Flour Power - FlourGirl Patissier

ON YOUR PLATE
By Jacinda Duffin
Photography by Sarah Doneff
ON YOUR PLATE
Flour Power
FlourGirl Patissier Sweetens the County
hey say you should never trust
a skinny cook. If you apply this
same logic to bakers, you’ll miss
out on one of Door County’s best
and sweetest offerings: FlourGirl
Patissier.
Sarah Basch, baker, founder, and sole
proprietor, has a wide smile and a quick
conversational style paired with a frankness that makes her easy to like and – despite her willowy frame – even easier to
trust. Part artist and part chemist, Basch
combines her love of baking, her background in marketing and her strong work
ethic to create a booming business of im80 Door County Living Early Summer
pressive cakes, desserts, pastries and cookies – all made from scratch and just the
way we like them.
Years ago, main street bakeries in small
Midwestern towns were as common as
corner diners. Sunday mornings meant
pastries for church coffee hours, birthdays meant flipping through laminated
photos of sheet cakes, and graduation,
wedding and retirement cakes were a bakery’s mainstay. Nowadays, box mixes and
chain grocery stores have made it difficult
for small, dedicated bakers to make a living anywhere outside of large cities. But
despite the lack of storefront (or maybe be
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cause of it: low overhead, no employees), Basch has managed to create a successful, sustainable business reminiscent
of the family-owned corner bakery.
For over four years, Basch has worked
as the pastry chef at Alexander’s, a popular Fish Creek fine dining establishment.
In addition to the daily baking (stop in
and try Alexander’s signature dessert –
an unbelievably decadent peanut butter
mousse cake layered with dark chocolate
ganache), Basch uses this kitchen to test
new recipes, bake old standards, and create hundreds of special order cakes and
desserts for her FlourGirl customers.
“I’m incredibly lucky,” she says, “Bruce
[Alexander, owner of Alexander’s] is really good to me and has made it possible
for me to do this. It’s mutually beneficial.
Customers stop at Alexander’s to pick up
their orders and end up eating and drinking there. Or, they love their meal and
dessert, and find out about me that way.
It’s great advertising.”
If you haven’t been lucky enough to
visit Alexander’s for a taste, you can start
by looking. Basch’s creations are visually stunning. Visit www.flourgirlpatissier.com for photos of birthday, wedding,
groom, retirement, and all sorts of specialty cakes, as well as cookies, cupcakes, bars
and other baked goods. You’re bound to
see something you like, but if not, Basch
enjoys the challenge and creativity of designing custom-made orders.
“A few years ago, a woman brought me
her mother’s recipe – along with the appropriate baking pans – for a Norwegian
Cransikaka,” says Basch. “She remembered her mother making it while she
was growing up, and wanted to surprise
her for her birthday. It took some experimenting, but it turned out beautifully.”
She continues, “I make traditional
cakes, of course, but I’ve also made some
really crazy cakes: Stanley Cup cakes, golf
cakes, ice fishing cakes, lighthouse cakes,
and all sorts of unusual groom and wedding cakes. If a customer can describe it,
I can usually make it.” In addition to her
website, Basch keeps her Facebook page
very current, and photos of every cake
she’s ever made are posted there. Just a
word of warning: once you’ve ordered
one cake, you may be prone to habitual
ordering.
“My repeat business is huge,” Basch
grins.
FlourGirl started in 2009, and if you
consider decades of training an overnight
success, then it’s truly an overnight success. From an organizational standpoint,
Basch has a business management and administration degree from Bradley University in Peoria, Illinois. After college, she
Jason Mann Photography.
worked for five years as a manufacturer’s
representative (“That’s where I learned
how essential it is to be really organized,
super organized,” Basch says, “and how it
can make all the difference in the end result.”) And on the baking side of things,
Basch apprenticed for years in various
establishments throughout the country,
working her way from entry-level positions to pastry chef at places such as Off
the Beaten Path (Steamboat Springs, Colorado), Door County Bakery (Sister Bay,
Wisconsin), Merenda Restaurant and the
French-inspired Sparrow Bakery (both
of Bend, Oregon), and Alexander’s (Fish
Creek, Wisconsin).
“But actually, my training started earlier – I just didn’t know it.” Basch says.
While growing up, her grandmother
had a huge garden and was always cooking. Her mother made everything from
scratch and taught 4-H classes in cakemaking and decorating.
“My mother is a much better baker and
cake decorator than I am,” she says, emphatically. “She claims that I never baked
much as a kid, just sat on the counter and
ate raisins. But I’m grateful… I must have
absorbed something.”
And like many small business owners,
Basch continues to rely on her family
to help make things run smoothly. Her
mother is on call for advice, her father
helps deliver and set up cakes, and her
husband Mark is jack-of-all-trades. In
addition to helping deliver cakes and offering encouragement, he is also a good
taster and reliable critic, helping to keep
FlourGirl’s standards high.
“When it comes to cakes, every detail is
important,” says Basch. “For every event,
but for weddings especially, because you
don’t get a do-over. Wedding cakes are
really, really fun. I take the responsibility
seriously and I love being part of the celebration. Cakes are happy things.”
I agree. Basch sent me home with a
sample box: vanilla cake with vanilla
butter cream frosting and key lime curd,
chocolate cake with chocolate butter
cream frosting, carrot cake with citrus
cream cheese icing, and a handful of brochures and business cards. The cake was
light and moist, and the frosting had that
not-too-sweet, tangy texture that I love;
cakes are happy things. As I finished the
first cupcake (no sacrifice too great for
journalism…) and read the literature, I
notice that FlourGirl Pattissier’s tagline
reads:
“Elegant…Simple…Delicious.”
Elegant and delicious I’ll buy, but simple?
“It’s taken years of baking to get me to
this point, but really a lot of what I do
is very simple: everything is made from
scratch. Flour, sugar, butter, eggs. I think
my attention to detail and the fact that
I just love what I do – I really love it –
makes it all work.”
Amen, sister, I think, peeling the paper off
of the second cupcake. Pass the milk.
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