DeLuxe Cakes and Pastries is celebrating its ten year anniversary on Saturday, November 2. Little Village sat down with owner and pastry chef Jamie Powers, 38, to talk about the origins of DeLuxe and the intricacies of operating a pastry shop in Iowa City.
Note: On November 2, DeLuxe will be giving out free French macaroons while supplies last in addition to donating 10% of all anniversary profits (and pre-ordered Thanksgiving orders) to the Mayor’s Youth Empowerment Program.
Little Village: What is your typical day as a baker like?
Jamie Powers: As a baker here you come in at 5:30 a.m. and you bake the whole breakfast line, which is fresh every day. We open at 7 a.m. so everything has to be ready. The case has to be ready and sparkly and fresh. All the fruit, everything, and the pastry has to be warm and fresh. Once that’s out you start your prep production list for the week. The baker has probably seven batters to make in a six hour period. Then there’s another [shift] that comes in later in the day and does more of the finishing work: the building of the cakes, the icing, the decorating.
LV: How long does a cake take?
JP: We can expedite it. But [usually three days]. We bake one day, fill one day, ice one day.
LV: Do your commissioned cakes take a lot more time?
JP: It depends on the detail work. Lately, what’s been interesting is people find something on Pinterest and they’re like, “I want this,” and I have to replicate somebody else’s work. That takes time. We have our own style and so we have some customers that come in and love our style and say, “Just do a birthday cake, I know it will look cute. Perfect.” and then I have some customers that come in and say, “I want this. I saw this at J-lo’s birthday party. Can you re-create this cake?” And so it’s always interesting to me the two styles of customers.
LV: What’s the most elaborate or craziest cake you’ve had to do?
JP: The Despicable Me cake. We did a very cute, very detailed, Despicable Me cake for a first birthday party. In order to make those minions work they’ve got to be in droves, millions. We had like 200 minions on it. Little minions.
LV: Can you talk a little bit about the origins of DeLuxe?
JP: I was really excited to open up a pastry shop that created a community of people who loved all types of pastry, from croissants to wedding cakes to birthday cakes. So we’re in people’s lives through anniversaries, through deaths, through first birthdays, through breakfast. And that type of a scene is really rich in itself. So a full service bakery can provide from cradle to grave. Do you know what I mean? Milestones in life. and I was always drawn to that as a whole of people coming in either wanting to celebrate something or nurture something or say goodbye to something. And a lot of times it’s done through pastry. and so we can do that on a large scale with cakes and stuff and that’s what pays our bills, but then the whole other aspect of community comes in when you offer coffee and morning pastry. You get traffic.
The other layer is when I opened the shop. At the time, ten years ago I was 28. There were no cupcake shops, there were no females wanting to be cute little bakers that they see on TV. So I opened it for the love of pastry and also for the love of opening up a space in a neighborhood. and I wanted the neighborhood to have the same experience they had when neighborhoods had grocery stores. When you knew everyone. Nowadays people work at home and need to get out of their house and we have, like, a 50 cent cookie, you can walk down, get that, and be done, and not have to go downtown and park. All of those layers were really cool to me.
Now, it’s ten years later and we’ve achieved a neighborhood shop and we’ve achieved all those milestones for people. and I’ve achieved a customer base that is really cherished.
LV: How have you personally changed?
JP: I think i’ve become more grouchy, but, no. I think I’ve become more aware of everything besides myself. I’ve become more aware of people that work really hard, more aware of what it’s like to have children, more aware of what it’s like to pay bills. Having a family and owning a business creates an awareness that I can’t describe unless you’re in it. I remember people saying to me, “you know once you open it things will change forever,” and you’re like, “ yeah, yeah whatever…” I didn’t know it till I got in it.
LV: How long did it take for you to realized what it meant to be a business owner?
JP: It took about three months before I was like, “wow I have to wake up everyday and do this. this is happening. The excitement of the shop being open is over now it’s this.” And it’s the same with a kid, you’re so excited to have the little pumpkin bear and then you’re like, “actually, I’ve got to feed this thing.”
So it’s changed me in that way. I was cruisin’ around the world thinking I knew shit. That’s why it kills me when I see TV portray these cute women owning bakeries, coming behind the counter and being like, “how can I help you?” I’m like … I don’t know how you’d sum that up, more downtrodden [laughs].
LV: So do you watch any cooking shows?
JP: No they’re dumb.
LV: Would you say that baking is more of a science than an art?
JP: Well there’s two wonderful aspects to it, that’s why I love it. It’s a science to bake the product and it’s an art to finish it.
The science is done and then the art comes in and it’s awesome that you can have both. If you want to be artistic you can do that in a bakery. If you live by discipline and science and you’re better at that, then, you’ve got a place [in a bakery].
You can always tell what somebody’s better at in the kitchen. And then there’s speed.
If you’re a speed demon, you’re good at doing some things and not so good at others. I’m a speed demon, so I’m not good at detail. I’m good at making it, scooping it, getting it in the freezer, done. If somebody wants me to decorate a wedding cake, which I have to do, I hate it.
LV: Is there a noticeable theme in cake decorating right now?
JP: It’s a variety. I guess first birthday cakes. Mom’s really have a lot of pressure to have this show piece at home. Before, you could make a sheet cake, slather on some icing and sprinkles – which I still do for my kids, they don’t get anything amazing – but moms nowadays … are you ready for this? They want the cake to match the invitations to match the table cloth. So that’s the trend for the birthday party to all be in sync, an umbrella of whatever it is.
LV: Do your kids help out?
JP: No. They don’t help actually in the bakery but they think that they do. My daughter comes in on Thursday afternoons and she’ll help customers as much as she can.
LV: To give them a sense of how …
JP: To move and shake. Yeah, absolutely. They will eventually be looking down the barrel of helping. But right now my daughter comes in for fun.
LV: What is your most popular item?
JP: Our morning biscuits.
LV: Which local businesses and farms do you you get ingredients from?
JP: Hansen’s Dairy, Salt Fork Farms, Dirty Face Creek Farm berries, Wilson’s Apple Orchard apple and pumpkins.
LV: Do you have any tips for our readers?
JP: Yes. Always use butter and whole milk and fresh eggs. And support your local bakery if you don’t want to do that. Just go get it there.
