Cherbourg Bakery & My Labor of Love
“Just keep baking.”
Three simple words. I didn’t know it at the time, but baked inside them was so much hope, so much trust, so much love for what would become Cherbourg Bakery. I didn’t know our community needed gluten, nut and dye-free baking, nor did I know that Ms. Taylor’s three simple words would inspire me to fill that need.
I didn’t know, so I just kept baking.
Just this year, Cherbourg celebrated its seventh anniversary on Drexel Avenue (yay!). It’s a milestone we’re incredibly proud of – but before our family-style café and menu of sweets and savories, before we nestled Lady Cherbourg against a backdrop of pastel-painted walls, before Cherbourg was, well, Cherbourg… there was only me and my kitchen.
I’ve always been a baker at heart. As a child, I would obsess over different recipes, carefully experimenting with ingredients until it was just right. I felt rooted in baking, and when I entered adulthood, it had become more than just a hobby. It had become my safe space. In between family and my nine to five, I baked whenever I could, as much as I could, to be in that space.
It wasn’t until 2008, though, that I fully embraced my baking roots. By then, I’d left my career in the business world and dabbled off and on in semi-full-time baking. But I wanted this to be different and infuse baking into my everyday.
Selling my goods at farmers markets had been a great start for me. But that same year, when I was pregnant with my third child, I was diagnosed with a gluten intolerance, and as so many of you know, it’s hard to find good, fresh gluten-free baked goods. In most cases, pre-packaged and “gluten free” usually meant a long list of unsavory and unpronounceable ingredients that I would never put into my or my family’s bodies. Most gluten-free recipes were off the mark, too. All-purpose flour was replaced with gums and other additives intended to replace gluten, but that was unnecessary and expensive. Options were few, so I decided to redefine gluten-free baking for myself and do something that spoke to my sensibilities on food, good health and baking.
By 2009, I had a strong list of goods I felt confident about: my Chocolate Chip Cookie, my Cream Puff, a Molten Marsala Cake, an Espresso Brownie and the Double Lemon Bar. I wanted to get some thoughts, particularly from the mouths of babes. Kids speak the truth and I wanted their honest feedback. So, I gathered my samples and attended a children’s gluten intolerance community group offered at Nationwide Children’s Hospital.
Fortunately, the kids, along with their families, loved everything; the Double Lemon Bar being the resounding winner. I was humbled and very excited.
Meaningful connections happen when you least expect them. As it turns out, one of the group members worked at Raisin Rack, a local grocery store in Westerville, and asked if I would be interested in meeting the store’s manager for possible inclusion of my items in the store. I said “yes” and we scheduled a Friday meeting to do a tasting.
I waited quietly while the manager sampled each item. Her first words were, “How soon can we get it?”
I delivered Raisin Rack’s first order the following Monday.
The first two weeks at Raisin Rack were great and my sales numbers continued to grow. On their shelves, they included my entire lineup: the Double Lemon Bar, my Chocolate Chip Cookie, my Cream Puff, the Molten Marsala Cake and my Espresso Brownie. Raisin Rack continued to ask for more and more goods, and suddenly, I knew I had something. There was a general buzz and I felt really excited.
Then, in what seemed like overnight, the orders began mounting quickly. My home kitchen was full, my oven was small and it became more and more difficult to keep up with the requests.
I needed more space.
Time began moving fast. By 2010, life was in transition, both inside and outside of my work while the Double Lemon Bar’s popularity began to rise. I simply couldn’t put them, along with my other baked goods, on Raisin Rack’s shelves fast enough.
At home, family dynamics were changing, too. I now had three young children and the balance of working solo and maintaining life at home was challenging. I was a baker, and I loved it – with every sense of my being. But my safe space had become a constant cycle of fulfilling orders, leaving few hours in the day to be a mother. I questioned if I could effectively raise my children while continuing to manage the demand for my goods, and with each day, the possibility of returning to my traditional, balanced nine to five career felt more like the responsible next phase of my life.
I received a call one afternoon from a Ms. Taylor. I didn’t know her, but learned the manager at Raisin Rack had referred her to me after having enjoyed a few of my goods, mainly the Double Lemon Bar. Ms. Taylor told me that she loved them and wanted to place a personal order. In fact, she wanted to place many orders, now and in the future.
