By Mollee Francisco

At first bite, the flavor of red wine commands the attention of the taste buds, filling the mouth with a happy, warm sensation. As that passes, along comes the taste of smooth, decadent chocolate icing. And finally, the moist cinnamon cake completes the savory experience.

“It isn’t for everyone,” warned Hiltrud Steimel of her Red Wine Cake. “You have to have the right palate.”

But this Eden Prairie resident is placing her bets that some will have an interest in her rich cakes and has teamed up with Dave Blackowiak, owner of Chaska Bakery, to make her cakes available to the public. In doing so, Steimel hopes to reignite people’s interest in dessert.

Steimel, who emigrated from Germany some three decades ago, still recalls the splendor of Sunday afternoon meals spent with her family in the Nahe River Valley.

“We would eat our meal and then the women would do the dishes while the men talked,” said Steimel. “Then my grandmother would come out with a white linen tablecloth and we would have coffee and cake. I always looked forward to that.”

Steimel is still using some of her grandmother’s recipes for her cakes.

“These are all made out of the Rhineland tradition,” she said.

That means “six or seven ingredients and you can pronounce all of them,” she noted. In a time when preservatives and chemical compounds rule the ingredients list on the majority of the foods Americans consume, Steimel is adamant about using only organic products in her cakes.

“That makes all the difference,” she said. “If you substitute anything, you’ll notice.”

But finding a bakery willing to put in the extra time and effort to make her cakes the way she wanted them made wasn’t easy.

“Nobody would take me,” she said. “But I wasn’t going to buckle down.

“If there’s a vision, there’s provision,” she added.

For two years, Steimel called bakery after bakery trying to strike a deal. It wasn’t until she called Blackowiak at the Chaska Bakery that she found anyone willing to entertain the idea. The irony in that was that Steimel used to work at Norseman Travel and would often walk the few blocks to get a roll at Blackowiak’s bakery.

“Dave didn’t blink an eye,” she said. “He understood what I wanted to do and didn’t think I was a weird old lady.”

“It’s unique,” Blackowiak said. “And definitely something the public is looking for as natural foods are coming back.”

He liked the sound of the cakes as well as the notion that they needed to be made from scratch.

“That’s how we do things here,” he said. “I’m trying to keep that tradition alive.”

Signature cakes

Steimel has now shared the top secret recipes for her three signature cakes- the Red Wine Cake, the Apricot Almond Cake and My Daughter’s Favorite Cake- with Blackowiak.

Orders will be placed through her Web site and passed along to Blackowiak to bake. They will then package and ship them via two-day delivery. The duo is starting now in the hopes that they’ll be “very much prepared for Thanksgiving and Christmas.”

That’s because these aren’t your every day kind of cakes.

“They’re special occasion cakes,” said Blackowiak.

And their price, $60 a piece, reflects that. Steimel said the price takes in the high cost of using organic ingredients, but she also points out that the cost is comparable to other things Americans buy on a daily basis.

“A slice of this cake costs about what you’d pay for a latte,” she said. Each cake serves 12-14 people.

For now, Steimel is only selling three kinds of cakes, but eventually she hopes to add a couple more. Steimel and Blackowiak are also working to source their ingredients from regional food producers to show their support for local growers – much the way it would have been done in her homeland.

Though Steimel is well assimilated to American culture, she is happy to bring a little piece of her Germany to those who show interest.

“For people who have the right palate, it’s a wonderful thing to try something new,” she said.

TELL US: Do you make a scrumptious dish that people say you should go into business with?

President: Hiltrud Steimel

Baker: Dave, Blackowiak, Chaska Bakery

Cost: $38-60, plus shipping

www.rhinelandcakeandwine.com

Steimel’s three signature cakes

Red Wine Cake- Cocoa, cinnamon and a bit red wine from the Rhineland.

Apricot Almond Cake- Dried apricots and finely ground almonds.

My Daughter’s Favorite Cake- Plump, juicy raisins and a hint of natural vanilla in addition to the butter, flour, and eggs.