CAKE BOSS

Charles E. Entenmann, Who Brought Baked Goods to Supermarkets Across the Nation, Dies at 92

Signs at grocery aisles across the nation will be displayed at half-staff.

Raise your tiny powdered donuts in salute, for a cake luminary’s candle has flickered out. Charles E. Entenmann, who catapulted his family name into grocery aisles across the nation with a signature line of white boxes and delicious baked goods, died of heart complications on Feb. 24, according to his son. He was 92. His company, Entenmann’s, offered more than 100 varieties of cakes, cookies, donuts, and brownies and were a staple of Saturday morning cartoon rituals. That empire was carefully cultivated by Entenmann from his family’s humble bakery in Bay Shore, New York. His grandfather, an immigrant from Germany, had launched the business out of Brooklyn in 1898, according to Newsday. Entenmann, who was born in 1929 and went by Charlie, grew up working at the bakery alongside his two brothers. The trio worked to grow the family business into a national behemoth, selling wholesale to supermarkets and introducing the brand’s signature see-through packaging before the family sold the business for $233 million in 1978. But, according to his son, Charlie wasn’t one for indulging in his own products. “He just wasn’t a dessert guy,” he told Newsday.