While cleanup efforts were still underway from last week’s storm, many people took the time to visit the Shore Cultural Centre’s second EUC Flea Eastside Art and Vintage Market.
On August 10, vendors filled the small green space in front of the Shore Cultural Centre, 291 E 222nd St. Some shop owners expressed hope for good traffic later in the day, while others said they had expected more traffic because people might still be looking for something to do that didn’t require electricity.
While vendors and food trucks hawked everything from barbecue, used clothing, candles, artwork, blankets, antiques and even watches, one baker, Ashley Young of The Sugar Coated Bakery, sold her own take on classic desserts.
Standing in front of her bakery stand, Young said she originally went to culinary school to become a chef. After graduating, she spent time working in restaurants in the Cleveland area. Although she enjoyed the work, she left the culinary world for the corporate world, and a few years later, she transitioned into the world of baking.
“I make everything from scratch,” Young said. “Made-to-order desserts, cakes, cupcakes, 20-ounce cookies, we have chocolate-covered Oreos… I’ve tried to focus more on that and leave the corporate job behind.”
She said her full-time job at a local insurance company requires a lot of focus from her, but she has used her skills from that job to build her home-based baking business. She said the long hours take their toll, but she enjoys the creative outlet her business provides.
“Luckily, I work from home, so I can quickly go into the kitchen and prep stuff and then go back to my computer,” she said. “But it’s very difficult. My job requires a lot of attention and is definitely different than baking,” Young said. “It’s slow right now, but I usually bake four to five custom cakes a week, and in the summer I’m out at markets and farmers’ markets, which takes a lot of time to prepare.”
She said she enjoys experimenting with different flavors, but also enjoys making desserts in cookie form, drawing inspiration from ice cream, cake and other dessert flavors.
“A big seller is the strawberry shortcake,” Young continued. “And if you like oatmeal rum raisin cookies, this one is good. The raisins are soaked in rum for at least a couple of weeks and give them a really good flavor.”
“My personal favorite is chocolate chips, they’re so delicious. I love that, so none of that is a challenge,” Young said of her creative process. “Mostly I look at desserts and think of how I can put them in a cookie. I have a long list of cookies I want to try, like the Cherry Garcia, which I want to put in cookie form so you can walk and have the same experience.”
She said she learned the basics from books and social media because her culinary training was focused more on cooking than baking. She’s always educating herself, but she said it’s a fun process and she doesn’t mind failing a few times along the way.
“The very first cake I made was for my friend’s wedding and it was the ugliest cake I’ve ever made because it was my first cake, but I started from there and worked my way up,” Young said. “Even though I went to culinary school to be a chef, I taught myself how to bake. I just learned from a lot of books, YouTube and now TikTok and other social media, so it was a lot of trial and error, creativity.
“I put a lot of time and love into what I do,” Young said. “I’m a perfectionist and I want to make sure everything is right for people. I care about reviews and how people view my product, what tastes good, what doesn’t taste good. I’m happy to adapt, it’s honestly a labor of love.”
Young’s online store can be found at www.thescbakery.com.
The next EUC Flea at the Shore Cultural Centre will be on October 12th from 10am to 6pm.
