by Bailey White
Staff Writer
If the line of people waiting to get a piece of one of Alvin Smalls’ cake is any indication, his desserts are worth waiting for.
Small has been at the downtown farmers market, selling cakes and pies almost every Friday, for a year. And in that time he’s built quite a following.
“I do my best to make my products tasteful,” he said. “Everything is homemade with my own recipe.”
From a classic yellow cake with chocolate icing to a cake topped with sliced fresh strawberries — “That one releases the most wonderful aroma when you slice into it,” he said, — there’s a wide variety to be found.
“The coconut cake is my number one seller,” said Smalls. “I also do devil’s food cake, lemon cake, red velvet cake, German chocolate, sour cream and walnut pound cakes, sweet potato pie and banana cake.”
Smalls, a native of Bradenton, developed his cooking and bakings skills early.
“In our family [Smalls is the fourth of nine children], my mother did all the cooking Sunday through Thursday,” he said. “But Fridays and Saturdays, we had to fend for ourselves. If you wanted to eat you had to cook for yourself, and I like to eat.”
Smalls eventually cultivated his love for food and cooking into a career.
He attended the University of Tampa and E.T. Martin in Tennessee, playing football at both schools and majoring in secondary education.
“Then I moved to Jacksonville in 1982 to play football for the semi-pro team, the Firebirds,” said Smalls. “But God had other plans for me.”
After a year on the team, Smalls moved to restaurant management, spending 13 years at two different restaurants.
In 1998, he went to work for his church, the Potter’s Hand on the Westside, acting as a chef at the cafe and as the director of the church’s food ministry.
“Now, I cook for the special events at the church and, as the director of the food ministry, oversee food preparation for things like weddings and funerals,” he said.
When a couple of members at Downtown Vision, Inc., the group that organizes the farmers market, tasted his cooking, they convinced him to bring his wares downtown.
He starts baking on Wednesday in the commercial-sized kitchen at the church and usually brings about 25 cakes with him on Friday.
Sometimes his children — he has 10, ranging in age from two to 24, will join him, helping by stuffing forks and napkins into brown paper bags.
He sells whole cakes and by the slice and many of his regulars put in orders a week in advance.
“Every now and then I may add a new recipe,” he said. “But I have to make them my own. I have to perfect each item before I go on to the next one.”