By Kelli Samson
Let us begin with a question nearly as important as blood type, political affiliation, or how you like your eggs: are you a cake person or a pie person?
Got your answer? Good.
It was really a trick question. Either way, Alison Kloft’s bakery in Lacey has you covered.
The Back Door Bakery is for lovers of handmade desserts crafted with real butter, eggs, and lots of sugar. It’s for the sweet tooth that is ever-craving satisfaction. It’s for the people that miss the pies their grandmothers used to make or the birthday cakes their moms would bake.
Yes, whichever way your dessert loyalties lean, this dessert shop is for you.
The Back Door Bakery is for people who don’t bake, but need to bring a dessert to an event. It’s for couples looking for a treat after a well-earned date night and for students who want to study somewhere much more enticing than the library, as this dessert destination is open until 10:00 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday.
As a little girl going to the grocery store, Kloft recalls, “I was the kid who would stand and watch the ladies decorate the cakes. In the town where I grew up, there was a shop that sold cake by the slice.” The foundation was set.
She went to college in Oregon, then, naturally, to culinary school. It was there that she met her husband. “We’re very much into food,” she chuckles. The couple now has four children.
Kloft began decorating cakes at Larry’s Markets in Seattle years ago. “That’s where I learned my primary decorating skills. A lot that I do here is a throw-back to what I learned back then,” she explains.
While she was a new mother living in Texas, she and a friend started the Back Door Bakery, baking breads that they would deliver to customers’ doors weekly.
Not long after Kloft and her family moved back to the Pacific Northwest, she opened her spacious, light-filled brick and mortar location, but dropped breads from the menu in favor of her true passions, cakes and pies.
Doing what she loves most gives Kloft the flexibility to be a successful working mother. Her hours reflect this. After getting her kids off to school in the morning, she comes in before the 11:00 a.m. opening to bake and prepare for the day. She closes on weekdays from 2:00 – 4:00 p.m., which enables her to pick up her children from school. She then heads back to the bakery after her kids’ bedtime, staying until her 10:00 p.m. closing and, often, beyond. The bakery is closed on Sundays and Mondays.
Kloft did this dance primarily solo for nearly a year after the Back Door Bakery’s November 2013 opening. She had a little help from friends and family who volunteered “mainly just to do the dishes and help prep,” acknowledges Kloft. She gets a little more time with her family now that she has hired an employee and also has an intern.
Employee Kiana Diaz “has pushed my custom cakes further than I ever would have gone on my own because she has a really great artistic talent,” relates Kloft. Intern Emily McGregor is just finishing up culinary school.
On any given day, Kloft has a wide variety of gorgeous cakes on domed stands. The Back Door Bakery also boasts little mini-pies, called “Cutie Pies,” which come in traditional and cream flavors.
The chocolate peanut butter cake is probably the best cake I’ve ever had in my life, and I’ve tasted more than my fair share. I can also vouch for her 50/50 cake, which is a vanilla cake with orange curd sandwiched between the layers. Her cakes are eye-poppingly pleasant to behold, delightfully moist, and her frostings are light. Nothing is cloyingly sweet.
It is clear she has honed her craft well. “When it comes to cakes, my mindset is very classic. I want to serve you what you’d get from Grandma or your mom,” remarks Kloft.
In fact, Kloft goes about her business with downright precision. “I do everything on my own terms,” she admits.
Quality is key. She does not put anything on her menu that she has not absolutely perfected first. She also does not bake anything that is gluten-free at this time, as she wants to go about doing so in a strict manner to ensure quality, taste, and zero gluten contaminants.
However, if you are gluten-free, she does sell the macarons made by Left Bank Pastries on Thursdays and Fridays. Be forewarned, though: they go quickly.
The Back Door Bakery certainly takes custom orders. They request that you give at least 48 hours’ notice.
And do you knit? There’s a knitting circle that meets here every Wednesday night from 8:00 – 10:00 p.m. and is open to everyone.
Kloft would love to see the bakery fill up with students during its later evening hours. It’s located close to Saint Martin’s University, and she’d thrill in serving them cake. “Come see us to study,” invites Kloft.
The Back Door Bakery would like to be the place where you wind down your evening. To that end, they invite you to bring your local dinner receipt or movie ticket stub in for 10% off your cake.
Or pie.
Or both.
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The Back Door Bakery
4444 Lacey Blvd. SE, Suite B in Lacey
360-350-0221
