What are you craving this holiday season? Maybe flaky, fresh-out-of-the-oven scones or homemade bread? Cookies and cakes slathered with your favorite flavor of icing? A warm apple dumpling that makes the whole house smell like cinnamon and spice?
What would the holidays—or any day, really—be without the perfect sweet and savory treat? A lot of DIY bakers were born during the stay-at-home days of the pandemic. But sometimes, it’s best to leave it to the professionals. Here are a few local bakers who make it worth yourwhile to splurge on those extra calories.
Baked Bakery & Café
Missy Boehrer-Walters, Owner
Although owning a bakery may not always have been the end destination on her career path, it was clear from early on that Missy Boehrer-Walters was going to do something in the culinary industry. “I have been food obsessed since day one,” she says. She recalls paging through the simple recipesinside a cookbook that cateredto kids and then upping her game with fancier fare like crêpes. “I was always doing little things,” says Boehrer-Walters. “It just blossomed.” She also tried her hand at making Thanksgiving pies and Christmas candy; her parents obliged her by taking in order forms for the delicious fruits of her labors to their workplaces.
Boehrer-Walters began to get serious about baking in high school when she enrolled in vo-tech classes to help hone her skills. She would later graduate from the culinary arts school at Johnson & Wales University in Rhode Island and go on to work various jobs in the food industry in the region before happening upon Baked Bakery & Café in Emmaus. “I had kind of stumbled in and said, ‘Hey I’m looking for something different,’” says Boehrer-Walters. Within a month she was named head baker, and, about seven years ago, she became the shop’s third owner.
Boehrer-Walters says she’s made it a priority to expand Baked’s specialty cake offerings—but that’s not to say there has to be a special occasion to pay her a visit. “We’re known for our fresh muffins and scones and cinnamon bars,” she says. Think scones are destined to be dried-out and boring? Baked just might change your mind. And her regulars know, the lunchtime menu is jam-packed with yummy sandwiches served on fresh-baked bread. So, whether it’s sweet or savory that you crave, know that Boehrer-Walters is having a ball figuring out how to please every palate. “I love having a new ingredient, stopping in and getting something from a farmer and transforming it into something else. Also playing with the classics.”
228 Main St., Emmaus | 610.966.6100 | bakedinemmaus.com
Cake as Canvas
Huma Usmani,Owner
Huma Usmani certainly knows how to make a pretty cake: pastel colors, delicate flowers and icing as smooth as untouched snow after a winter storm. But Usmani also knows how to make… well, unusual cakes. After all, sometimes that’s just what the doctor orders. Literally. “My most unusual request was a liver,” she explains. Yes, that liver—the body organ. It was for a physician. And apparently, she nailed it. “It was a lot of fun to create,” Usmani says. “The customer was happy so I must have done a good job.”
Usmani was not always destined for a career in the specialty cakes business. She had a background in economics and finance and was pursuing her master’s degree in Philadelphia when she decided to go to culinary school instead. Shegot her pastry arts diploma from the Restaurant School at Walnut Hill College. “Something clicked about going there. I took a leapof faith,” she says.
And it appears to have paid off. She established Cake as Canvas as a home-based business in 2012 before opening a storefront in Bethlehem in 2020. “I just wanted to have a space of my own,” says Usmani. It’s primarily a call-ahead, custom-order operation with some pop-up shopping opportunities sprinkled on the calendar. Usmani says she loves bringing customers’ ideas to life in cake form. “People always remember the cake. It’s the last thing you have at the end of the night.”
Usmani also offers classes so that other aspiring bakers—or, perhaps the more appropriate title would be artists, whose medium is buttercream and fondant—can learn the tricksof the trade, just like she did when she took that leap of faith. “I never knew I had this interest and I’m glad I stumbled upon it,” Usmani says. And no, she has no regrets about leaving the world of economics and finance.
622 W. Broad St., Bethlehem 215.667.1771 | cakeascanvas.com
The Modern Crumb Bake Shop
Katie Gaffney,Owner
Katie Gaffney’s career has taken her all around the country. She’s worked for some of the biggest stars in the culinary business, like chefs Francisco Migoya and Thomas Keller. And, long before anyone in the Lehigh Valley had tasted anything crafted by the very talented Lee Chizmar, she was learning the tricks of the trade from him at Great Bay restaurant in her native Boston. When Chizmar and his wife, Erin Shea, moved to Salisbury Township to open the future award-winning restaurant Bolete, Gaffney, a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America, relocated as well, to work alongside Chizmar as a pastry chef.
Later, in 2015, following a move to Napa and a wedding to chef Michael George, she was back on the East Coast in the Lehigh Valley, living in Easton but working in New Jersey. But something didn’t feel quite right. Gaffney began to wonder: “What am I doing to impact my community? I was missing that sense of community. I had to do something closer to where I lived.” And in 2019, she did just that with the opening of The Modern Crumb Bakeshop inside the Easton Public Market. “We’re a traditional French American bakery,” says Gaffney. Expect fresh breads, baguettes, croissants, cookies, danish and more. There are also a number of gluten-free and vegan options as well as traditional custom-order cakes and desserts for special occasions.
Everything is made and mixed in-house, which makes for a lot of long and labor-intensive days for Gaffney and her small staff at The Modern Crumb. But Gaffney says the repetition is one of the things she enjoys about the job; she sees it as part of the process of polishing her technique. “Every day I try to do it better than the day before,” says Gaffney. And that’s a mindset that helps when she’s laminating her umpteenth batch of croissants.
