19 minute read
against the grain
AGAINST THE
Story by Tessa Judge + Photos by Chris Whonsetler
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KARI NICKANDER is mixing up something sweet at the General American Donut Company.
Get to know these six Indy-area bakers committed to exceeding your expectations
Residents in and around the Circle City have no shortage of options for immaculate homemade baked goods. From award-winning cupcakes and wedding cakes to thoughtfullybaked sourdough bread that promises to forever raise your standard for a savory loaf, it’s easy to eat well around here. And being able to support local businesses while appeasing your sweet tooth ... Well, that's just an added bonus. We sat down with six standout local bakers to learn more about their thriving businesses, creative inspirations and downright delectable baked goods.
For Kari Nickander, visiting her grandma in Minnesota always meant enjoying fresh, sweet and wonderful homemade donuts. “She really loved when we ate her donuts,” Kari said. “I can still remember her with them in her kitchen. We’d all sit down and she would get them out to let us roll them in sugar ourselves. They were so good.”
After one memorable trip to Minnesota with her husband and kids, they realized that there wasn’t a good craft donut shop in Indianapolis. The pair already had experience running food trucks and her husband came from a family in the food industry on the West Coast, so when he suggested they open a donut shop, she jumped at the idea. With just her grandma’s cake donut recipe to start, the pair got busy researching everything they could about making donuts. “We’ve learned a lot about baking over the years, and I really enjoy it. I’m so happy with our yeast donuts today. We won best yeast donuts in Indianapolis last year,” Kari said. “We’ve gotten much more skilled and confident with both baking and the business and are always trying to expand. We want to offer Indy something that might not already be here; Something that we think people will like. That’s really fun for us.”
What are your most popular items? Our Vegan Donut and The Bennie Cronut are very popular. The Creme Brûlée is up there also, I think because of the house-made pastry cream. Everything we do is made inhouse. That sets us apart.
Who inspires you to bake? My Grandma Nettie. I’m also always looking for something that I’ve never seen before, so I keep an eye on shops in New York and other big cities. I’m inspired by other bakers and love seeing the beautiful pastries that other bakers come up with.
What do you love most about baking? It sounds cliché, but baking truly is therapeutic, almost meditative. I just love making things. I feel a lot like my grandma in the shop and just really love feeding people with things we’ve made.
What's your personal favorite thing to bake? I really like making cookies because it’s a simple, fun dessert that you can do a lot of different things with.
Do you have any baking secrets or tips that you've learned over the years? My go-to is my gut. A lot of people get nervous and truly, I think that if you just quiet yourself down and listen to your gut and do things the way you would like them done, that’s what you should do.
What's something you like to do in your spare time aside from baking? I really like making things with my hands. We’re actually going to start selling things at the shop that my daughter and I have made together.
gigi's cupcakes gigiscupcakesusa.com
Former nurse Lory Pappas and her husband met Gigi, owner of the original Gigi’s Cupcakes, five years ago at her first shop while they were on vacation in Nashville, Tennessee. Lory's daughters spotted the sign from their hotel room and begged for cupcakes. After some persistence, Lory gave in and they popped in to have the sweet treat for breakfast.
“My husband said it was one of the best cupcakes he’d ever had and wanted to meet Gigi. She came around the corner and he told her how much he loved the cupcakes, mentioning that Indianapolis would be a great spot to expand,” Lory remembered. “She laughed and said she was never opening a cupcake shop ever again. So, everytime he traveled through Nashville, he’d swing through to say hi to Gigi and bring us home some cupcakes.” After about a year and a half, Gigi had expanded into nearby Franklin, Tennessee. Lory’s husband visited the new location and, to make a long story short, Lory’s family became the first non-family members to become franchise owners of Gigi’s Cupcakes. The original Indy location opened in the Keystone area ten years ago in June and the Fishers location has been open for eight years. You’ve probably also spotted their food truck at various local events, making the magic that is Gigi’s Cupcakes available all around town.
