The Coastal Cake Company has added another tier to its business and brought cake couture to Errington.
Professional pastry chef and confectionery artist Marekie Nijenhuis and her partner Adam Skriver are now operating out of a bright new bakery cafe at 1306 Alberni Highway.
The shop is a step up from their modest backyard studio bakery in Parksville.
With more than 400 custom cake orders filled and delivered all over Vancouver Island since the two began their sweet business venture together three years ago the pair says their new location is the frosting on the cake.
“We do a lot of wedding cakes and customers had to come to our house. Now people walk into the store and it is a totally different atmosphere. I have wanted to do this ever since I was little,” said Nijenhuis.
Her fiancé and business manager said they are excited about the move.
“We had been looking at commercial real estate since we started this venture because working from our backyard was not ideal. We made our first cakes in January 2011 and since then things have gotten better and better,” said Skriver.
Whether the occasion is a wedding, birthday, anniversary, baby shower or retirement some events call for some sort of sugary commemoration and Nijenhuis said a beautiful cake makes it even sweeter.
Nijenhuis won best cake at the 2013 Vancouver Island wedding awards and looking at her creations it is easy to see why.
Her flair for pastries and cakes began at a young age watching her mother in the kitchen.
Her desire to create dazzling and delectable desserts brought her to the Baking and Pastry Arts Program at the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology, where she graduated at the top of her class and went on to receive Red Seal certification.
Nijenhuis was head pastry chef for the largest catering company in Western Canada for three years before starting her own business in Parksville.
Once you walk through the door, you are immediately swept up in the intoxicating aroma of vanilla and chocolate and an alluring palette of pastel coloured icing.
Committed to using fresh, natural, high quality ingredients, Nijenhuis said she doesn’t substitute any artificial ingredients into her desserts and everything is made from scratch.
Crafting chocolate and sugar into showpieces is what Nijenhuis does best and many of her impeccable cake designs are on the display shelves.
Offering hard to find items like pure vanilla bean paste and satin ice fondant as well as paper crafts to make cards and banners to coordinate with your cake, Nijenhuis said people can purchase items for their own masterpieces because “making fondant from scratch can be a little bit of a nightmare.”
If you want to have your cake and eat it too, drop by 1306 Alberni Highway.