“I’m sorry,” I said, and paused. “But I don’t know if I’m going to keep doing this. There are too many things going on in my life right now. And I don’t think this is going to be the right career path for me.”
What I came to love about Ms. Taylor was that she was tenacious, firm, even a little sharp. In our very first conversation, I learned she carried a “tell you how it is” quality. Yet, she approached you with love – tough love, sometimes really tough – but, love just the same.
“You have a talent and you need to keep baking,” she said. “Just keep baking.”
Just keep baking. Those three simple words.
There’s some kind of nonsense cliché about making lemonade when life hands you lemons. Those close to me know that living authentically is at my core and that clichés have no place in my world. Only this time, in its most genuine form, that cliché actually applied to me. It was honest. It was true. It was a reflection of the fork in my road urging me to choose left or right. But, instead of lemonade, I made lemon bars – lots of them. With that bit of love and encouragement from Ms. Taylor and the demand for my baking having become so high, I had no choice but to move my baking into a dedicated bakery space. Fortunately, I had both the love and support from friends and family to make a retail space possible. My friend Shari George and my brother Gary Schwindt partnered with me and helped bring my crazy dream to fruition.
Ms. Taylor was one of Cherbourg’s very first repeat customers, cheering me on at our opening night.
Ms. Taylor passed on January 18, 2017. She was, and continues to be, one of Cherbourg’s biggest supporters. She may not have known it, but “Just keep baking” became a hallmark both inside my bakery and at home with my children. It’s been the greatest gift watching them grow up and I’m so proud of the people they are. It’s true, balancing baking and motherhood can be hard. There’s no denying it. But, it’s a little easier when you’ve got love on your side.
Seven years ago, Cherbourg Bakery opened at 541 S. Drexel Avenue in Bexley, just outside downtown Columbus. Our bakery is, truly, the house our lemon bar built; it enabled me to provide a safe space to those with nut and gluten allergies and intolerances. The lemon bar served as a foundation, but without the incredible support, community friends like Raisin Rack and inspirational people like Ms. Taylor, I might still be in my own home kitchen baking.
Our wonderful bakery guests are more like family than customers and I could not be more grateful to all of you who have made our business a home, our work worthwhile, and for your continued love of what we do! Your encouragement has meant everything to me.
“Be sweet” is our mantra inspired by the taste of our goods, but also by the kindness and warmth from our team and customers. In this blog, we hope to sweeten your daily life with recipes, stories, tips and other bits of goodness that inspires the Cherbourg family. For us, the Double Lemon Bar is special and reminds us of the journey to our Bexley space. So, to celebrate our seventh anniversary, we hope you’ll enjoy the very recipe that allowed us to take this treat from our pan to your plate. So please, join our club of citrus zesters, lemon juicers and shortbread artisans, and try your hand at our Double Lemon Bar. Tell us about your experience in the comments. We’d love to hear all about it.
To every person and business that has supported us, I sincerely thank you!
Be Sweet &
See you soon.
Geri
Cherbourg Bakery Double Lemon Bars
Yields 12 Bars
Ingredients for Shortbread
8 oz. salted butter (at room temperature)
2/3 C. powdered sugar
2 C. Cherbourg flour
Ingredients for Lemon Filling
2 C. granulated sugar
4 large eggs (at room temperature)
1 tsp. baking powder
¼ C. Cherbourg flour
225 mls. of lemon juice (including zest and pulp)
Step One: Directions for Shortbread
1. Cream butter in large bowl. Beat in powdered sugar until really smooth. Add one cup of flour at a time until combined.
a. Careful not to over-mix, batter should appear soft and light.
b. In a 9x13x2"metal baking pan, press down shortbread dough evenly.
2. Bake at 350°F in a home oven for 19-20 minutes, until edges are golden brown.
Step Two: Directions for Lemon Filling
1. In a medium bowl, whisk sugar and eggs until blended. Zest lemons into bowl. Add baking powder
and flour. Beat in fresh lemon juice and pulp.
2. Pour lemon filling over baked crust. Bake at 350°F in a home oven for 22 minutes or until filling is set in center and begins to get golden brown around the edges.
3. Let pan cool on wire rack and then freeze. Once frozen, cut with a metal spatula into desired size.
Sift powdered sugar on top.