What’s your most popular item? Our No. 1 seller is the Wedding Cake Cupcake. My personal favorite is honestly the plain vanilla cupcake with vanilla buttercream frosting. It’s the first one I ever got and every time my husband would go to Nashville, I’d have him bring me one home. It’s a kind of comfort food.
Who inspires you to bake? My motivator is when little kids come in and I see the cupcakes take their breath away. One of the funniest moments was when an 18-month old came in with her mom and said, “Cupcakes!” Her mom was astonished and said, “I didn’t know she knew that word!”
What do you love most about baking? Going back to my 4-H days, I baked and did sewing as well. With sewing, I never liked my finished products. It always felt like so much work for something I would never wear. But with baking, when that finished product comes out, it’s just like, “Yes!”
What’s your personal favorite thing to bake? I really like to make our Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cupcake.
Do you have any baking secrets that you’ve learned over the years? Just not to overthink it. When Gigi presented her recipes to us, most of them were from her mom and grandma, things she grew up making. She kept saying, “Make it like you would at home. Don’t overthink it.”
What’s something you like to do in your spare time aside from baking? I don’t really have much spare time! But gardening is probably my favorite thing.
Amelia's ameliasbread.com
BREAD WINNERS Charlie McIntosh is serving up savory satisfaction with his thoughtful sourdough.
When local entrepreneur Tom Battista originally wanted to open a sandwich shop but couldn’t find good, freshly-baked bread in Indianapolis, he turned to his nephew, Charlie McIntosh. Charlie had experience in food, but wasn’t yet a baker by trade and was determined to learn. He participated in intensive workshops and courses, and did a lot of reading and experimenting on his own. When Amelia’s first opened, they just baked bread for sister restaurant Bluebeard, but soon picked up some wholesale accounts, one being Goose the Market. Amelia’s has since grown and currently wholesales to about 20-25 restaurants and markets, but the brick and mortar shop in Fountain Square has its own charm. “Our retail store, which opened in 2015, has been really popular,” Charlie said. “People love having their own bakery in the neighborhood. There’s something special about that, especially when it happens to make really good stuff.” Amelia’s will turn eight years old this June and is as popular as ever. Customers can procure the freshly baked bread daily at their retail shop or at any of the numerous locations that carry their products around town. Each loaf is sheer perfection.
What’s your most popular item? We’re best known for our bread because it’s all naturally leavened, meaning sourdough, which is not that common. From mixing to baking, it takes a long time, almost 24 hours. Most people do it in a few hours. You can notice the difference in both texture and flavor, and I’m proud of that. We’re putting a lot of thought and effort into each item on our relatively limited menu, rather than offering dozens of items that are mediocre.
Who inspires you to bake? The community I grew up in really showed me how food brings people together. That goes for all food, not just baked goods.
What do you love most about baking? You know, baked goods are very ubiquitous. They’re everywhere and most are pretty mediocre. When you can bake something that makes someone stop and notice that they’re eating something different – something that was given more thought – that’s really exciting to me.
What's your personal favorite thing to bake? I love baking a really simple French country style of sourdough bread. It’s super basic, but it’s my favorite bread. I’ve also been messing around with masa – what tortilla is made out of – which has been fun.
Do you have any baking secrets or tips that you've learned over the years? Just two: browned butter and good salt.
What's something you like to do in your spare time aside from baking? I like to travel when I can, though I don’t get to do that too often. I really enjoy hiking locally with my family. We like to get outside and walk through the woods for a couple hours at least once or twice a week.
