Politics & Government
Upper Macungie Zoners OK Cake Ball Business
Resident of Woodbrush Way in township asks to start side business making cake balls.
Astrid Radermacher, of Upper Macungie, has no plans to turn her home into a stage for the Food Channel’s “Cupcake Wars”; she just wants to start a side business selling cake balls.
On Wednesday, township Zoning Hearing Board members said that’s fine by them.
Cake balls, for the uninitiated, are crumbled up cake, mixed with peanut butter, icing or jam and covered with chocolate or other coatings. Radermacher, of 4553 Woodbrush Way, said she started making cake balls a few years ago for friends’ parties and found she had a hit on her hands.
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“Everyone who has ever tried them loves them,” Radermacher said. “People told me, 'These are great, you should go into business.' ”
So she and a friend decided to start making them out of her home for delivery for parties and other functions. She was required to come before the township zoners because her friend is considered an employee.
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Radermacher assured the zoning board that the side business would not generate traffic because she and her friend would be delivering the cake balls, not having customers come to the house to pick up the treats. “This is purely a side business,” she said. “We both have full time jobs.”
She estimated that they would probably be baking and delivering the desserts a couple of times a month and won’t require any truck deliveries because they’ll purchase their ingredients at local stores.
“I don’t want trucks coming to my house,” Radermacher said.
The business would take about 10 hours a week and would not create noise or other disturbances to the neighborhood, she said. Her friend will park in her driveway.
The zoning board gave unanimous approval for a special exception to permit the side business in the property zoned R-5 residential. Board members stipulated that if Radermacher’s business grew to include more employees or expanded beyond what she described, she would have to come back before the board.
Radermacher said the state Department of Agriculture has to approve the use of her kitchen but she hopes to have the business running in a month or two.
