At 42, Kimmie Barnett is longtime OWNER OF THE EROTIC BAKERY on North 45th Street in Wallingford.

Q: How did you get into such a business?

A: I bought it in 1999 from the original owner, who was a customer of ours. My husband's family owns Peekay Inc., all the Lover's Package stores and a chain in California called Touch of Romance. We manufacture and supply the entire adult market: vibrators, lotions, potions, lingerie. We are into relationship enhancement. I worked there almost 14 years as the company buyer, and I needed to slow down when I started having children, so my husband and I bought the bakery.

Q: What's your most popular item?

A: The 7-inch-round penis cake, followed by cupcakes. However, we can do anything. My line is: If you can dream it, we can sculpt it: The Eiffel Tower, the Space Needle. I've done Edgar Martinez! We do a great cake of a woman giving birth to a baby.

Q: Who's buying these erotic desserts?

A: No. 1 customer: A woman between the ages of 19 and 50 for a bachelorette party. What we're really selling is emotion. When your momma made you a birthday cake, you were thrilled. That cake was made for ME! So we personalize. If she's marrying a fireman, we put a fire hat and a hose on the cake.

Q: What are your biggest technical challenges?

A: To take the marzipan, which has no structure, and build it. Sometimes they want us to do a person in a particular position doing a particular thing. Say, fishing. Marzipan doesn't have bones, so it can't stand up.

Q: If you can do male anatomy, why not a fisherman?

A: Because we put two sticks in the penis. We tell them that before they walk out the door because we don't want anybody to get a throat injury.

Q: What's it like to have eroticism as your work?

A: Do you want a breast, penis or vagina? It's like saying, do you want paper or plastic? You look at the merchandise you sell and the concepts you present simply as what your line of work is. It's a commodity. Your biggest delight is that you give people what I call Wow Factor. You feel good you were able to make someone laugh.

Q: Does that make romance and eroticism mundane in your personal life?

A: Absolutely not. My heart pitter-patters every time I look at my husband. I still get butterflies. We've been married for 15 years.

Q: Why do people need erotic cakes?

A: It's not just about eroticism and romance. It's about playfulness. You know, monogamous couples taking the time to keep those butterflies in their stomach. When you come in here and buy Kama Sutra Oil of Love, you're saying, I'm going to go home and make that spark. I want my partner to look at me the same way as at that first candlelight dinner. That's what really keeps the relationship alive, isn't it?

Q: Is there ever any controversy around your store?

A: Never, ever since I bought it. We're upstanding members of the Chamber of Commerce. The fine district of Wallingford has been great to us. People love us because, sooner or later, everybody needs a cake.

Q: When you had breast cancer, did your staff make a breast cake for you?

A: No, but they shaved their heads in support when I was having chemo. Men and women. I'll never forget that. That was big.

We do make an amazing amount of breast-cancer cakes. We usually make a single breast with a pink ribbon. Or a breast with little stitches.