the cake bake shop thecakebakeshop.com
Since she was six years old, Gwendolyn Rogers loved to make the Betty Crocker shaped cakes as a creative outlet. She continued baking well into adulthood, becoming the go-to person for her friends and family, baking for many parties and events. She sat down one day with a pad of paper to write down all of her passions, which turned out to mostly revolve around cooking and baking. When she moved to Indianapolis in 2007, she began baking for her sons’ classes, sporting events and teachers, and soon she began to outgrow her kitchen. She knew she needed to seriously consider opening her own shop, and discussed potential business names with her husband. “He told me to call it what it is,” Gwendolyn said. “‘You bake cake, so call it 'Cake Bake.’ I added ‘Shop’ because it felt too short and didn’t roll off the tongue. That made it perfect.” Since opening Cake Bake Shop in 2014, Gwendolyn has seen it grow beyond her wildest imagination. “I never thought anyone would come,” she admitted. “When I opened, I just turned on the ‘Open’ sign, and they came. I still to this day have never spent a dime on advertising. I do all of it on my own using the website and social media. It’s crazy to think about how many people have eaten my cakes over the last 12 years. It makes me extremely proud.” You can visit the Cake Bake Shop in Carmel or Broad Ripple, and the menus are not limited to sweet treats. Enjoy a delicious quiche or a croquemadame with a glass of wine, and definitely leave room for dessert.
What’s your most popular item? My Earl’s Court Chocolate Cake. It was the first cake I started with when I decided to bake professionally and it remains my No. 1 seller.
Who inspires you to bake? My family. My three sons love everything I cook and bake, and my husband is my best supporter. I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for the amazing support of all my boys.
What do you love most about baking? Baking is therapeutic. I love to make something out of nothing. Combining all the ingredients together to create something someone is going to love is wonderful. Baking also creates memories. Every cake I have ever made my boys remember. Good or bad!
What's your personal favorite thing to bake? All butter pound cake for breakfast. I love to wake my boys up with the smell of cake baking in the oven.
Do you have any baking secrets or tips that you've learned over the years? Yes, every cake I make I bake it with care. The minute it goes in the oven, I watch it, talk to it and when it comes out of the oven, I give it a little pat to make sure it springs back properly. When it does, it’s complete happiness. I let it rest then I turn it out onto a pretty cake plate. A real secret is to use the right ingredients. The right salt is most important. I only use kosher salt because it brings out the best flavors and balance in anything you bake.
What's something you like to do in your spare time aside from baking? Decorate! I love to decorate my shops and fill them with pretty things. I change out the decorations in both my shops for winter and summer. That’s almost a full time job. I plan a year in advance for what I will do to surprise my guests. Then when I have time, I like to make my home as festive as I can for my family. I love Christmas and I like for my boys to come home to a cozy, warm home decorated for the holidays. They help me, which makes it even more fun. Then we all end up in the kitchen cooking dinner and sharing stories.
heavenly sweets heavenlysweetscakes.net
Tanya Marshall began baking at a young age in 4-H and fell in love with it quickly. Her mother saw her talent and let her have free rein in the kitchen, where Tanya would spend many summers baking away. She grew up, got married, had kids, and continued spending a lot of time in the kitchen, cooking and baking fabulous things for her friends and family.
In 1991, around Christmas, Tanya’s oven door was broken and she couldn’t afford to fix it. But her love of baking, especially during the holidays, got the best of her, so she started making six cookies at a time for her family out of her toaster oven. “I could watch them like a hawk and make them really pretty and fancy,” Tanya said. “My brother was impressed by what I was doing, so he and his son-in-law decided to buy me a used stove. I was overwhelmed with gratitude, and that’s when Heavenly Sweets really began.” By 1995, Tanya had moved to Noblesville and opened the brick and mortar shop that stands there today, giving her the opportunity to share her love of baking and sweets with even more people.
What are your most popular items? Our strongest seller by far is the White Almond Wedding Cake Cupcake. We sell out of that every day. We use natural almond, nothing artificial, and the cakes are moist and fluffy. The buttercream frosting isn’t overly sweet. It’s a big seller. My pecan pie recipe is one that I used to win “Clash of the Grandmas” on the Food Network. I’m also a very strong player in the wedding cake business. Our buttercream is so smooth that it looks like fondant.
Who inspires you to bake? My mother was a great baker and a stay-at-home mom, so I grew up with lots of homemade baked goods. Pies were my mom’s strength. She also loved to make cookies, but cakes were not her thing. Cakes are hard for a lot of bakeries. I was definitely influenced by my mother, but I also have a sweet tooth and there would be times when I just wanted a really good cake. But that’s not usually something you can just walk to the corner bakery and find. Most of the time, you’re disappointed in it. I wanted to make a cake that people would love.
