Craft to Crumb mini-mag | March Q1 2024 | Brown Sugar Bakery

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6 EDITOR’S NOTE

8 CONSUMER TRENDS: Trends That Take the Cake

26 PRODUCT SHOWCASE

23 BAKER PROFILE: Stephanie Hart

29 AD INDEX

12

FEATURED

FEATURED BAKERY: Brown Sugar Bakery

COVER:

(From left) Ruth Hines,

owner Stephanie Hart, Zoie Reams and Allyson Scrutchens are just a few of the people who keep the caramel cakes and much more cranking at Brown Sugar Bakery.

Photo by George Whitehill

DREAM BIG, DREAM BEAUTIFULLY

JOANIE SPENCER Editor-in-Chief joanie@avantfoodmedia.com

I recently heard someone say that vulnerability is a key factor of resiliency. I hadn’t thought about it before, but it’s so true. But let’s put a pin in that for a minute.

Let me introduce Stephanie Hart, owner and founder of Brown Sugar Bakery, an iconic cake shop on Chicago’s South Side. I first met Stephanie last year, when plans were underway for her to begin dabbling in cake manufacturing after she acquired a candy factory a few miles down the road from the Brown Sugar storefront on 75th Street.

That’s where the story was supposed to begin. But let me tell you, Stephanie’s story goes back much further.

Many bakers have a similar formula for getting into the business: Follow a dream … realize it’s the wrong dream … search for the perfect baked good while soul searching … discover that baking is the real dream.

It pretty much went down like that for Stephanie, too. However, when you’re a Black woman on the South Side of Chicago, following a dream is no simple formula. It takes immeasurable resiliency. And you can bet that there’s a healthy dose of vulnerability at the heart of it.

In this issue, you’ll learn about the challenges, successes and hard lessons that Stephanie encountered on the road to growing Brown Sugar — and how the dream for this bakery is bigger than ever.

Her story will intrigue you, inspire you, and remind you to dream big, dream beautifully … and always stay resilient.

Welcome to Brown Sugar Bakery.

Craft to Crumb Consumer Trends

TRENDS THAT TAKE THE CAKE

Often used to celebrate joyful times, cake trends evolve beyond birthdays.

BY EVAN BAIL

Cake has always been a traditional way to mark memorable moments in life. From birthdays to weddings to local events, cutting into a cake symbolizes a joyous occasion.

As consumers commemorate everyday moments with cakes, the category is predicted to grow. According to Research and Markets data, the cake market is estimated to reach $83.07 billion in 2024 and is expected to hit $97.85 billion by 2029.

Photo courtesy of Suárez Bakery

Photo courtesy of Dolce Bakery

Grand View Research reported that the retail channel segment held the largest revenue share in 2023 with 83.8% and a total of $55.05 billion in revenue.

From searching for inspiration on social media to pulling from pop culture, consumers are influenced by many different sources and are looking to retail bakers to replicate what they see.

For instance, fashion trends are finding their way into cakes in the form of hyper-feminine embellishments. Delicately placed bows and cherries — seen up and down the fashion runways lately —have been incorporated into heart-shaped Lambeth-style cakes.

Accessories aren’t the only thing on fire with food trends. One of the hottest viral decorating trends is burn-away cakes.

“I have seen the ‘burn away’ trend picking up,” said Sheila Rodriguez-Mendez, head decorator at Billy’s Bakery in New York City. “It is basically when bakers put an edible image on cakes, create a layer of height to it with an icing border and then add another layer of edible paper —but it is a different type of paper. Once lit, it dissolves and reveals what is underneath.”

Consumers request burn-away cakes for gender reveal parties and, most recently, at Super Bowl gatherings, where cakes featured a team logo, which burned away to reveal an image of Taylor Swift.

“I think social media really accelerates the popularity of a lot of trends because it has become so accessible to everybody; everyone is seeing new styles of cakes or trending styles.”

