SPRINGFIELD – Vanessa Hatten was recovering from surgery and didn’t like the sense of inactivity. Seeing the image of a bright red ripe strawberry in a TV ad gave her an idea: why not make a strawberry pound cake?

The Springfield resident had been making a lemon pound cake for her family for 20 years, but she thought strawberry would be a great flavor as well. The cake was a success and her next thought was “What can I do next?”

Out of that experience “Poundkakes of Love” was born, Hatten’s baking business. Seven years later she said her business has been “growing and growing.”

As she recalled on her website, “Since I could do nothing but think, my mind starting thinking ‘hmmm, I wonder what I could do with those strawberries.’ With the assistance of a close friend, I purchased some of those strawberries and baked my first strawberry pound cake, which I shared with my family and close friends. Their positive comments, reactions and look on their faces gave me the confidence to try many other flavors/fruits. My juices started to flow and the possibilities seemed endless. I started to share my creations with others outside of my circle. The reactions were the same. Every time I presented a new flavor, it became their new favorite.”

Since that first strawberry pound cake she has developed and baked 85 flavors of pound cake.  Among them are ginger bread, apple/walnut, carrot, chocolate chip, peanut butter, key lime, mango, almond, spiced rum raisin and many more.    

She also has multi-layered pound cakes: a banana split, a Neapolitan and a patriotic cake with cherry, lemon and blueberry layers.  She uses other desserts as inspiration for flavors, such as banana pudding, which includes vanilla wafers in the cake, just like the dessert. She has a pumpkin pie flavor as well as strawberry cheesecake.

She also varies the flavors she bakes with the time of the year.

What are her most requested flavors? She said banana pudding, sweet potato and coconut pineapple.

Hatten bakes her cakes in a bakery in Wilbraham and sells them by order and at various venues such farmers markets. Now retired from a career in insurance, Hatten admits she would love to own bakeshop.

Her cakes do not use any artificial flavors and she doesn’t frost the cakes, as she believes they are flavorful and moist without it.  

Hatten bakes the cakes in batches of three and it’s a slow process with a baking time of two hours.

“It smells so good,” she said.

To introduce potential customers to her pound cakes she will prepare samples packs with seven different cakes.

Hatten bakes to order and needs three-five days notice so she can obtain the ingredients she needs.

“Everything is fresh,” she added.

She said, “I’m creative. I love to make people happy.”

For more information, go to www.poundkakes.com.