Editor’s Note: In the spring, Allison Binning was a student in Professor Rebecca Finlayson’s Introduction to Journalism course at Rhodes College. The students taking the course spent time this spring researching and writing about Memphis. They are learning the core principles and techniques of journalistic writing while also learning about their local community.
photograph by allison binning
Tamika Heard behind the counter of her bakery.
Each morning, as Tamika Heard unlocks the door and enters her bakery, she smiles and says, “Good morning, Butteriffic!”
For years, Heard worked at Makeda’s Cookies, her parents’ bakery Downtown. As her love of baking grew, so did her desire to open her own place. “My parents have perfected the butter cookie. They have it down to a science,” she says. “But me, I feel like I have to expand on the greatness.”
At Butteriffic Bakery and Café, she sells her own twists on her parents’ best-selling butter cookies, including butter pecan, strawberry, and lemon butter cookies. The lemon butter cookies are softer than the typical butter cookie. Topped with a light frosting, they dissolve into a sweet, citrusy flavor, leaving behind an aftertaste reminiscent of a glass of cold lemonade. She also experiments with muffins, cakes, and banana pudding, which is made with her classic melt-in-your-mouth butter cookies.
photograph by allison binning
Mixing the dough at Butterific.
Heard’s bakery at 488 South Second Street — the former location of her parents’ shop — is just as much of a bakery as it is a community. While we talked, Heard interrupted herself four times to greet and chat with customers. The first customer, a middle-aged woman who knew Heard personally, walked in with her niece and shared the news of her niece’s pregnancy. Heard and the customer celebrated briefly before we returned to our interview.
When the customer and her niece left, Heard turned to me and said, “I could talk to her all day.” And every following customer was greeted with the same energy as Heard’s friend, whether she knew their names or not. Heerd even gave the mailman, dropping off a package, an enthusiastic smile and wave as she told me about her baking process.
In each freshly baked cookie and muffin, Heard emphasizes a key ingredient that she contains a considerable amount of herself: happiness. The R&B music echoing across the stone floors and brick walls reminded her of the other key aspect to her baking, which is listening to music. Heard says that music, whether it's ’80s, R&B, or rap, helps her channel her happiness into baking. “Happiness is key,” she says. “I never bake sad. If I’m off, I don’t bake, because I don’t want my customers to feel it,” she says.
photograph by allison binning
The special touch: adding sprinkles and toppings to the various flavors of cookies.
It’s hard to leave Butterific without a smile on your face when either Heard or her staff wish you a “Butteriffic day” as you step outside, especially if you’re holding a fresh cookie or a cup of Heard’s banana pudding. And that’s her goal. In spite of life’s daily challenges, she hopes to offer a place where people can come together and share a sweet respite. She’s constantly looking to form more relationships with her customers across Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook.
While Heard loves baking, she says that her baked goods are not her only selling point. She hopes that owning her own business will allow her to form a long-lasting community surrounding the hospitality of the bakery. Owning a business, she says, is hard work. But the effort is worth the countless relationships she’s formed through the bakery. While she says that opening her own business was hardly a cakewalk, Heard is thankful that she has the opportunity to spend every day doing something that she enjoys: “I bake cookies. What do I have to gripe about?”
Butterific Bakery and Café is located at 488 South Second Street. 901-207-4618.
