Hot And Rising – Natalie Pearce’s Natty Cakes

Originally posted on January 28, 2015

Welcome back to the second installment of Hot and Rising, wherein we chat with some of the East Bay's hottest new bakers and makers and learn not only about what makes them tick, but which of their products will have you coming back and begging for more.

I most recently sat down to speak with Natalie Pearce, owner and operator of Natty Cakes. Three things immediately struck me as we spoke over the course of an hour – Natalie is sharp, young, and driven. “I always wanted it,” Natalie says of the business she started in August 2012. “I grew up baking, always in the kitchen, so I knew I wanted a bakery. My first job was at a bakery – I got that job because I wanted to have a bakery. Everything just kind of lined up! I went to school and got my business degree for this.”

As everything fell into place for the creation of the bakery she knew she’d someday own, the name of Natalie’s future bakery fatefully fell into her lap years ago. “I’d never even thought of business names,” she admits. “When I was working at the bakery [Oliver’s Market in Santa Rosa], one of my co-workers had come up with it. He’s kind of an out-there guy – he so, so cool – and he said ‘You know what would be a great name? Natty Cakes!’ He just breezes by as he says it, and my life just changed forever!”

Of the years she spent working professionally as a baker prior to opening Natty Cakes, Natalie explains that she “learned a lot, but I kind of learned more about the business side of it, the management side of it.” The real tricks of the trade behind this baker, however, came from her family. “My family is a huge influence,” she says smiling. “My grandma on my dad’s side had five kids, so every meal was prepared by her, everything that’s in that house was prepared by her! We’d go to the house every weekend and I’d bake with her, I’d always be in the kitchen with her. [We made] cookies, mostly cookies because we could make a ton of them.”

Now that her bakery is up and running out of local incubator kitchen Kitchener Oakland years later, Natalie is still just as passionate about baking and business-owning as she was during the stages when it was all just a dream for the future. “I love being my own boss!” she exclaims. “I love being in control of where I want the business to go. You know, it’s very stressful trying to think about branding and making sure you’re going in the right direction and everything, but I really like even the really monotonous stuff… you just sort of know the whole thing from start to finish.” Additional perks include “getting to choose where you go, you get to choose what you want to do. You have a lot of flexibility, but you have a lot of responsibility, also,” she says seriously.

It follows that after the years of baking cookies with her grandmother, Natalie is known most prominently for her cookie sandwiches. Natalie describes Natty Cakes' trademark dessert as “a chewy cookie with a buttercream filling.” She goes on to say “it’s a very simple concept – cookies and frosting – but when the ‘cupcake bubble’ burst and I’d moved on from it, I was trying to think of something that would have an impact… that would have more longevity.”

Natalie’s other offerings, including cinnamon rolls, cheesecake, pies, fruit galettes, wedding cakes and cupcakes, all regularly showcase the variety of fresh and local organic produce she is dedicated to using. “It’s really important to me to be sustainable, to be organic, and to be local,” she says. “I’m not the only one doing organic, I’m not the only one doing local, but I feel like my stuff has kind of a simplistic, rustic edge to it… just a little more homemade feeling and a little more satisfying.”

With Valentine’s Day just around the corner, the future will likely be looking quite rosy for Natty Cakes. Natalie says this year “I’ll have Valentine’s Day cookies, I’ll probably do a red velvet cheese cake again. And then I’ll have red velvet cookie sandwiches, red velvet cupcakes, anything red… You have to go with it!”

“Go with it” truly seems to be Natalie’s attitude in regards to the future of her business, as well as her advice to other small business entrepreneurs. “I think I’m just going along where I’m supposed to go,” she says simply. “Even looking at when I first started and I had ten different roads to go on and I took this one, I still feel like that this was the right one. You know, farmers market versus catering versus a food truck… I still feel like I’m on the right path, I’m still getting there. It’s just a long process.”

She advises that “if this is something that is all you think about, it’s all you care about, you don’t really care if you get beaten down ten times a day over it – then this is the right thing for you. And it’s worth it, it’s totally worth it!” she exclaims. “There’s so many different ways to go about [starting a business] – just do what’s comfortable for you, and definitely do it. Go full fledged into it and take the opportunity!”