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expand into stores nationwide by the fall.
No matter how different their origins, these
home bakers are all crafting a meaningful future
through their culinary pursuits. For some, it is a
creative way to earn an income in tough times. For
others, it’s a chance to home in on a newfound pur-
pose. But for Susana Torres and her four daugh-
ters, the pandemic hasn’t just meant time to play
around in the kitchen between jobs. They are ful-
filling a long-deferred ambition.
Torres, who crossed the U.S.-Mexico border
into Texas in the early 2000s, finally has her dream
job: baking cakes. “When we first got to America,
we sold cheesecakes, choco flan,” Susana’s daugh-
ter Natalia Rodríguez Nuñez recalls. “It was to
make ends meet. We were undocumented, and
that didn’t require paperwork.” Torres soon picked
up a job as a salesperson at an embroidery store
at the border, where she worked for 13 years with
no time for baking—until COVID-19 hit. Now,
she runs her business, Susana’s Cakery, out of her
home in Weslaco. Her daughters have helped by
setting up her social media and fulfilling orders.
“I am putting in more hours now, but I am doing
what I am passionate about,” Torres, who is now a
legal resident, says. The house smells delicious all
day and all night, and she sells dozens of sweets
every week: white chocolate raspberry cheesecake,
three-tiered Bundt cake decorated with pastel
swirls of frosting, classic tres leches.
“I put my heart in every single cake that I
make,” Torres says. “I am very happy.” She envi-
sions opening up a “very pretty cakery” where
people can pick up confections to share for cel-
ebrations. As the pandemic eases its grip on the
nation, her dream—and that of her fellow home
bakers—crystallizes more each day. □
Crowder goes to sleep. She spends her nights deco-
rating her cakes with the painstaking angst of a
perfectionist. But the future is bright.
“This is going to be able to support us. We’ll be
able to save up and make our short films,” she says.
Crowder and Hardman have found a way to turn
what might have been a pandemic survival job into
something much more. “This is a passion job,” she
says. It just happens to also pay the bills.
For home bakers across the country, creating
and sharing treats with others has been one up-
side in a year of isolation. In Brooklyn, Gautier
and Ashley Coiffard started selling croissants from
their home under the moniker L’Appartement 4F;
after just a month, they had made the $5,000 they
were hoping to save for their wedding. Gautier,
the chef, continues to work full time as an engi-
neer during the day, while Ashley quit her job as a
mortgage processor to run the business. “Everyone
wants to feel connected, and the best way to do
that is through social media and bread,” she says.
Across the East River in Manhattan, Sara
Armet’s homemade chocolate bark— cheekily
named the Lady and the Chocolate—has become
a neighborhood favorite on the Upper East Side.
The personal shopper and real estate agent made a
major career change when she was struck with the
idea on a whim. She delivers each order, often via
Citi Bike, wearing signature heart sunglasses and a
rhinestone face mask; now she’s raising money via
crowdfunding to expand beyond her apartment.
In Los Angeles, Sabeena Ladha and Scout Bris-
son turned their shared interest in healthy eating
and connections in the food world into a “good-
for-you” vegan cookie-dough brand, Deux; they
now sell it in trendy Erewhon markets, and plan to
400
The number of
cookies Tui Tuileta
bakes each week
$5,000
The budget for
Gautier and Ashley
Coiffard’s wedding—
earned through a
month’s worth of
croissant sales
13
The number of years
Susana Torres lived
in the U.S. before
achieving her dream
of baking for a living
$200
The price of a 10-in.
custom cake from
Whitney Crowder
L’APPARTEMENT 4F
Gautier and Ashley Coiffard run a
French bakery from their home
SUSANA TORRES
Though working harder than ever,
Torres is fulfilling a longtime goal
KUKI MAN
S’mores cookies were
a limited-run flavor
COURTESY SARA ARMET OF LADY AND THE CHOCOLATE; THE KUKI MAN; L’APPARTEMENT 4F; SUSANA TORRES
