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| Jerri Jantz is piping a design for a baby shower cake in the decorating room at Batter Up Cakes. |
Walking down Ninth Street, it’s easy to miss a bakery nestled under the Greeley Downtown Development Association. A spiral staircase transports customers to a European style bakery. The café’s eccentric yet cozy atmosphere welcomes any guest from the winter weather. Local art hangs on the brick walls around the seating area and fireplace. Brown and cream swirls lay on the floor by the checkout counter. Neon green and pink paint cover the walls surrounding the pastry display cases and menu. Looking at the display cases full of fruity, chocolaty, nutty and flakey baked goods, it’s not easy to tell that this bakery does not have a functioning oven. Waiting for an oven hood, owners Jerri Jantz and Dan Mandt temporarily bake at an offsite kitchen.
Mandt’s day starts at 7 p.m. the night before at the VFW; after baking into the wee hours of the morning, Mandt opens the bakery at 7 a.m. Assistants join Mandt and they fill Greeley residents’ stomachs with homemade assorted scones, croissants, cinnamon rolls, cake truffles, cupcakes and specialized cakes. When Jantz isn’t working her job at a dentist office, she is the one in charge.
10:00 a.m.
A chime from the doorbell indicates customers entering Batter Up Cakes, which pulls Jantz away from making cake truffles. Jerri greets two sisters who want a cake for their 85-year-old mother’s birthday. Jantz starts filling out an order form as the sisters describe their mother to Jantz. The sisters say their mom is an old farm gal who is also a valentine baby.
Jantz suggests a heart-shaped cake as she sketches an outline. Despite Jantz’s lack of confidence in her drawing skills, the sisters love the idea. Jantz recommends adding flowers made out of royal icing to incorporate a farm theme. The older sister asks the cost of the cake.
“Only a million dollars,” Jantz replies.
Playing along, the sisters insist that their mother is worth it. After completing their order, the sisters exit chatting excitedly about the cake.
11:15 a.m.
Returning to the decorating room, Jantz starts working on her friend’s baby shower cake. The smell of buttercream frosting fills the room as she frosts a prebaked cake to give it a “crumb coating,” which is a first layer of frosting. Jantz sets the cake in the fridge to dry as the doorbell chimes again.
12:10 p.m.
Three women hungry for lunch enter the bakery for the first time. Walking to the front room, Jantz mentions to the women that they will have lunch choices when they get their hood installed and running in a few weeks, but for now, she informs them of their 22 cake truffle flavors. As two of the ladies nibble on carrot cake truffles, the other, Kim Jerome, talks to Jantz about the gluten-free options. A wave of excitement crosses Jerome’s face as she picks a homemade gluten-free brownie. Jerome has celiac disease, which means she can’t have gluten, and says it’s almost impossible to find gluten-free food in Greeley.
“This is going to be my new favorite place in Greeley,” Jerome says.
1:30 p.m.
After talking a bit more, the customers leave and Jantz retrieves the cake from the fridge. In the decorating room, she sits on the revolving black bar stool and adds the final layer of frosting to the cake for a smooth outer layer, explaining that they don’t decorate a lot with fondant.
Working from a picture of a cartoon jungle that her friend brought in, Jantz pipes animal markings on the cake.
“People frequently bring in pictures of the cake they want. This is helpful, but I always make it personalized,” Jantz says.
Jantz hands off the cake to her assistant, Shannon Collinge. While Jantz starts to add colorful features on a chocolate animal, Collinge puts details on the cake. After alternating between squeezing and twisting the end of pastry bags filled with lush green and rich brown frosting, edible jungle trees seem to grow up the side of the cake.
The doorbell chimes again just moments after Collinge finishes piping. Jantz gives Collinge a baker’s high-five with the back of her fist, and leaves the room to cheerfully greet another customer.
Info Box:
· Buttercream A smooth, creamy icing that is made of butter and stays soft. It can be colored and/or flavored. It’s also used to create piping, swags and other borders.
· Fondant: A sweet, elastic icing made of sugar, corn syrup, and gelatin that's rolled out with a rolling pin and draped over a cake. It's a smooth, firm base for gum paste flowers, decorative details, and architectural designs, and has a porcelain finish.
· Piping: Decorative technique created using a pastry bag and various metal tips. Piping details include leaves, borders, basket-weave patterns and flowers.
· Royal icing: Made of egg whites and confectionary sugar, this icing is a soft paste piped from a pastry bag to create latticework, beading, bows, and flowers. It hardens as it dries.
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