325 Northampton St., Easton | 610.333.8640 | themoderncrumbbakeshop.com
The Farm Bakery & Events
The Lynde Family
Those who can remember digging into mouth-watering delights like apple dumplings, shoo-fly pie and funny cakes at Meyers Family Restaurant in Quakertown will be happy to know that those and other beloved recipes live on at The Farm Bakery & Events. “It truly is a family business,” says Becca Lynde, who owns the property with her husband, Chris. Becca Lynde’s roots at the farm run deep; she was born and raised there, and later returned in 2011 with a family of her own to take over the upkeep of the property. In 2016, the family began operating a bakery on the site via a commercial kitchen inside the house; a barn on the property was converted into a wedding venue the following year.
The farm is currently home to the Lyndes and their two daughters (the 13-year-old can make a mean macaron, Becca says) as well as Chris’s parents and Becca’s father, Jerry Meyers, who attended the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York, and perfected his craft inside the kitchen of Meyers Family Restaurant, which was opened by his parents in 1949. Although the family made the difficult decision to close the restaurant in 2003, The Farm Bakery is bringing a number of its Pennsylvania Dutch classics to a whole new generation. “It’s a nice blend of our past and new recipes, too,” Becca says.
The family has added new bakers to the fold, including Kara Wible, who was hired in 2016. “She didn’t have any formal training but she was super talented,” says Becca. Wible made her first three-tiered cake when she was 13 years old. She credits Becca with giving her a chance at her dream job. Also on the team: Lindsey Miller, who interned at the bakery in 2019 and was thrilled to be asked to come back after she graduated from college. Now they’re churning out those Meyers classics as well as specialty cakes and seasonal fare like cookies, pies and muffins.
There’s a whole other crew that handles weddings and special events on the property. “One of the things that sets us apart is the team that God brought here to the farm,” Becca says. “They all love to serve. They do such a fantastic job.”
2475 W. Zion Hill Rd., Quakertown 215.645.9343 | meyersfarmbakery.com
Matty's Marvelous Makery
Matthew Robles,Owner
Matthew Robles’ family can be forgiven if they seemed a little caught off guard when he told them several years ago that he was going to become a full-time baker. Although Robles had worked in the food industry for many years when he was starting out, his experience in the kitchen in a professional capacity was limited, and his more recent jobs had taken him in an entirely different direction—think health care supply chain. And yet, Robles was always drawn to food. “I always had a sweet tooth,” he says. “To this day, whenever I eat something, I have to have something sweet after.”
And baking, Robles says, had always been a hobby, at least. His family made frequent visits to a bakery in Easton when he was growing up. Robles began trying to recreate some of the delicious delicacies they brought home. “One day, I found the perfect ingredients to come together.” He took his homemade bread to his family and they loved it. Suddenly, there was no longer a need to take quite so many trips to the Easton bakery, and maybe the idea of Robles as a professional baker wasn’t so crazy, after all. His coworkers in the healthcare industry also became willing taste testers for his freshly baked breads. Their praise—and eagerness to place orders for more—gave him the confidence to think a career change might be possible. “I was like, I can make something out of this eventually,” Robles says.
Robles began selling his goodies out of the shared commercial kitchen Common Space in Downtown Easton. Then, at the tail end of 2018, he opened Just Baked in Tatamy with fellow Common Space baker Nicole Amey. It’s two businesses under one roof—Robles operates Matty’s Marvelous Makery, and Amey heads up Elite Sweets by Nicole. Robles offers some seasonal treats like cookies and scones, but homemade breads continue to be his, well, bread and butter. “It's all blood, sweat, tears and love,” he says. “Just to hear people say, ‘This is the best bread I've ever had.’ It's so satisfying.”
13 Bushkill St., Tatamy | 484.548.0627 | @mattysmarvelousmakery
Luna's Bakery
The Luna Family
Luis Luna, Sr. began entertaining the notion of opening his own bakery when he was just a boy in Puerto Rico. According to his son, Luis Luna, Jr., he got his first taste of the business when a bakery owner noticed him eyeballing all of the goodies in the display cases and offered him a job washing dishes. From there, he graduated to frying doughnuts and other tasks.
Fast-forward to 2004: Luis Sr. and his family had moved to the U.S. Although he attended culinary school in Puerto Rico, he was employed as a truck driver and still chasing his dream of establishing a bakery of his own. “Once when he was delivering flour, he just started crying,” says his son. “He just wanted it that badly. He prayed to God, he did whatever he could do.” Finally, Luis Sr.’s vision became reality in 2012 when he opened Luna’s Bakery on Linden Street in Allentown with his wife, Dalila Luna. In 2019, they welcomed a second location on Union Boulevard. Luis Jr. and his sister, Jessica Luna, help run both locations, along with Luis Jr.’s wife, Sharon Luna. “It’s a piece of Puerto Rico here in the Lehigh Valley,” says Luis Jr.
Luna’s specializes in Latin staples like pan sobado (sweet bread), pan de agua (French bread) and quesitos (cream cheese puff pastries ) that are made from scratch on-site. Another big seller is an original dessert they call “Cheflan,” cheesecake on the bottom, and flan on the top.
Luis Jr. says he’s grateful for the community support that has buoyed both locations. And, while the whole family has to put in a lot of hours to make it all work, he’s happy they’re in the trenches together. “There’s joy in being able to work with your family, being able to help each other out. Not too many people get to wake up and then spend time with your family as your day job. I’ll definitely look back on these times as a gift from God.”
1120 W. Linden St., Allentown | 610.432.3255
709 Union Blvd., Allentown | 610.433.5500
