Chocolate and strawberry cupcakes brighten the case at the new Frost Bake Shop in Laurelwood Shopping Center. Diana Nicholas, below, makes the bakery's specialty and wedding cakes.
Frost Bake Shop in Laurelwood Shopping Center opened on Thursday, and on Wednesday I got to meet Diana Nicholas, the baker (along with two others) who makes the company’s specialty cakes. The trio turns out five to 15 wedding cakes a day, and many are as elaborate as the recent Mississippi State groom's cake, which had four tiers and fed 1,200 people.
Are you kidding me?
“Check it out on our Facebook page,” Nicholas said, naming off the buildings and campus details included in the cake. “It really was incredible.”
Nicholas, who happily admits, “My whole life is cake,” was one of a dozen or so employees along with owner Bill Kloos Jr. at Wednesday's pre-opening tasting, where the mood was upbeat and the desserts were lovely to look at and even more wonderful to eat.
The new retail bakery for Kloos' All American Sweets is located next to James Davis and is open seven days a week. The menu features three-layer, 9-inch cakes iced with butter and cream cheese frosting, along with cheesecakes (vanilla, key lime and turtle), pies (banana cream, chocolate silk, key lime and pecan), boxed desserts and eight varieties of cookies, including Snickerdoodles, lemon crisp and chocolate chip with pecans.
Cakes are priced at $38 for a whole cake or $4.50 a slice, pies are $24 or $4 a slice, and cookies are $12 a dozen or $1.25 each.
Baked goods are made from scratch at the company's central kitchen in Bartlett, where the company also produces cakes for area restaurants. Customers who visit the retail store, however, can purchase cakes not available to restaurants, including lemon raspberry and Orange Dream (think Dreamsicles in a cake). Plus, customers can sample a different cake every day during the Frost Bake Shop Happy Hour. The times for Happy Hour will change daily, but customers can plan their sampling by following Frost on social media.
Frost Bake Shop, 394 S. Grove Park, Laurelwood Shopping Center (frostbakeshop.com, @frostbakeshop)
