Our Story

Have your cake and eat your candles, too!

At my youngest son’s 12th birthday party,* I watched the wax candles killing themselves on the freshly whipped icing. Generic and artificial, these candles didn’t deserve the pedestal upon which they puddled.

*Party not pictured.

I’m trained as an architect, devoted to details, and birthday candles were ripe for revision.I took classes at Chicago’s French Pastry School and the Chocolate Academy, created prototypes, engaged consultants, tested wicks. I designed custom moulds, packaging, and a website. I enrolled in a “food business 101” class and joined an incubator.

The first bakeries I approached were excited about Let Them Eat Candles, and so were their customers. Gradually word spread, boosted by national recognition from Martha Stewart’s American Made contest, and a launch on TheGrommet.com. Behind the scenes my dad cut wicks, and I did everything from sourcing, to tempering and moulding chocolate to packing, shipping, and bookkeeping. It was exciting and gratifying and exhausting and unsustainable.

I found an incredible manufacturing partner, ordered pre-cut wicks, replaced my few dozen silicone moulds with a few hundred polycarbonates, and tweaked the product and packaging to work on sophisticated robotic equipment. Making candles was still a labor of love – just not my labor alone!

Today Let Them Eat Candles can be found at hundreds of stores nationwide, and we’ve got more products in the works.

Thanks for being part of this quiet revolution.

Shine on!

The world can never have too many joyful celebrations.