The Daily Orange is a nonprofit newsroom that receives no funding from Syracuse University. Consider donating today to support our mission.

Some Syracuse residents are running home-based bakeries during the coronavirus pandemic, selling their products on websites and social media.

Bakeries such as Fatcat Baking, Big Al’s Vegan Bakery and NICE Biscuit operate largely or entirely out of bakers’ homes and provide baked goods to customers through contact-free delivery or pickup.

Alexis Barney wanted to own a bakery for much of her life. With her newfound free time due to the pandemic, she started Big Al’s Vegan Bakery, a vegan and tree nut-free bakery that offers sweets such as cakes and big cookies.

The process of getting started was fairly easy, Barney said. She registered her company name and applied for a New York Home Processing Registration, which allowed her to run Big Al’s out of her home. She then began taking orders and putting polls on her Instagram to see which kinds of baked goods her customers would prefer.

“I also like to make it a priority to make things that I like (and) the things that I enjoy making,” Barney said. “If there’s no joy while you’re making something, it’s not going to be as good of quality.”

Fatcat Baking sells vegan baked goods such as donuts, cupcakes and custom cakes. Courtesy of Megan Mills

Many of these home-based bakeries, including Barney’s, sell their goods entirely online, and customers place orders through websites or social media pages.

Syracuse residents have been receptive to these contact-free ordering options, and they enjoy being able to open their door and see baked goods that are ready for them, Barney said.

Free time from COVID-19 stay-at-home orders offered a chance for bakery owners to test and develop new recipes. Megan Mills, owner of Fatcat Baking, spent months perfecting the recipe and texture for her popular lemon basil scones. Evan Furey, co-owner of NICE Biscuit, did the same thing. Before opening the bakery, Furey and co-owner Cristen Crew, his girlfriend, brainstormed and tested different biscuit and sandwich recipes.

“It’s like we imagine all of (the recipes) together and we think of these ideas, and then we just get in the kitchen, and we try them out,” Furey said. “There’s a lot of tweaking and a lot of changing that goes into each process.”

One of the benefits of running a home-based bakery instead of a bakery with a storefront is that there aren’t any overhead costs or rent for operating out of your own home, though that brings its own complications, Barney said.

One of the biggest difficulties with baking at home is the lack of extra space, Mills said. When preparing a particularly large order, she brings out a foldable table to get the space she needs to prep and package all the baked goods.

Alexis Barney sells vegan and tree-nut free sweets through her company Big Al’s Vegan Bakery. Courtesy of Aaron Fuoco

When confronted with the challenge of having too little space, Furey and his co-owners began reaching out to local bakeries that were closed during the pandemic. They ended up renting additional space to use after doing as much of their baking and cooking as they can at home.

While business owners enjoy the qualities of being home-based, they are also looking to expand their businesses. Mills hopes to have a physical bakery and has already started selling wholesale baked goods to a few cafes, including People’s Place in Hendricks Chapel. Furey and his co-owners hope to expand NICE Biscuit to a food truck or storefront, and Barney is looking to move Big Al’s to a physical location as soon as possible.

Home-based companies have worked fairly well during the pandemic because people were engaged with ordering food and baked goods online, the business owners said. One of the biggest benefits that home-based bakeries have is the support of people wanting to buy local.

NICE Biscuit was created by Evan Furey and his girlfriend Cristen Crew during the pandemic. Courtesy of Cristen Crew

“Syracuse, thank goodness, has always been like a very great buy-local community,” Mills said.

The support of the community seemed to stem from a realization that businesses might not otherwise make it through the pandemic, Mills said. She felt there was an emphasis on purchasing food and other goods, such as gift cards, to help ensure the survival of small, local businesses.

The bakeries offer owners a way to fill their free time and provide local-made baked goods to community members at home.

“In the middle of the pandemic, actually, I decided to start doing deliveries to people’s houses,” Barney said. “I figured people needed some sunshine in their lives.”

Published on October 28, 2020 at 11:17 pm

Contact Abby: [email protected] | @abbyvp08