Marissa Velie | education and certification director | Retail Bakers

of America

Social media is another factor influencing current cake trends. From striking creativity to turning memes into designs or piping trendy lingo onto cakes, consumers turn to social media as a way to stay up to date and gain insight on trends and then take those ideas to their local cake baker.

“I think social media really accelerates the popularity of a lot of trends because it has become so accessible to everybody; everyone is seeing new styles of cakes or trending styles,” said Marissa Velie, education and certification director for Retail Bakers of America. “I think that it really just accelerates their popularity and the demand for those products.”

Another trend influencing cakes is “little treat culture.” Made popular by Gen Z and millennials, this TikTok trend involves consumers treating themselves with a small sweet for completing a task they find difficult, uncomfortable or boring.

“Consumers are looking to social media for what they want to eat,” said Jack Ince, education coordinator for the International Dairy Deli Bakery Association. “One way we are seeing this manifest is the online portrayal of ‘little treat culture’ leading to a shift in seeing a small portioned sweet treat as a great way to treat yourself and improve your mental health.”

This form of self-care through sweet treats is an extension of

Craft to Crumb

Consumer Trends

the trend of everyday affordable indulgence.

The balancing act of celebrating the little moments, but not overdoing it, is a fine line. Enjoying a slice of cake after a long day is seen as a reward; however, eating an entire cake is seen as gluttony.

Along those lines, bakeries have started incorporating smaller portion sizes and individually wrapped packaging into their menus and marketing strategies. By offering the option of a single slice, bakeries can impart a more positive connotation with purchasing a slice of cake, rather than guilty feelings that come with buying a whole cake for themselves.

Research from Dawn Foods found that 48% of consumers eat cake as a snack, and cake-slice sales are up 10% vs. a year ago. Cupcakes are still popular, with sales up 16%, and sales of mini cupcakes, which offer a bite of affordable indulgence, rose 18%.

Cutting the cake at a wedding is a time-honored tradition. Falling under the umbrella of dessert cakes, wedding cakes held the largest share in the cake category in 2023, with a total of $33.06 billion, according to Grand View Research.

While wedding cakes are often thought of as extravagant, decorating styles have been moving beyond the traditional style. When sharing timeless wedding

cake trends for 2024-2025, Gabi Bakes Cakes, based out of Killorglin, Ireland, noted that demand for vintage wedding cakes with a modern twist has increased.

The bakery also revealed that the application of textures, handpainted designs, gold trimming and floral accents is expected to increase in popularity for wedding cake designs. Variety is key with wedding cakes in 2024.

Since the pandemic, weddings have become more intimate celebrations. Couples who may not want to give up the extravagance of a wedding cake are turning to Styrofoam or “dummy” cakes to achieve the look of a multi-tier creation that commands attention and keeps the aesthetic of

the wedding’s theme. In theory, the fake cake saves newlyweds money, but in the long run, that’s a myth.

“To be honest, it’s not even that much of a difference in cost,” said Sue Bailey, founder of Celebrating Life Cakes in St. Louis. “Because the labor is still there, bakers will tend to pretty much charge almost the same thing. It’s more for the aesthetic so there is a nice piece that doesn’t get touched.”

Cakes can commemorate joyful moments, memorialize special occasions and celebrate everyday events. By tracking trends on social media and listening to their customers, retail bakers can find a wealth of opportunity inside this growing category.

Traditional-style wedding cakes are being embellished with trendy decor for a modern twist.

Photo courtesy of Celebrating Life Cake Boutique

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Craft to Crumb Featured Bakery | Brown Sugar Bakery

SUGAR AND SPICE

From uplifting the neighborhood to carrying on a legacy name, Brown Sugar Bakery does ‘everything nice.’

BY JOANIE SPENCER

One great thing about independent retail bakeries is their inherent ability to uplift their community. In the 75th Street neighborhood on Chicago’s South Side, Brown Sugar Bakery is a destination that has helped put the community on the map.

