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A Little About Us...
The Hippie Chick Bakery was established in 2001 and is proudly owned by Amy Mastronardi and Carl Neunaber.
As you may know, we recently closed our 5 year old retail store in Amesbury, and are in the process of moving operations to our home in Kensington NH.
We thank the many patrons who have expressed thier sorrow at the retail store closing, contacted us out of concern for our well being, and have asked why.
The reason is actually simple and not very dramatic! As the success of the bakery grew, we realized we fell into the age old business conundrum - we spent more and more time doing administrative and managerial tasks, and less time doing what we loved, the baking and decorating of cakes for Amy, or spending time together as a family with our son.
The retail store was the most visible part for most local people, but less known locally was our large nationwide mail order business, and regional wholesale business.
We realized that the closing of most of these business areas was key to regaining the aspects of the business that we loved, so as of early 2007, we closed the mail order and retail store.
We are now a wedding and special occasion cake studio, with all items being produced by order only. Amy is able to spend more time doing the parts she loves and we are able to enjoy life together as a family (a rarity in the food service business!)
Amy:
I have been baking professionally for over 19 years (I just hope I don't look old enough for that). I have a degree in Baking and Pastry Arts from the world renowned Johnson and Wales University, and I love to further my creative and technical skills with art classes, as well as her cake decorating skills with respected artists in the field such as Kerry Vincent...plus it is a good tax write off for a vacation!
I often see other bakeries touting their previous education in art, architecture or some other field. I wouldn't hire a baker to design my house, and I wouldn't want an architect to bake me a cake! I went to culinary school, I have worked in many facets of food service for almost 2 decades, and have a passion for recipe development and baking chemistry. I also love art and have taken many classes as well as spent many years practicing it in edible forms. I feel this is the best foundation for a cake artist.
I began my baking career in an organic bakery and always planned to someday open one of my own. At the time, organic baked goods all had a few things in common - they were brown, heavy as rocks, and tasted weird. I knew all these great organic ingredients were available - why wasn't anyone using them to make great cakes that looked and tasted like their conventional baked bretheren, but were better for the earth? That was always the goal at Hippie Chick Bakery, striving towards being as eco-concious as we can without sacrificing taste or looks.
Carl is the brains of the operation, our own superhero... by day he is a normal electrical engineer, by night he works his Quick Books magic, on the weekends he becomes a magical transporter of Wedding Cakes.
At Hippie Chick Bakery, we make Wedding and Special Occasion Cakes using only the freshest and finest quality ingredients, locally grown and organic whenever possible. All our eggs come from our own flock of free range rescued shelter chickens, fed vegetarian organic feed. Many of the fruits and all of our edible flowers come from our own organic gardens or one of the local farms we work with. We take the enviroment into account with every decision we make in the bakery, from organic ingredients in recyclable packaging, to enviromentally friendly cleaning products, and products produced with fair trade practices. That is why we truly are "Quality with a conscience"™!
In our Nut-free facility, we also produce beautiful cakes that are dairy-free, egg-free, and/or gluten-free, as well as being able to accomodate a myriad of other dietary needs! Please click here for more information. All of our products as trans-fat free.
Visit our Wedding Cakes Page for information about booking your one of a kind, delicious wedding cake.
Visit our Special Occasion Cakes page for more information about ordering a cake for any special occasion you may be planning.
