Former police officer sees sweet success in dessert company

Danelle Bentley had always used baking as a form of stress relief while working as a police officer for the city of Tacoma.

She got married, and had her daughter Kayla. After being a stay-at-home mom for years, when Bentley and her husband got divorced, she jumped back into the working world.

She got a job working day shifts at the court house for the King County Sheriff’s office. Still, Bentley thought she wasn’t spending enough time with now-13-year-old Kayla.

“God put me on this earth to be her mom,” the South Hill resident said. “Opening my own business has been an answer to my prayers.”

Long before Bentley’s contract in law enforcement expired, she would bake her signature triple chocolate cheesecakes for her friends and family. They often would tell her she could start her own business selling cheesecakes.

She brushed off the idea. When she would make her signature desserts for auctions, they would sell for upward of $500, with one going for more than $700.

Once Bentley was spending only a few hours a night with her daughter after she finished her duties at the court house, she had had enough.

So in April, she opened D'Lectable Desserts, operating out of a commercial kitchen in Fife. While she makes primarily cheesecakes and cheesecake bars, her business has since expanded its scope, making sandwich rolls, muffins and more for local businesses such as Arista Pasta and the Mid Town Grill in Bonney Lake.

Opening her own business has allowed the 47-year-old to work around her daughter’s schedule.

“She is the reason I am here,” she said. “It is why I’m doing this, to be there for Kayla.”

With flavors like caramel apple, salted caramel, cookies and cream, double chocolate and more, Bentley says she just makes whatever sounds good to her.

“I do have to sample all of it,” she said. “I just make whatever sounds good for me.”

And when she has to use ingredients that she isn’t so fond of, such as pumpkin or zucchini, she has somebody else taste test it just to make sure she is producing the best product possible.

Ultimately, Bentley credits her sweet success to her strong faith in God.

“This just shows that amazing things can happen when you put your faith in God,” she said.

This story was originally published September 28, 2015 at 4:17 PM with the headline "Former police officer sees sweet success in dessert company."