That’s not just because Stephanie Hart, the bakery’s owner, competed on Food Network’s Holiday Baking Championship in 2014 and was a 2019 James Beard Award nominee. It’s also because the cakes are so good they’ve garnered attention from big names in entertainment and politics, as well as culinary stars like Marcus Samuelson and the late Nicholas Lodge.

After two decades in the neighborhood, Brown Sugar could have moved to a centralized location downtown, providing easy access to Chicago residents

and tourists. But the beauty of this bakery lives in its roots.

“I love community,” Stephanie said. “There aren’t a lot of bakeries on the South Side of Chicago. And I know for a fact that when you can walk or have a short drive to work, and you can then shop in your community and have resources in your community, it changes everything. I’m just a tiny cog in it, but I love being part of that solution.”

While the flagship store isn’t going anywhere, the Brown Sugar Bakery business is expanding through popups at Macy’s and Nordstrom downtown and a satellite kiosk inside Chicago’s Soldier Field. And soon, travelers — especially the ones who make 75th Street their first stop from the airport — will delight in having access to Brown Sugar Bakery products at O’Hare International Airport.

All photos by George Whitehill

Stephanie credits the growth to visibility gained from seven years in Brown Sugar’s first satellite location at the iconic Navy Pier.

“When I first opened on 75th Street, if I saw someone white coming into my store, I assumed it was the gas man or the electric company,” Stephanie joked. “Today, our clientele come from so many different cultures, and I credit that to the exposure we had at Navy Pier.”

That said, some of the proudest moments for this Black womanowned bakery have come from quite notable women of color.

When Beyonce’s tour came through Chicago last summer, the Brown Sugar team was “Beyonce ready” after rumors circulated that the pop superstar might be visiting local small businesses.

“Every time we answered the phone, we treated it as if it could be Beyonce,” said Zoie Reams, Stephanie’s daughter and a nationally recognized mezzo soprano who also helps in the bakery when she’s not onstage. “We had it together with our tone, customer service, everything. And then we got the real call. And it was intense.”

At 75th Street, even at its busiest, the Brown Sugar staff is ready for anything. When Vice President Kamala Harris visited, the bakery only had about 15 minutes notice before the roads were closed off … leaving Stephanie stuck on the other side of the barricade.

LISTEN NOW: Stephanie Hart shares the benefits of a strong supplier partnership.

“You wouldn’t believe how fast a fleet of black SUVs and people in black suits can show up at your bakery,” Zoie recalled. “We had enough time to sweep the floors and wipe down the counters, and we were ready to go.”

That was the moment the bakery learned a lesson: Sometimes, lifting up the community doesn’t always come without a cost.

“After that, it hit,” Stephanie said. “The vice president left, and the people came at us.”

For weeks, Brown Sugar was inundated with prank calls and hate speech, along with criticism for Harris, despite her active support of small businesses in an underserved area of Chicago.

On the other hand, Brown Sugar also discovered opportunities — and seized them.

“People also called and said, ‘I want to get the cake that Kamala Harris had, but I’m in Massachusetts,’” Zoie said. “And we were like, ‘Okay. We can do that.’”

That visit was in March 2021, and the bakery has been shipping products around the country ever since. In fact, Brown Sugar has discovered a boost in business from people ordering birthday cakes year-round, filling in where there used to be gaps during slower times of year.

As Brown Sugar gains prominence, it’s taking on extra orders — while maintaining business in the 75th Street storefront — by baking at scale in a 10,000-squarefoot facility a few miles down on West Street, which started up in November 2023.

“We were getting to the point of not being able to meet the needs

Craft to Crumb Brown Sugar Bakery

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“People called and said, ‘I want to get the cake that Kamala Harris had, but I’m in Massachusetts.’ And we were like, ‘Okay. We can do that.’”

