Donna Hill is one of those unusual people that actually use the degree she earned in college. She’s still using the Home Economics degree from Auburn, which is both rare and delicious! I first learned about Donna through a friend who loves her Rosemary Butter Cookies. 

From time to time my Fairhope neighbor, Bob Ford, would load his car with these cookies and drive to I-10 in Spanish Fort to deliver them to his friend, Jamie Cater who owns Cater’s Market, her gourmet shops in Starkville and Meridian, Mississippi. He would hand them off to her on her way back from Grayton Beach to sell in her shop, and she sells out quickly!

Donna Hill describes herself as “dull by trade.” She loves being at home, entertaining, sewing, cooking, arranging flowers, and playing Bridge. “I have a knack and love for being at home, especially exercising and being with my grandchildren,” she says. After living and working at Blue Cross and Blue Shield in the marketing department for ten years, she retired to raise her children. After moving to Fairhope, Donna decided she needed something to do to earn income and started baking at home.

Word got around and she was beginning to get requests for her baked goods including the Rosemary butter cookies, old-fashioned cheese straws, and cakes. Donna had chaired the Thomas Hospital Foundation Grand Summer Ball, and a year later the board asked her to create a “take home” favor for 600 guests. She baked her Rosemary Butter Cookies and the guest fell in love with them. “I had everyone in town rolling cookies,” she says.

Donna still does everything the old-fashioned way when creating her cookies and cheese straws. The cookies are hand-rolled, sliced and baked, and packaged by hand. “Baking is a science,” she says. Rosemary Butter Cookies have a unique flavor and texture. She grows her Rosemary at home in her backyard. “We buy everything local, even the packaging.”

Soon, Donna started getting calls for her cookies. Greer’s Market ordered some, but she wasn’t legal to bake at home to meet demand. She got her business license, and her certification from the Health Department, which required taking a course and being inspected. She began baking cookies and cheese straws at the Methodist Church in Fairhope. They had a commercial kitchen. Using her graphic design background, she created the packaging and took examples to her Bridge Club for feedback and inspiration.

Other retailers and vendors began to order too, and she soon outgrew the church kitchen. She looked all over the area for a place to bake. Fortunately, her friends, Boyd and Gay Little had just built the Lodge at Oak Hollow Farm with a commercial kitchen that they weren’t using. She now employs seven people and bakes 4 to 5 times per week. “The Lodge kitchen is very clean, and I like clean!” says Donna.

Copeland Wood at Wood Fruitticher Grocery Company, a food broker/supplier in Birmingham took a keen interest in Donna's budding bakery business. “He’s been a real mentor,” she says. “He gave me two valuable pieces of advice; charge all wholesale customers the same price, and grow slowly, don’t be in a hurry.” 

In the beginning, Donna was baking, packaging, and delivering locally day by day. It took a while to figure out the process. “We’re still evolving,” she says. “Every now and then we have an aha moment.” The Rosemary needed to be finer, like coffee grinds, so she started using a coffee grinder to prepare the Rosemary.

Today, Cake By Donna products can be found in 8 states in the Southeast. They just delivered 25 cases of cookies and cheese straws to Langenstein’s Grocery in New Orleans. Locally, you can find her products at Greer’s, Rouses, Piggly Wiggly, Happy Olive, Provisions, Mosely’s, and Wine Knot in Mobile. They are producing tins and bags and do special packaging for the holidays with red and green tins. They also do special packaging for wedding gift baskets. 

Her employees are like family. “We’ve had really good luck with our team from all walks of life,’” she says. “We’ve had four different mother-daughter teams and someone who has been with us from the start who had been at Mary Ann’s Deli in Fairhope for 27 years."

Donna first earned her reputation by baking cakes. That’s where the Cake By Donna name came from, and it’s singular. She was baking two cakes this week and had baked six the week before. She was baking an Italian Cream Cake when I visited, but her most popular is her Strawberry Cake. She also does a 6-layer Lemon Doberge Cake. The 8-layer Chocolate Doberge Cake is also popular, as are her Fudge Bites.  

She had to back off the cake baking last year as she was diagnosed with breast cancer. “It was too time-consuming, and I needed to do a little reevaluation of my life and my priorities. ” It hasn’t slowed her down a bit. The day we met she was at her home with a table set for a luncheon she was hosting two days later. “I love being a Southern Lady and hostess. I use my degree every day and love what I do.”  

Donna has more energy than anyone I know. She says, “When I hit the floor in the morning, I’m like the Energizer Bunny, and that’s what people sometimes call me.”

Posted 
Oct 19, 2022
 in 
People & Business Profiles
 category

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