A new cake baker has risen from the sweet scent of spring in New Harbor. Bonnie Nielsen started her home-based business, “Coastal Cakes” after completing an adult education course at Great Salt Bay School in Damariscotta.
Nielsen has been sharing her homemade desserts with her co-workers at the Samoset Restaurant in New Harbor for some time, much to their delight.
“It’s an edible art that makes people happy,” she said.
Admitting she liked sweets and always looked over cooking classes offered in adult education catalogs, Nielsen said the motivation for taking the class came out of a necessity to create additional income.
The five-week course, which started in March, focused on cake decorating. Nielsen said she had always wanted to learn how to decorate cakes. The class came up and soon enough Nielsen was on her way to a professional baking enterprise. She said everybody kept telling her she should start making cakes professionally.
They liked what she was making so much, Samoset owners Chad McKernan and Erin Reeves asked her to make some of the desserts for the menu.
She has made something different each week: cake, bread pudding, pies and anything sweet. Try the chocolate cake at the Samoset. It has a rich, creamy frosting and the crumb is just right: not too dry, not too moist and very rich.
“She’s been making home desserts for years,” her husband, Eric, added. “What she’s doing now just put the frosting on the cake.”
The New Harbor couple moved to the area four years ago from New Hampshire and built their house from the ground up. Nielsen and her husband designed and built the kitchen themselves.
“You can’t just jump into this,” Eric said, adding that his wife’s start-up cake business is not just a hobby.
Bonnie owned and operated a hair styling business in New Hampshire for 25 years. She said she wanted to do something other than cut hair and baking was the ticket. Eric said she has baked for family and friends for years, also drawing inspiration from their travels to Hawaii and Mexico. A professional grade oven and years of baking experience sets Nielsen’s work on the top shelf.
Her granite counter topped, gourmet kitchen is certified by the Division of Quality Assurance and Regulations at the Maine Dept. of Agriculture. She said the inspector who visited her kitchen gave it a perfect score. The inspection report allows Nielsen to bake cakes commercially.
She offers all-occasion cakes for people who want a home-baked dessert, but don’t have time to make it themselves. Nielsen wants folks to know that all of her cakes and other desserts are made from fresh ingredients.
Those craving a dessert for whatever reason can give Bonnie Nielsen a call at 677-2360.
