Interview – Cheryl Day of Back in the Day Bakery!

I can't tell you how thrilled I am to be able to do this interview. Cheryl Day, owner of Back in the Day Bakery, is a very accomplished baker. Her cupcakes have been voted the best in the country. She's been in several magazines, the New York Times, and even appeared on the Paula Deen Show. (here's a link to that show) Located in Savannah, Georgia, her bakery is a tourist destination. It has that vintage/retro/shabby chic look and feel that I absolutely adore. I've wanted to visit Savannah for a long time and if I ever do get to go there, her bakery will be the first place I go! It's so sooo kind of her to take the time to answer my questions about starting a bakery business and to allow me to share them with you.

Here's what Cheryl wrote for the "about me" section of her blog Buttercream and Roses–

It all began with an easy bake oven. I am a newly-wed and own a bakery with my husband in Savannah, GA. I have the best job in the world, and I'm on a path to discovering the people who share my passion for life, learning, baking, and growing as a person. I love everything about baking and the fascination with what you can do with a few simple ingredients. It is impossible to measure the happiness I bring to others on a daily basis and the joy it brings me in return. Baking from scratch is a lost art and I am determined to carry on the tradition of baking from the heart.


So, it all began with an Easy Bake oven (the best toy ever!) Do you remember anything special that you made with your Easy Bake?

The "Baby cake" that I make was inspired by my early days of baking with my easy bake oven.

I read that your grandma and your mom taught you how to bake. Do you have any special memories of baking with them that you’d like to share?

Ah Memories...I lost my mom at an early age, so baking is all about memories for me. Just the other day I was making buttermilk biscuits and I found myself day dreaming about my mother's hands showing me how to dock the tops with a fork.I always find comfort in knowing that I can reach in the pantry and gather just a few humble ingredients, bake something delicious and be transformed to my childhood.


What did you do before you opened your bakery? Did you go to college? If so, what did you study? Did you always dream of having a bakery? What lead to the decision to open Back in the Day Bakery?

I owned a mini department store with my sister. We sold everything from trendy womens & childrens clothing, furntiure, apothecary all decorated in a very vintage shabby chic kind of way. I did go to college, but I dropped out when my mom passed away. I am a self taught baker. I did not go to a fancy pastry school. Whenever I have a challenge in the kitchen, I'll say I suppose I would have learned that in pastry school. I was always the one to bring dessert to the party, but none of my friends actually paid me to do it. So I never really thought of it as a career choice, I have always enjoyed feeding people. It is still amazing that I get paid to do it now.

I’m interested in knowing what was going on in your life about six months to a year before you opened the bakery and then what life was like that first year after the bakery opened.

I was in retail and NOT loving it. I loved the customer service aspect and meeting new people, but I was at a point in my life that I was determined to become the person I always wanted to be. That was running some sort of food related business. My husband and my sister encouraged me to take the leap of faith and my husband took it with me. We started researching like crazy, testing recipes, looking for packaging and thinking of what we wanted our place to feel like. Of course keep in mind, I was still a "Home" baker and what I would soon discover was that there was a BIG difference. My friend & mentor Jane owned the best bakery in Atlanta and she consulted with us (Money well spent) and came to help us make the transition from home bakers to running a professional bakery. The biggest change was realizing that we had to consider production time and that we couldn't spend all day working on one product when I had bakery cases to fill. We quickly learned short cuts without compromising quality. Time after all is money so this all has to be factored into pricing.
I remember being soooo scared. We had worked so hard building out the space mostly ourselves, spent ALL our money paying professional contractors (electricians, plumbers, sheet rockers) and now it was time to open the doors for business.
It was just my husband and I. Zero employees. We would alternate our baking schedules and then wait on customers too. Alot had changed since we first had the "thought" of opening our own bakery because the financing fell thru and we spent all of our savings, credit cards to get the doors open. So FAILURE was not an option for us. I remember feeling overwhelmed, but still very hopeful.The first year was alot of hard work and at the end of that year we hired our first front of house employee.

What was it that made you decide, “I’m going to open my own bakery” ? How much time did you spend planning your bakery before you opened it?

At the time there were NO high end quality artisan bakeries in Savannah. I knew that I wanted to do some sort of food related business.
Baking was our specialty and we had a lot of fond memories about bakeries. We thought it would be less capital because we knew that we could run it ourselves without having to hire wait staff etc. until we built up our customer base. So we just went for it!It was about 2 years from the vision until we opened our doors.

Did you have to write up a business plan and look for financing? Was the decision to start your own business scary? Did you ever have any doubts about what you were doing?

Yes we did write a business plan and looked for financing, but got turned down by every bank & the city entreprenurial program. We went to the SBA & looking back I think the reason why we did not get any money from those sources is because NO ONE believed that our idea had merit. They simply didn't believe in us. We had no real experience so I suppose I can't really blame them. The funny thing is, I was recently asked to teach classes on "branding" by the the city entreprenrial center. Was I scared? Absolutely I doubted my ability to do it for a long time. I questioned if we were good enough. Then people kept coming. We got voted best bakery, best cupcakes in the country and on and on...We kept getting more and more recognition and accolades. So I finally stopped doubting myself and focused on making us better.