What do you love most about baking? Getting to eat it! And I really enjoy that other people find so much pleasure in what I do and appreciate the quality of the work. People are so used to mediocrity, so when you go above that, they’re excited and tell others. We have people who drive in from Fort Wayne, Terre Haute, South Bend, all the way down to Brown County. What a compliment that is. A man drove 2.5 hours each way once to get four cupcakes for his wife for Valentine’s Day. Those are things that make me smile.
What's your personal favorite thing to bake? Cookies! I also like to bake a quality cake, particularly a homemade German chocolate cake. But my go-to would be cookies. They’re quick, everybody loves them, and you can share them with lots of people. Banana bread is another one I really enjoy. I still use a recipe I’ve had since I was in my 20s.
Do you have any baking secrets or tips that you've learned over the years? I have lots of baking secrets and that’s exactly what they are.
What's something you like to do in your spare time aside from baking? I like to watch the cardinals and birds in my yard. I currently have an organic garden, so I enjoy mixing and matching and playing around to make really healthy food to counterbalance the sweets. I’m a competitive roller dancer. I go to Chicago, Bloomington, Franklin and the west side of Indy for training. Sometimes I hit them all in one week! That’s my hobby at this point, to live and eat healthy, which can be difficult when you own a bakery.
the flying cupcake theflyingcupcakebakery.com
In 2006, Kate Drury owned a boutique in Indianapolis, traveling often to New York for trade shows. At that time, Magnolia Bakery was one of the hottest spots for baked goods in NYC, and Kate made a point to stop by to pick up a cupcake whenever she was in town. Inspired, Kate began baking cupcakes for her boutique customers at home and people quickly began asking if they could place cupcake orders with her. Thus, The Flying Cupcake was born. Kate signed a lease for their first location near Butler in 2007, where she did all the baking and decorating herself. Being the first cupcake bakery in the state, it took a little getting used to for the community.
“People have been coming ever since we opened, but many were a little confused at first because a boutique cupcake shop was a little unusual,” Kate said. “But we somehow got through the recession in 2008 and started to get even more customers.” Kate now works more on the operational side of things, but still owns and is very hands-on with the entire company. Today, there are five Flying Cupcake locations, The Dancing Donut in South Broad Ripple and The Lemon Bar in Zionsville, all under The Flying Cupcake parent company. What began as a small niche baked goods shop has turned into somewhat of a local empire, satiating the sweet tooths of customers all around the Indianapolis area.
A BOUTIQUE CUPCAKE SHOP was once considered unconventional, but Kate Drury found a way to make it work. And we're so grateful she did!
What’s your most popular item? Definitely Red Velvet Elvis, which is one of our original flavors. It was included in a Buzzfeed article once, which was crazy, because that wasn’t something we had any control over. Someone somewhere thought we were worth adding to that list. I was on a whole other level when I saw that.
Who inspires you to bake? At this point, it’s my customers. I take it very personally when we fail a customer, so we work really hard to try to keep that from happening. I feel so lucky that we get to be a small part of family celebrations, and I don’t take it lightly. The customers are always on my mind and we’ll go very far to make sure everything is taken care of. They’re awesome and always inspire me.
What do you love most about baking? I just really love providing this product for my customers and families. That's the best part, hands down.
What's your personal favorite thing to bake? I love baking the peanut butter cookie recipe that we use at the shop. It was my grandma’s recipe and it’s the best. A lot of our recipes come from my grandma, actually.
Do you have any baking secrets or tips that you've learned over the years? This might seem obvious, but I learned year one that baking really is a science. It has to be approached from a technical perspective because everything reacts. If you crack eggs too early or overmix something, it matters. Really follow your recipe to a T.
What's something you like to do in your spare time aside from baking? I like to travel. I’m a bit of a Francophile, so I love going to Paris when I can. I love to spend time with my family, go to movies and hang out with my dogs. I have five rescue dogs and I love them. Taking care of them and going out with them and my husband might be my favorite hobby.
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