Dual businesses: In Sonoma Valley, Pool Mart and the Cake Corner serve up supplies and confections

Chlorine and confections may seem an unlikely business pairing, but together they’re a longtime success at Pool Mart and the Cake Corner in Sonoma Valley.

Operating under the same roof along Highway 12, the dual businesses are owned by Ray and Lillian Brunton, who are as knowledgeable about fondant icing as they are pH levels in swimming pools.

The two specialties have a steady following, from spa and pool owners to home bakers and candy makers. Pool Mart offers swimming pool and spa supplies and equipment as well as cleaning and maintenance services, while the Cake Corner carries a wide selection of items for candy making, and baking and decorating cakes, cookies and cupcakes.

First-time shoppers, though, can experience a double-take when they expect one business and discover the other.

“They do when they aren’t aware of it,” said Lillian Brunton, a skilled baker long known for making beautifully decorated cakes for various church programs, fundraisers and private celebrations.

While the Cake Corner was introduced about 30 years ago, the pool service, products and maintenance business goes back to the early 1950s, when her parents, Otto and Theresa Burgmeier, established one of the first businesses of its kind in Northern California.

“This has been it. It’s always been in this spot,” Brunton said, adding that the building’s rooftop was designed to resemble a kidney-shaped swimming pool. She and her husband took over the business 40 years ago and added the Cake Corner at the urging of friends with a swimming pool-cake supply business in Yuba City.

While it once occupied a tiny corner in the back of the store, today the Cake Corner shares equal space.

The front of the store is dedicated to pool and spa supplies, while cake and candy supplies are toward the back, with a separate room for cake decorating and candy-making classes, gingerbread house workshops and panoramic sugar Easter egg sessions Brunton teaches for adults and children.

Shoppers seeking lollipop molds, colorful cupcake liners, decorative sprinkles and novelty cake pans leave as satisfied as those looking for pool and spa chemicals, filters, cleaning attachments, and inflatable toys and tubes shaped like flamingos, ducks and dolphins.

Call 707-996-6213, visit poolmartsonoma.com or cakecornersonoma.com or stop by 16721 Highway 12 in Sonoma Valley.