Councilwoman’s Tradition Takes the Cake : Calabasas: Karyn Foley’s homemade treats help sweeten lengthy city meetings.

The hungry exodus generally starts about 10 p.m. as the Calabasas City Council meeting grinds into its third tortuous hour.

As debate plods on, the five council members slowly leave their seats at the dais one by one and meander to the back of the room in search of something to fuel them through the night.

They find it in cakes made by Councilwoman Karyn Foley, who has started a tasty tradition in the new city: sweetening sometimes bitter meetings with plates of baked goodies.

“I’m Jewish and food is a sign of welcome,” Foley said. “I want to make people welcome and make them feel comfortable.”

Since the council’s first meeting in May, Foley--whose motto is “Life is so uncertain, go for desserts first”--has served up two or three cakes at each biweekly meeting, including mocha angel food, regular angel food, lemon angel food and chocolate chip.

She plans spice and carrot cakes for the holidays.

No fruitcake.

All are baked the afternoon prior to meetings and often are still warm when the opening gavel falls.

The one exception will be next week when Foley will thaw frozen cookies because she will be out of town before the meeting.

“I’d get a lot of flak if I came without anything,” Foley said.

Indeed, regulars at the meetings debate the merits of Foley’s council cakes as much as the lawmakers discuss zoning and grading.

The lemon was best, whispered one woman to another as the two ate chocolate cake recently.

Council members generally refrain from eating until later in the meetings, which begin at 7:30 p.m. and often stretch until 2 a.m. or later.

“Dinner for me has kind of become, ‘Get out of the meeting and drive through the Jack-in-the-Box,’ but we get out so late even Jack-in-the-Box is closed,” Councilwoman Lesley Devine said. “Karyn’s cake is like sustenance.”

Foley’s tradition began as a way for her to get rid of sweets around her house as she tried to shed a few pounds.

She took candy to the first meeting and then brought a half-eaten cake from her election victory party.

“Then it started,” Foley said. “Everyone asked me, ‘So what are you bringing to the next meeting?’ People started expecting it.”

Apparently so.

“Here’s the real reason for coming,” one woman said recently as she sliced off a hefty piece of lemon angel food.