Willow Wonka bars celebrate bakery's 20th anniversary

When Catherine O’Donnell walks beside the cake she is creating for this year’s Canada Day parade along Queen Street, she will be celebrating two special occasions.

Willow Cakes and Pastries opened Canada Day, July 1, 2004, so as O’Donnell helps celebrate the nation’s birthday with the rest of the country, she will also be revealing the popular bakery’s annual cake, which will represent Willow’s 20th anniversary, while at the same time winding up a month-long event she planned with family, friends for her bakery patrons.

Anyone who has spent more than $20 or more at the shop in the month of June will have received a Willow Wonka chocolate bar, and with it comes a chance to win a prize valued at $200 or more.

Willow’s Sean O’Donnell told The Local about 1,000 bars will have been given away by the end of the month. The prizes will be awarded, naturally, on July 1, after the traditional cake walk and cutting of the cake in Simcoe Park.

“We really wanted to do something special to celebrate our 20th anniversary,” said Sean. Catherine, he explained, had been discussing ideas with a friend, and came up a way to give out prizes that day.

In addition to the idea of the chocolate bar, in an effort to make it “more visual, and fun,” they designed a graphic for the wrapper that can only be Catherine, “with her blonde hair and blue eyes,” said Sean.

They also printed up golden tickets to put inside the bars. Originally there were to be 20 prizes, most with a $200 value, but now it’s up to 25, some of greater value, he said, many of them either gift baskets or gift certificate packages.

After the parade, the winning tickets can be redeemed at the store.

This year “is the only time in the 17 years we’ve made the Canada Day cake that we’re letting the secret out” about the theme for it  — that is usually kept under wraps until it’s seen in public on the day of the parade. The theme, Sean said, will also be “a testament to Willow’s 20 years in business. It will be fanciful and whimsical, integrating the crowd into the cake, with Willow Wonka characters,” although he hadn’t yet seen them.

Because of the recent heatwave, Catherine had put off starting them, although she was expected to begin this past weekend. And while the theme will be no secret, the characters, always delightful, will still be a surprise.