Recent college grad takes over as owner of local bakery

What started as a fun mother-daughter pastime is now a tasty career for 22-year-old Kelly Kobus, the new owner of A Piece O’ Cake Bakery, 4966 Northwind Drive.

On Jan. 25, the 2007 Albion College alumna was in the shop’s kitchen frosting a cake that eventually ended up looking like a yellow gift box with glittery dots and a bow. After each swipe across the square cake, Kobus cleaned the knife to get a smooth spread.

A flat sheet of purple fondant — a Play-Doh-like material made with sugar used to give cakes a smooth finish — lies on a nearby counter, across from a half-finished “dummy” cake in the shape of a light blue Oxford shirt.

The bakery, which Kobus took over from Linda and Stan Fedewa on Jan. 1, sells mostly wedding and specialty cakes, along with a variety of gluten-free goods.

Kobus’ interest in baking stemmed from making cakes and cookies at home with her mom, who does a lot of the shop’s baking and some decorating. Her dad also helps when he’s not busy with his own business, Colonial Bar, 3425 S. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., in Lansing.

Kobus said she enjoys working with her parents.

“A family business is something that I’ve always wanted to have,” she said.

She was given the opportunity last fall when her dad came home with an advertisement about the Fedewa couple looking for someone to buy their business. Kobus and her parents, who live in Lansing, checked it out the next day.

“I said, ‘This is my dream — I want to do this,” Kobus said.

With guidance from the Fedewas, Kobus and her parents started transitioning into their jobs at the bakery in November. The former owners still help with some of the work and will stay through the fall.

Kobus said Linda Fedewa has been training her on the baking and decorating techniques used in the shop.

“The stuff that we do here, you’re not going to learn in culinary school,” said Kobus, who studied French and art in college and took culinary classes while studying abroad in France for a year.

But in addition to the cakes, the Kobuses also are carrying on the gluten-free delicacies — foods made without wheat, oats, barley or raw egg — which in addition to cakes, include bread, crackers and croutons.

The gluten-free aspect was brought in when former owner Linda Fedewa was diagnosed with celiac disease and could no longer eat the cakes she and her husband Stan were making.

Using special types of flour, the Fedewas crafted recipes to allow Linda and others with celiac disease to continue enjoying sweets.

Because it has become more difficult for Linda Fedewa to be around the baking flour, the couple decided to sell the shop.

The gluten-free food is crucial to the bakery and a lot of people depend on it, Kobus said.

“It’s something (the Fedewas have) been doing I think for three years now, baking gluten-free,” she said. “We have people come in here that are like, ‘Thank you for doing this, sticking with it and not taking it away from us.’”

The storefront is home to a series of colorful sample cakes, from a five-layer wedding cake on one end to a cake shaped like Spartan Stadium on the other.

Cake and frosting flavors are listed on a chalkboard, including top-selling raspberry swirl and Kahlua fudge, and frosting ranging from buttercream to chocolate ganache.

She said the shop averages about 10 cakes a week, most of which take several hours to bake and decorate.

“(Flowers) can take easily 10 hours,” Kobus said.

Before making a wedding cake, Kobus said she likes to see the upcoming bride’s dress, the bridesmaids’ dresses and the wedding flowers so she can design a cake unique to them.

“You don’t want a cake that looks like it belongs to someone else,” she said.

Published on Tuesday, February 5, 2008