Location announced for former La Cakerie chef's new Timonium venture: Cake by Jason

After six years at the helm of La Cakerie on Allegheny Avenue, executive chef Jason Hisley announced in October he would step down to pursue a new venture in Timonium.

Plans for his new shop — called Cake by Jason Hisley — have been kept under wraps since then, but the patisserie and cake shop officially has a new home at 47 E. Padonia Road in Timonium.

Though nowhere near finished, construction is well underway as workers have stripped down to the concrete foundation the 3,557-square-foot space in the Padonia Village Shopping Center.

The Timonium store is set to open in April in the space that formerly housed SAS Shoes. The shoe store closed at the site about two years ago, according to Continental Realty Corp., the property’s leasing company.

“Parking was key,” said Hisley of the space in the suburban shopping plaza off York Road. “This is also a central location with good access to the city or the county. In every other store I’ve ever had parking was an issue. We don’t want people having to maneuver down the street with these elaborate cakes.”

Hisley was an owner of La Cakerie, which has locations in downtown Towson, Mount Vernon and Bel Air, but sold his ownership in the company to pursue the new bakery with La Cakerie’s former weddings and events coordinator Kelly Sokolis.

The new shop will be a chance to get back to his vision of a local bakery, said Hisley, who is known for appearances on several Food Network shows, including Cupcake Wars and Cake Wars.

Hisley and Sokolis will open with a core group of three employees in the bakery and expect to hire a few additional retail employees to support the bakery.

“My vision for La Cakerie was to introduce a small, cozy, comfortable shop where our community could enter in one mood, and leave happier than when they entered,” Hisley wrote on Facebook when he announced his departure last fall, “a shop that put building relationships on the same tier as using the highest-quality ingredients in every element that we shared. As the brand became more recognized by a national audience, it became less recognizable as the vision I had of a small Baltimore shop when our journey began.”

Plans for the new space will make use of the loft-like, 15-foot ceilings with industrial design in a “comfy and cozy atmosphere,” with bar seating facing the front windows, Hisley said.

A glass-enclosed kitchen will allow customers to see the entire baking process.

The store will also offer workshops, parties and classes alongside grab-and-go Zeke’s coffee, pastries, cupcakes, doughnuts and cookies, but the main focus will be on “high-end” cake design, Hisley said.

“[At] a lot of retail bakeries, you go in and grab what you need; but there’s so much else that goes into baking a cake,” Hisley said. “For me it’s about creating a high-end bakery that’s also focused on the community.”

Cake by Jason Hisley will be open 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays and will be closed on Sundays. The opening date and grand opening celebration details will be posted to Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/cakebyjason.

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