After the bakery opened… What was the most difficult part of running your new business? What was the most exciting/satisfying part of having your own bakery?

The most difficult thing was the long hours & the pressure that we could not even take a day off if we are sick. Working in a kitchen is not glamorous. It is a lot of pressure to put out a consistent product every day. Questioning whether or not we could keep up with demand especially since we bake everything from scratch. It is a lot of dish washing & toilet scrubbing too. The most exciting thing was people buying what we made and loving it! It was so exciting to meet our loyal customers and talking about food with others that were as passionate about it as we were. Also knowing that we had a great product was very rewarding. People seemed to really appreciate what we were doing.

Now… What is the most difficult part of running your business and what is the best part? What is a typical day like for you?

The most difficult thing is finding good employees. It is like finding a needle in a haystack. Baking is not a career goal for many people. It comes so naturally for my husband and I, and we have worked so hard to build our reputation of quality. It is hard to find others with that same sort of dedication.
My work day right now is from 4:30 to 4:30 and it is non stop. During the holidays, we work 16 hour days. I have worked 19 hour days I think that is because I still wear a lot of hats. There's really no typical day.

If someone oversleeps or calls in sick, I am the front girl juggling the rest of my baking & decorating projects for the day.

I still love to bake just as much as the first day we opened, but I would love to clone myself.

You make everything from scratch. How do you manage your time and get everything done without going crazy?

Who said I wasn't crazy! LOL Seriously, After 5 years I am still working out the kinks. BUT we are always committed to making everything from scratch. This year I am determined to train my clone and be less of a control freak.

How did you decide on a location?

Back in the Day Bakery has gotten lots of great publicity and has become a tourist destination. This has to be exciting. Has this changed the way you run your business? How do you meet the demands brought about by all your success and publicity?

We chose our location which is a "transitional" neighborhood & a lot of people thought we were crazy. The reasoning was twofold because we wanted to be a neighborhood bakery and for financial reasons. Based on this, we knew we had to be REALLY Really good and we thought as long as we were centrally located people would come. Then of course we started to get some great press NY Times, Food Network etc. and then we became a destination for tourists.

Just for fun… What is your favorite dessert to make?

I love baking cakes and cupcakes.

Is there a certain special tool or supply you could not live without?

A 50 cent bowl scraper is the best tool ever for adding dry ingredients as you mix and a multitude of other uses.

Finally, what advice would you give to someone who wants to start their own bakery or baking business?

If you are passionate, have a great work ethic, can multi task, and dedicated to your dream, then go for it!

Don't think you can depend on others because you can't. At the end of the day remember it is YOUR dream.
Yes you can!
Finally, remember don't think you can be everything to everybody.

Note: I don't know what's going on with the formatting for this post. Please ignore the various fonts and font sizes. Blogger just seems to be acting wierd.

Interview- The Constant Baker

This is why I started this blog. I wanted to connect with people who have their own baking business, to find out how they got started and how they keep their business going.

Catherine Slye of She's Sew Slye was kind enough to introduce me to Connie Martin owner of The Constant Baker. Connie allowed me to interview her via e-mail. I think her answers to my questions are very interesting. She left a good job to follow her passion and live her dream. I hope you are as inspired by her courage as I am!

"Connie's passion for baking began as a young girl when she first entered her butterscotch brownie recipe in her Girl Scout troop bake off and won first prize. Throughout her teens she continued to bake tortes, yeast breads, cookies and cakes. While attending Miss Porter’s School, she taught a month long course on making various dessert mousses. She continued to bake while at college and her passion culminated with a dream to attend pastry school. That dream came true in 2006 when she graduated from the California Culinary Academy in San Francisco with a degree in Pastry Arts. After a stint with a patisserie, she now owns The Constant Baker and has been delighting dessert lovers throughout the Bay Area and beyond."

–from Connie's Website

• It sounds like you started baking at a very young age. Who taught you to bake? Do you have any favorite "baking" memories you'd like to share?

Connie: I can “blame” it on my paternal grandmother, whom I adored. She was of German heritage and I remember helping her make her kuchen recipe. I must have been 4 or 5 at the time, when I got started. She would put me on a step stool next to her kitchen counter and let me pour the ingredients into the bowl as she worked her magic. She made the best kuchen. I remember eating it with her warm right out of the oven….it was heaven. Unfortunately, the recipe was in her head and it died with her. Words of advice, if you have family recipes that are in someone’s head, get them to write them down. Even if you don’t cook or bake yourself, they are precious bits of family history to be treasured for future generations. My family still talks about that recipe.

• Miss Porter's is a boarding school for grades 9-12 right? I don't know much about life in a boarding school. Did you have access to a kitchen there? Were you allowed to bake when you had free time? How did you end up teaching the course on making dessert mousses?

