Sweetland creates cake-in-a-can concept

Visitors in downtown Winter Garden who are looking for something different when enjoying a sweet treat can pop into Jonason Zhang’s Sweetland Cake & Tea, an Asian-style bakery that gives dessert lovers a Japanese twist on the sweets they love.

Zhang’s wife, Cherry, and baker Joshua Grey are the dessert creators with a flair for elegance, as well as abundant flavors. The Zhangs have even won second place in an international baking competition.

The bakery is full of artful cakes and teas — and there’s an online option for ordering custom cakes — but Zhang is excited to introduce his new concept: the convenience of enjoying cake from a pop-top can.

CHIFFON CAKE-IN-A-CAN
Zhang always is thinking like an entrepreneur, and he goes outside the box with ideas to keep his products different and new.

Called Chiffon Cake-in-a-Can, the product is sold either at the counter of his bakery or through a customized vending machine he hopes to market and get placed in multiple public locations. He calls the dessert A-Merry-Can Cake, and although Zhang won’t share the secret of how he gets the cake inside the can, he guarantees customers will have no problem getting the delicious cake out.

Five flavors are available: Wild Strawberry, Oreo Chocolate, Coco Leche, Mango, and Matcha and Azuki, a traditional red bean dessert filling in Japan.

The can cakes have a shelf life of four weeks, although Zhang pulls them after one week to ensure freshness. Furthermore, his vending machine has a temperature gauge, and if the temperature goes too high, the machine automatically locks so customers can’t make a purchase.

One of the fun, pink vending machines is located inside his shop, but he’s building more.

“This vending machine and the can cake could be more acceptable to the people and convenient; they can get the cake anywhere at any time,” Zhang said. “I’m expecting in the next year my vending machine and my can cake can be recognized by local people.”

His plan is to expand into the hotel, shopping center and transportation markets. He said he already has received invitations from several local hotels.

ON THE MENU
Sweetland offer two bestsellers on a daily basis, the cakes and desserts, and the fruit and boba teas.

Customers can order artfully crafted whole cakes for special occasions, including elaborate wedding cakes, or buy by the slice: chiffon cakes, cheesecakes, crepe cakes and mousse cakes.

Zhang said his bakery focuses on flavor but also wants to deliver a healthier alternative to the traditional high-calorie, high-sugar sweets. The shop can bake no-sugar and low-sugar cakes, as well as dairy, non-dairy and gluten-free options.

He considers his downtown Winter Garden shop to be his test kitchen, where he and his team experiment with flavors and designs and new ideas for sweets.

“I’m bringing the Asian style and Japanese style, the most trending cakes and desserts, to the local community to see if the people love it or not,” he said. “They give me (a) very positive response.”

One of Zhang’s favorites is the planet cake, which is made with a chocolate shell. Once broken, there is a chiffon cake inside with special surprises.

Customers can go on the website to order custom cakes. In the next month, he plans to offer a cake-building app to make the process of ordering a unique cake even easier.

“If someone wants a graduation cake but they have no idea (how to start), I have several of them to choose from, but they can do some of the changes — size, color, lettering, flavors, filing,” Zhang said. “This app will be the first cake builder in the world.”

Drinks are a popular seller, especially during the farmers market hours on Saturdays. Sweetland offers a variety of tea and smoothie options, including cheese foam iced fresh fruit teas, boba teas, milk teas, fresh pure brewed teas and fruit smoothies.

BACKGROUND IN CREATIVITY
Zhang has an artistic background, which is evident in his cake creations, and it’s why he and his wife have formed a perfect partnership, he said.

Working well together was a plus, too, when it came time to build the shop. To save money, they installed the walls, the flooring and the ceiling. They designed the inviting pink interior together as well.

“(With) everything, we are very unique,” Zhang said. “We keep doing something new each month. I want the people; to see something different; I want to give them something new.”