Zoie Reams | daughter of Stephanie Hart, owner | Brown Sugar Bakery

of customers walking through the door on 75th Street,” Stephanie explained. “When a holiday would come, we would literally have to cut off orders two weeks in advance. Our customers who would try to order close to a major holiday couldn’t process the fact that we just couldn’t make any more cakes. That was happening year after year.”

And then, shortly before the new facility opened, Angelica’s, a Black woman-owned caramel cake brand with a big presence in Chicago grocery stores, went out of business. Ever the entrepreneur, Stephanie was compelled to keep Angelica’s going.

“I felt like this was a calling for me,” Stephanie said. “I did not want to see a Black woman’s brand that had been in grocery stores for 30 years just disappear.”

In the new space, Stephanie was confident she had the capacity to relieve stress from 75th Street and slowly build Angelica’s back up. But given Angelica’s brand recognition, it was, instead, a quick lesson in how to fail fast.

“I got my butt kicked the first month,” she recalled. “It was November, and Angelica’s

had been closed since June. So, I said, ‘Let’s just make a few phone calls and share our story.’ I walked away for about 35 minutes, and when I came back, we had 6,000 cakes we needed to make. I said, ‘Let’s stop making phone calls.’”

After overcoming those initial obstacles, the team has ramped up production, thanks to investing in automation for the first time. The Brown Sugar factory now makes about 3,000 cakes a month, primarily for Angelica’s caramel cakes and some online orders that come from around the country through third-party vendors like Goldbelly.

The facility is a former candy factory, so Stephanie kept the candy business going under the Brown Sugar brand. The bakery makes its own caramel from a butter-based recipe. It’s used not only for the candy business but also for the signature caramel cakes at the storefront and online orders, as well as the Angelica’s brand.

“We use the original Angelica’s cake recipe, but with our caramel,” Stephanie said. “I wasn’t trying to change their recipe, but I wanted the caramel to flow better and

Craft to Crumb Brown Sugar Bakery

have that shine ours is known for, without changing the flavor that Angelica’s was known for. We just took it up a notch … as I like to say, ‘A little more butter makes it a little more better!’”

To make all those caramel cakes, Brown Sugar invested in two Cake-O-Matic automated icing systems from Unifiller.

Although the Cake-O-Matic is not typically used for caramel application, Unifiller collaborated with Brown Sugar to customize a system that could accommodate the heat required to keep the caramel spreadable. The system also allows the team to keep accurate measurements on how much caramel is being used, an important factor in scaling up production.

In addition to the Unifiller system, Brown Sugar purchased a Unifiller cake depositor, which will help the mixing room staff deposit batter into cake pans.

While automation has increased efficiency and output, it requires a mindset change for workers used to relying on their own speed and dexterity. In the people-machine relationship, there’s a level of trust that must be earned.

“We’re getting used to working with the automation,” Stephanie said. “You’ve got to learn to trust the machines and stick with it. It’s easy to think you can beat the machine. But this was an important investment, and we can’t fall back

to the old ways. I’m building up the confidence with the team that this really does work.”

The bakery also invested in slicing machinery from FoodTools to streamline the process of cutting cake layers while maintaining the uniformity needed for supermarket cakes.

As the business grows, the status quo changes with it, and Stephanie is always developing new ideas. In fact, she spent the holiday season thinking about what the bakery could do with cake scrap because the FoodTools slicer not only streamlined the layer cake process, but it also enabled the bakery to efficiently collect the scrap.

The answer? Cake jars.

“The tops of the cakes are cut off from the slicer so nicely,” Stephanie said. “All we have to do is cut those up, and we can layer them into cake jars. I’m learning how to use these machines and optimize what we can do. All those years, I was cutting cakes by hand and never thought about processing the scraps.”

With such efficiency, Stephanie and her team can keep coming up

WATCH NOW

Unifiller equipment has helped scale up production for the Angelica’s cake brand, now part of Brown Sugar Bakery.