Connie: Yes, Miss Porter’s (MPS) is a boarding school for grades 9-12. I did have access to a kitchen there but I don’t remember exactly where it was. It was not the main kitchen so it must have been in a dorm. I didn’t bake at MPS, only during the holidays when I went home. At the time I attended MPS, the school had a January term where the girls could study anything they wanted to for the month. I asked my advisor if I could not only study, but teach a class in making dessert mousses. Mousse, at the time fascinated me. They agreed and, at age 17, I had about 10 students who were making mousses with me. We made at least 8-10 different mousses and had a blast doing it.

• Where did you go to college and what was your major? Did you work in any other fields before deciding to go to the California Culinary Academy? If so, what made you decide to go back to school to get your degree in Pastry Arts?

Connie: I have a Bachelor of Arts degree from Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, NY. I majored in Political Science and Economics! Before I went to CCA, I was in the hospitality industry. I worked in catering sales and as a meeting planner in a fine dining restaurant and then in a conference center. In the late 90’s, I also owned my own event planning company, Corporate Events. When I first graduated from college, I worked in New York on Wall Street as a commercial loan officer in a commercial bank; Bankers Trust Company, which is now owned by Deutsch Bank. I attained the position of Assistant Vice President while there.
What made me decide to get a degree in Pastry Arts? I have always loved to bake. As I have grown older, I realized that my soul was crying out to me to follow my passion. It was very scary to answer this call as I left a very good job to attend CCA. But I knew, that on the last day of my life, if I had not attended Pastry School I would have regretted it.

• I have a daughter who is a senior in high school this year. She dreams of owning her own coffee shop someday. She will probably get her bachelor's degree in business, but she is also considering attending a Culinary Arts school. Can you tell us a little bit about Culinary Arts School? What advice would you give her?

Connie: If you have a passion for baking, especially the science and creativity of it, you are in for a treat if you attend culinary school. I literally had to pinch myself everyday I was in school because I could not believe I was so lucky to have such a wonderful opportunity to learn so much about a subject I love. My chef instructors were very patient given their awesome backgrounds. We were such neophytes but they loved us for both our good times and bad. And there were some ugly moments. But that is how you learn. My worst moments were my best teachers. My advice; be open to the experience and don’t be afraid to make mistakes. It’s better to make them there than on the job!

•After culinary arts school, you worked at a patisserie before deciding to start your own business. I'd like to know more about your decision to go out on your own. What led to that decision? Was it scary? Were there any difficulties in the beginning?

Connie: I decided to go out on my own because no one was doing what I was doing in my area and I wanted some flexibility in my life. It is very scary to go out on your own because you have no idea how your business will be received. It was very difficult to get started. I had to design a menu, cost it out, and write a business plan. Then I had to find a commercial kitchen, get all of my permits…and Santa Clara County has very strict requirements. After that there was the administrative side of setting everything up; bank accounts, bookkeeping system, business identity, logo, website….the list of “things to do” is endless! I am still working on it and expect I will be for awhile!

• How is your business set up? If I remember right, you rent a shared commercial kitchen space and you don't have a store front. (right?) Can you discuss the pros and cons of this type of set-up?

Connie: Yes, I work out of a shared commercial kitchen and it is the best way to get started in my opinion. The costs of leasing and running a kitchen on your own are exorbitant and the permit process is very extensive. Plus I have flexibility. I signed a one year lease. If you lease and build out your own space, you don’t have that flexibility. My shared kitchen works fine. Everyone is pretty accommodating and, when a few of us are in there together, we work things out regarding use of equipment.

•When you first established your own business, how did you get the word out/market your business/find new customers?

Connie: I am a member of a few networking groups and that is how I started getting my name out there. As people gave my products as gifts, those people then called me for cookies. I am still building my business, of course, and am looking into some other venues such as one of the Farmer’s Markets here.

• What is a typical day like for you? How do you manage your time? How much of your time is spent actually baking vs. time spent on "business" things?

Connie: I don’t think I have a typical day. If I have baking to do, which I do most days, I go to the kitchen early and complete those tasks. I spend about 3-4 hours per day baking right now. I hope to increase that. The rest is spent on doing other things such as buying product, networking, and admin..

• I think pricing is one of the most difficult parts of selling baked goods. How did you decide on your prices?

Connie: Pricing is difficult. I priced all of my products last March and the cost of everything I use has gone up considerably. I decided on my current pricing based on the cost plus a mark-up for making the product. I expect I will need to increase my prices in January to cover the increased food costs. I also am using more expensive chocolate now so that has changed my pricing structure too.

• Just for fun… What is your favorite dessert to make? Is there a certain special tool or supply you could not live without? Can you recommend any fun supply sources?

Connie: I love lemons and we have a gorgeous Meyer Lemon tree in our backyard. I love to make anything lemon with the fruits from our tree; tarts, breads, marmalade, cookies, you name it. They all taste delicious because of our yummy lemons.
I love my offset spatulas. I use them all of the time. Fun supply source? NY Cake and Baking. I wish I lived closer to it; although that would be dangerous for my bank account.


Thank you Connie! The crazy busy holiday baking season is fast approaching (if not already here). I really appreciate that you took the time to do this!