Kathy Phan bakes hand-crafted cookies from her home for Caked Bakery. (photos by John Gregory)
Home-made cookies made with love
Kathy Phan is an ambitious, young Scripps Ranch woman whose passion is baking and dreams of one day opening her own bakery. She is working toward her goal by experimenting in her parents’ kitchen and creating decadent cookies, brownies and cake bars — each home-made and handcrafted with loving care. Even her web address implies as much: www.caked.love.
Phan — who attended Ellen Browning Scripps Elementary School, Marshall Middle School, Scripps Ranch High School and San Diego State University — lives and bakes in her parents’ home, testing a variety of flavors.
“I’ve taken over the whole downstairs, basically,” she said.
Her repertoire of 20 cookie flavors includes tasty favorites like chocolate chip, but she also dabbles in some of the more exotic ingredients as well. These include a matcha green tea cookie and a matcha green tea white chocolate chip variety. Another has taro, a root that is a popular Asian flavor, Phan said.
“When I say that [it’s a root], people don’t really want to try it, but usually everyone who tries it loves it.,” she said.
Phan’s baked goods aren’t ordinary. No, they are gourmet, full of flavor. She doesn’t hold back on the ingredients.
For instance, her s’mores cookie is made of graham crackers, milk chocolate chips, semi-sweet chocolate chips, milk chocolate Hershey bars and marshmallows. Her toffee hazelnut cookie is made of Nutella, toffee, semi-sweet chocolate chips and milk chocolate chips. “It’s a good balance of chocolate,” she said.
Phan said she has about six brownie flavors. The crispy peanut butter marshmallow brownie is a fan favorite. It is made of crisp rice cereal, marshmallows, peanut butter and chocolate, with chocolate chips in the brownie part.
“It’s very decadent,” she said. “I have other ones I’m experimenting with right now, so I’m trying to grow a number of flavors.”
The Caked Bakery operation is pretty amazing, especially when one considers this is most-definitely a one-person show.
“I basically do everything myself. I have to make all the boxes myself. I try to package everything nicely,” she explained.
She also creates her labels by hand and she includes lots of detailed information. She lists all the ingredients and sub-ingredients, the net weight, she lists her cottage business permit number that states she made each product in a home kitchen, and she lists warnings for possible allergies.
To introduce customers to her baked products, Phan sets up a booth at about three farmer’s markets, including the Scripps Ranch Farmer’s Market on Saturday mornings from 9 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at 10380 Spring Canyon Road, in the Innovations Academy parking lot. While she works toward her goal of opening a bakery, she keeps growing a base of customers and keeps them happy with quality products as well as personal service.
“I offer a delivery service and event catering,” Phan said. “I offer a monthly subscription service. So, I will deliver a dozen cookies to your door every month, and you can choose when you want it and where you want it delivered. I deliver everything myself.”
If you have a news tip or idea for a story, contact John Gregory: john@scrippsranchnews.com