“I did not want to see a Black woman’s brand that had been in grocery stores for 30 years just disappear.”

Stephanie Hart | owner | Brown Sugar Bakery

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Brown Sugar Bakery

with ideas for not only new products but also new ways to market signature items that gain a lot of attention.

“For 2024, we’re working on a platform around, ‘Every day is somebody’s birthday … is it yours?’” Stephanie said. “Most bakeries don’t really market around birthday cakes; they just do them. But I’m attacking the birthday this year.”

Production is expanding, and the Brown Sugar workforce is growing with it. Between the storefront on 75th and the factory on West, the bakery is nearing 50 employees, a mix of new hires, former Angelica’s workers, employees who stayed with the candy production and the original staff from 75th Street.

The growth comes from a combination of commitment, creativity and choosing the right partners.

“One of our best partners is Dawn Foods,” Stephanie said. “They’re absolutely amazing. Not just because they make wonderful products that are very useful to bakeries like mine, but Dawn has also been inspirational and encouraging to me as I’ve grown my business.”

From collaborating on a new signature mix used in the bakery to lending marketing expertise to revamp the Brown Sugar logo, Dawn has provided a wealth of expertise to Brown Sugar in a relationship that spans more than a decade.

That partnership has been critical for Brown Sugar’s growth. Scale, Stephanie learned, is not only about machines but also about the right product development.

“I made a decision to work with Dawn mixes early on,” Stephanie said. “The reason I did that is because there’s just no way to scale if you’re working completely from scratch. You just can’t be a scratch bakery at scale.”

Working with Dawn, Stephanie developed a custom mix for the Brown Sugar brand to market direct to consumers in grocery stores later this year.

It all comes from a mindset that’s been foundational from the very beginning.

“I’ve always thought big, even when we were small,” she said.

Now that Brown Sugar has baking and candy making capabilities under one roof, the ideas just keep coming. One of Brown Sugar’s first

forays into candy was the “Turtzle,” a signature pretzel version of the Turtle candy.

But lately, one of the biggest sellers on the candy side is chocolate-covered potato chips, made on the enrobing machine Brown Sugar inherited with the building. And that’s just the beginning; during little pockets of downtime, the team tinkers with what could be the next enrobed baked good or candy treat and new creations that might top the custom cakes sold on 75th Street.

So, what’s next for a bakery that’s always focused on the next big thing?

“I want to open more stores, but I want to do it uniquely,” Stephanie said. “I love popping up in chains like Nordstrom and Macy’s, but I would love to see Brown Sugar as a fixture on State Street or Michigan Avenue. Couldn’t you see it? We could be like a Lancome counter … but with a different type of something that smells just as good.”

Craft to Crumb Baker Profile | Stephanie Hart

ONE CAKE AT A TIME

Ever the entrepreneur, Brown Sugar’s founder built her bakery around big dreams and the pursuit of happiness.

BY JOANIE SPENCER

Entrepreneurs see the world through a different lens. Some might say they look through rose-colored glasses, but the truth is, they filter everything through their vision of the endgame.

“One thing that happens with entrepreneurial endeavors is that no one really talks about the tough parts,” said Stephanie Hart, founder and owner of Brown Sugar Bakery in Chicago. “We just always see the finished product.”

By that logic, bakers and entrepreneurs have a lot in common. And perhaps that’s what has driven Stephanie to build Brown Sugar from a small storefront on Chicago’s South Side into a brand with a reputation worthy of lyrics in a Taylor Swift song.

Stephanie opened Brown Sugar Bakery in 2002 when she chose to pursue baking over the corporate lifestyle and walked away from a career in technology.

“I did have that traditional entrepreneurial dream, to track into corporate and do something big in technology,” Stephanie said. “In the ’80s and ’90s, that was the big thing, and I was part of that explosion.”

WATCH NOW

Stephanie Hart offers advice for entrepreneurial bakers who want to grow their business.

