Today we’d like to introduce you to Audrey Enman.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Audrey. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
I was diagnosed with celiac disease two years ago – there’s been no gluten or dairy since. This presented a challenge when I found that all these gluten-free cakes tasted so, well, gluten-free. You could say, it was a selfish endeavor. Half of it was how unremarkable I found store bought gluten free goods to be. And that’s the case with regular food too – a cupcake from the grocery store isn’t going to taste like one fresh from a bakery. But I missed that feeling of walking into a bakery and picking anything I wanted. Now, if I walk into a shop, there’s a litany of questions I need to ask – is there any cross contamination, how is it prepped, how is it stored, can I see an ingredient list etc. And even then, the most confident barista can hand me a gluten free croissant and there’s still a part of me that’s nervous for those first few bites. I wanted a company where that anxiety wasn’t there – you could be sure, 200% sure, that this food was safe to eat. When you’re not worried about having a reaction, the food tastes a lot better. The other half was my love of cooking – baking has always been a therapeutic act for me and transforming all my favorites into allergen friendly ones was an exciting prospect. I would try something out and bring them to work with me. After a few rounds of this, someone turned to me and asked “why aren’t we selling these here?” So, we put them in the dessert case just to see what would happen. The name came from working in the restaurant – we called gf bread girlfriend bread all the time. After the first few months, our cupcakes out sold the regular ones consistently and we went 100% allergen friendly. Now, we churn out 14 dozen a week for Zaftigs in Brookline and Natick on top of weekly custom orders in Somerville.
The entrepreneurial spirit is all across my family, but I never considered it a plausible route until I finished college. My father owned a construction business, my grandfather owned a wood stove business, my mother worked for herself for a while, her father owned a real estate company – all the genes were there. The baking part, I can’t really explain, it was just always there. I distinctly remember baking a lot as a kid. It started with Play-Doh foods (mostly, blue spaghetti with sides of pink spaghetti), then, we moved on to the refined menu of the easy bake oven, and then actual cookbooks. My parents have a tattered Betty Crocker book that I marked up religiously. While I was applying to colleges, my mother remarked, I always thought you’d go to culinary school or something. At the time, I brushed it off, went for the English degree instead. As I write, laptop perched on the prep table, it turns out she was right.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
I wouldn’t say the road was necessarily bumpy, but it was definitely uphill. After initial recipe testing, we moved into a shared kitchen facility (Foundation Kitchen in Somerville). The broad community of companies working in that space has been an invaluable resource for collaborations, advice, and emotional and physical heavy lifting. The biggest obstacles were the logistics. I’ve worked in restaurant management for a handful of years so the basic knowledge of food costs and health codes was there, everything else was uncharted territory. Retail and wholesale licensing were months of red tape and inspections, and I was determined to turn a profit immediately which was admirable but unrealistic. Working in a shared kitchen, everything comes down to efficiency – booking time down to the minute, ordering just enough product to fit in the allotted shelves, loading in as fast as possible. Some days, I hit it out of the park, some days I sneak a cupcake and call it quality control, it all balances out. My best piece of advice would be – just do it. If it’s what you really want to do, you’ll figure out the rest on the way. By the time I realized this is what I wanted to do, I was already up to my neck in frosting – and I wouldn’t change a thing. If you buckle down and put in the hard work, it’ll happen. It’s a piece of (gluten-free) cake.
what should we know about Girlfriend Baking? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
We specialize in allergen-friendly baked goods. Everything made in our kitchen is gluten free, dairy free, peanut free, and for the most part vegan as well. Our motto is allergen friendly, no questions asked. We aim for our customers to feel safe and confident in enjoying our products without stressing about ingredients or cross contamination. Our menu was built around embracing decadent flavors and recreating all the classics a normal bakery would stock – a vegan caramel crunch, a cherry bomb cupcake, cookies & cream donuts, a homemade hostess. Almost every bakery has some gluten-free option available, but we try to take it past the usual chocolate and vanilla, we love to hear “there’s no way that’s gluten-free.”
What do you feel are the biggest barriers today to female leadership, in your industry or generally?
Sure, I own a bakery with a frilly name and cute cupcakes and it’s easy to be the woman in charge when you founded the business. But I also manage one of Brookline’s busiest restaurants and can speak to what that’s like. The food industry is male-dominated for sure, and it can be tough. I remember the growing pains of moving into upper management vividly – winning over the back of the house was a rough road to walk, convincing staff that I knew what I was talking about took some elbow grease. There’s all this pressure to be one of the guys in order for someone to listen to you – but you can be a strong, commanding presence and still be feminine. You don’t have to lose yourself just to get some respect. As long as you stay confident in who you are, stern in what you believe and unwavering in your decisions, no one can touch you. Still, sometimes, you need a minute in the walk in and that’s okay.
Pricing:
- Cupcakes – $3.50 each
- 10″ Cake – $45.00
- Brownies & Bars – $20.00 per pan
Contact Info:
- Website: girlfriendbaking.com
- Phone: 508-847-3495
- Email: officialgirlfriendbaking@gmail.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/girlfriend.baking
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/girlfriend.baking/
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