeps track of orders of their cupcake flavors as a little competition. Thus far, chocolate raspberry, which Maria invented 28 years ago, is still number one in addition to the 30 other cupcake flavors that have been added. Joe’s “bakie” cookie is still a number one seller.
“My pet peeve is why are cookies called cookies because you don’t cook them. You bake them,” Joe said. “That’s why I call mine bakies because I baked them. You cook in a pot and you bake in an oven. I’ve never seen cookies cooked in a pot. Everybody knows me for that.”
During the pandemic, Joe called the business “the bakery that pizza bagels saved.” In addition, cupcake incorporated drive-throughs brought the business success.
“A mom called us up. She was having a birthday party for her daughter and it was a drive-by, so she ordered birthday cupcakes,” Joe said. “As people were going up and down the street, the mom would give everybody a cupcake.
“That exploded. Willoughby-South called us and asked if we could do something like that for graduations. North did it, Richmond Heights High School did it — it was cool.”
There is really no secret to creating the best cake, but just quality ingredients, Joe said.
“It’s not repetitive over the whole year with Easter, fall and summer baking. It’s a lot of fun,” he added.
After they retire at the end of the year, Joe and Maria are looking forward to traveling in their Winnebago motorhome, and stopping at local bakeries in between. The two have hopes of selling their bakery, along with their recipes, to someone who will enjoy the business as much as they have.
“I’m willing to teach them everything I know and all my recipes, and introduce them to our venues,” Joe said.