Photo courtesy of Brown Sugar Bakery

By the turn of the century, she was tired of pursuing something that she realized might not be her dream after all.

At some point during her business travels, she couldn’t quite satisfy her craving for a sweet treat, so she tried her hand at making cake herself. In the kitchen, Stephanie discovered she could combine her technical skills with a craft that brought her joy.

“When I put a piece of cake in someone’s mouth, it can literally make them happy right at that moment.”

Stephanie Hart | owner | Brown Sugar Bakery

“I realized that baking met my inner personality of needing things to be exact,” she said. “I’m a mathematician. I like science. I like things that are steady and consistent. With baking, you can build on that foundation and fix the things that aren’t working. The most creativity in baking is figuring out how to keep it the same, and that appealed to me.”

From there, it was a pursuit of happiness.

“I really just wanted to do something that would make people happy,” she said. “When I put a piece of cake in someone’s mouth, it can literally make them happy right at that moment. You can see it on their face.”

But every bakery owner knows that, beyond the joy, tough times often await.

“What happens to many bakers is that we don’t plan for the future, and we don’t have an escape pod,” Stephanie said. “We just bake until we can’t bake anymore.”

To make it through, the entrepreneurial baker needs one important trait to go the distance. More than grit, determination and pure passion, they need stubbornness.

That’s something that Stephanie herself admits she has in spades. It’s what’s gotten her through the times when business was slow, and she didn’t know if she could make rent or keep the lights on. It kept her going when she was eliminated from a Food Network competition and when the staff had to field hate-filled phone calls.

“[Stubbornness] is just part of my personality,” Stephanie said. “When I look back on it all, a normal person probably would have quit, but I guess I have a high tolerance for pain. This is what I set out to do, and I wasn’t going to stop. For entrepreneurs, you need insane persistence and pain tolerance.”

It’s what led to a James Beard Award nomination, notoriety in the worlds of entertainment and politics, a foray into manufacturing at scale, and the acquisition of another longtime Chicago-area cake brand. And she got there one cake at a time.

“I’ve been working to get beyond one cake at time for a long time,” Stephanie said, celebrating the automation she’s invested in for her first manufacturing facility. “It’s always been my goal to make more cakes.”

Craft to Crumb

Baker Profile | Stephanie Hart

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Craft to Crumb Product Showcase | Brown Sugar Bakery

PRODUCT SHOWCASE

Brown Sugar Bakery produces about 3,000 cakes a month for neighborhood customers, celebrities, political figures and everyone in between. The team relies on automation and artisan touches to craft their oneof-a-kind cakes. Take a look at some of the bakery’s most recent creations.

01

CARAMEL CAKE TOPPED WITH WAFERS, MACARONS AND CHOCOLATE-DRIZZLED CARAMEL POPCORN

02 ASSORTED

A LAYER OF CREAMY MINT CHOCOLATE OR STRAWBERRY SANDWICHED BETWEEN RICH DARK CHOCOLATE

03

MOIST YELLOW CAKE ADORNED WITH VANILLA CREAM CHEESE AND DRIZZLED IN CARAMEL

04

FILLED WITH JUMBO FANCY PECANS, CREAMY CARAMEL, AND SMOTHERED IN PURE WHITE, DARK, MILK AND NATURAL RUBY CHOCOLATE

05

RED VELVET, DARK CHOCOLATE AND YELLOW CAKE COVERED IN VANILLA CREAM CHEESE, TOPPED WITH CHOCOLATE FROSTING AND PECANS

All

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“BEING AN ENTREPRENEUR ... IF YOU DON’T HAVE A HIGH TOLERANCE FOR PAIN, YOU NEED IT. IT’S SORT OF AN INSANE PERSISTENCE. ”

— STEPHANIE HART | OWNER | BROWN SUGAR BAKERY

LISTEN NOW:

Stephanie Hart shares her insight into the importance of perseverance in entrepreneurship.