Jane and Jeff Imerman are a dynamic mother-son baking duo, who have turned a family recipe into a growing business.
“This is my mom’s recipe from years ago,” Jeff explains. “We always had this cake growing up. We’d say you should sell this cake, she never did.”
But that changed when as Jane says, three things merged… a passion for baking… a love of organic foods… and the reality of cancer… Her youngest son Jonny faced that diagnosis.
“His cancer really gave us an awareness of what we’re eating,” she says. “When he was better and moving on with his life, it gave us time to reflect on what we’d been through and what we should start doing.”
Offering organic cakes to the public would be the answer. Jeff felt so strongly about it, he told his mom he was going to quit his law practice out east.
“’I’d like to move back home,” Jane says he told her. “(It was) a mother’s dream. And he said ‘I’d like to see if we could market the cake we always used to talk about.’”
The Imerman Cake Company was born. Jane and Jeff spent a year in Jane’s Bloomfield Hills’ kitchen tweaking her recipe. They use only organic ingredients in their two coffee cakes, chocolate chip and cinnamon. In fact, their cakes are now made in a Certified Organic baking facility in Chesterfield Township, which means among other things, no GMOs, preservatives and nothing artificial. And lower in sugar and fat than many other cakes.
“So for me, the cake sort of fit everything,” Jeff says “It’s better for your body, it’s all organic, it’s better for the environment. All our boxes are recyclable and biodegradable. And we also help raise awareness for Imerman Angels, so we’re helping in the fight against cancer.
Imerman Angels is a worldwide cancer support organization founded by Jonny, after his cancer battle.
Just this year, Hour Detroit magazine named Imerman Cake Company as the “best locally produced food brand for 2015.” You can find Imerman cakes at a number oflocal specialty stores and online on their website
