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Fort Worth businesswoman Sandi Wilson sells her Chuckwagon Nutcakes at food shows and holiday markets across the state. (Courtesy photo | Chuckwagon Nutcakes)
” data-medium-file=”https://fortworthreport.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/Sandi-at-The-Table-e1725659546647.jpg?fit=217%2C300&ssl=1″ data-large-file=”https://fortworthreport.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/Sandi-at-The-Table-e1725659546647.jpg?fit=741,1024&ssl=1″ tabindex=”0″ role=”button”>Editor’s note: Made in Tarrant is an occasional Q&A series on small businesses started in Tarrant County. Submit your business here. Sandi Wilson is the founder and owner of Fort Worth-based Chuckwagon Nutcakes. The small business sells handcrafted artisan cakes with ingredients such as nuts, fruit, milk chocolate, dark chocolate, pineapple and huckleberry.Chuckwagon Nutcakes initially started as an activity Wilson could do with her widowed mother, but pivoted into a small business as she found her unique cakes — including Chisholm Chocolate Cherry Jalapeno Nutcake and Longhorn Milk Chocolate Toffee Nutcake — were popular and filled a niche in the gourmet food market. Wilson, along with her husband, Charles, travels across the state selling her products at food shows and makes cakes from a commercial kitchen in Fort Worth where customers can also pick up products by appointment.Contact information: Website: https://chuckwagonnutcakes.squarespace.com/Email: fromtrailtotable@gmail.comPhone: 817-412-9860Store address: 3789 N. Beach St., Suite 209, Fort WorthEric Garcia: How did you decide to make nutcakes?Sandi Wilson: My initial catalyst was my mother, who was in her upper 80s when they had closed a program she was involved in. I thought about what I could do to get her off the couch. I remembered a flourless fruitcake she used to make, so I asked her, ‘Mom, why don’t I take that flourless fruitcake idea and do my own version? … I created four new recipes, got it going, branded it and got a d/b/a (doing business as) and hit a trade show and it was very successful.Garcia: How did your business evolve after that initial show?Wilson: When I told my mom that we should expand the business, she said, ‘I don’t want to be in a business.’ I’m an extremely creative person. I had this company and four initial recipes, but I really didn’t do anything with it for a while. But I kept on doing shows around Texas, Christmas markets, food and wine shows. People would come up to us and ask, ‘What is a nutcake?’ I told them it was similar to a fruitcake, which we also sold. Some people heard the fruitcake label and said, ‘Uggh!’ We had some fun conversations about fruitcake! We sold fruitcakes — citrus, citrus with jalapeno. That’s what everybody wanted. … But not every cake we do is a fruitcake.Garcia: Is it hard to make a nutcake?Wilson: All our nutcakes have pecans; some have pistachios and almonds. They don’t have flour, eggs or vegetable oil. Those are things that make a cake buttery and soft. Our nutcakes are very dense, but extremely flavorful. You don’t need to eat a lot to enjoy it. Once the recipe is made, it is scooped into a pan and pressed into the pan several times. We toast our own coconut, which is used as a binding agent. We use a lot of coconut in our recipes.Garcia: Tell me about your products.Wilson: We have a basic menu with items that we constantly sell. We have cakes with dark and milk chocolate, jalapenos, cherries, huckleberries as well as nut mixes that we also create. We also have seasonal items such as our spiced wagon cake with bourbon, which I describe as Christmas in a bag. For Christmas shows, we’ll get started on items for those in about a month. Garcia: Did you decide on a Western theme for your business because you are located in Fort Worth?Wilson: (Laughs). Actually, no. The name speaks to our heritage growing up. We spent a lot of time around cattle and ranches so it speaks to the heritage of the cattle trail. On cattle drives, they used a lot of dried fruit and nuts in handheld pies that nourished them along the way. In those early days, they would make something similar to our nutcakes. They were convenient to eat and provided sustenance until they could eat something hot.Garcia: How can people buy your products?Wilson: We don’t have an actual brick-and-mortar store, but we are looking. We sell mostly at shows. Customers text me or email me, let me know what they want. They can stop by our commercial kitchen, which has a counter with it, and pick them up. We’re not at the kitchen every day so people can’t just stop in. They have to have an appointment. We sell a lot of our products through our website too.Garcia: What kind of feedback have you received from customers?Wilson: We get a great response anywhere we go. No one’s ever seen anything so unique to the market. We’re also part of the (Texas Department of Agriculture’s) Go Texan program, which also gives us an advantage. It does take a bit of explanation, but most people, I’m honestly saying, they taste it and buy it. We started selling at a show in Fredericksburg and we’re absolutely stunned by the response. We go to a show in Plano and can’t keep up with the customer demand. We’ll be at the Clearfork Holiday Market (in Fort Worth in December) and we’ll get slammed.Garcia: How are nutcakes different from regular cake?Wilson: With a regular cake, you get a big slice and eat the whole thing. Since our products are extremely flavorful, I tell customers they can cut them into 32 1-inch squares. We also have a line of energy balls for people who don’t want a lot of added sugar. They are sweetened with dates and dried fruit so it makes a delicious treat.Garcia: What is your favorite product you make?Wilson: That’s really hard for me. I tend to love each one of my creations.Eric E. Garcia is a senior business reporter at the Fort Worth Report. Contact him at eric.garcia@fortworthreport.org. At the Fort Worth Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here.