Carefree Cakery Chef Says Moncton Is Hungry For Cakes
MONCTON–Demand has never been higher in Greater Moncton for Maggie Drummond’s baked treats.
Drummond, founder and owner of The Carefree Cakery, told Huddle sales have doubled since opening in December 2021 and they’ve barely slowed since.
The Ontario transplant expects that demand to continue rising after moving her cake shop to a permanent home at 357 Collishaw St. on Dec. 9.
“Things have been amazing, to be perfectly honest. I’ve been floored by how much we put out in December,” she said, adding that cupcakes were “flying off the shelves” they were in such a hot item.
Drummond joked the cupcakes are probably being stress-eaten people dealing with two successive snowstorms and the province’s Level-3 winter pandemic plan restrictions.
“We were absolutely buried with orders during the couple of days before the last snowstorm leading into the lockdown. People are mad, sad, and frustrated and want a glimmer of happiness, so they’re like, ‘I’m coming in for cupcakes, that’s it,’” said Drummond.
January is also a busy month in general.
“Normally it’s a lot quieter with people dieting, cutting sugar and carbs, but we’re getting some traction,” she said.
Drummond barely has to advertise because of word spreading on social media. Since opening in December, the Carefree Cakery’s followers jumped by 1,000 in a matter of weeks.
Drummond started baking out of a commercial kitchen in her home in spring 2019, after moving to New Brunswick in 2017. She sold cakes, cupcakes, cookies, cronuts – and variations of those goodies– at the Dieppe and Shediac farmers markets.
When she lost her job in March 2020, Drummond decided to lean into selling cakes to help handle expenses, like her mortgage.
“We started delivering everything then, and did little quarantine cakes with funny sayings like ‘Stay six feet away from me and my cake’ and that kind of thing… It was good for a laugh and business just took off like crazy,” she said.
“Covid-19 was a scary time for everyone – everyone was stressed and depressed, and we were like, we’re just going to make these cupcakes and deliver them to you.”
Those treats started a buzz on social media that led to the cake shop’s exploding popularity.
Drummond spent the 2021 wedding season doing two years’ worth of wedding cake orders, with 2021’s weddings and 2020’s weddings packed into one year.
“One weekend, I had to deliver to five weddings,” she said.
Eventually this demand caught up with Drummond.
“I was like, ‘I can’t keep doing this the way I have, we either need to growt with the business and move it out of the house or scale it back,’ because there was so much.”
She estimates that Since May 2021 onward demand has been steady, driven by social media.
Drummond’s original plan was to open in November 2021, but inspection and construction delays pushed the opening to two weeks before Christmas – during a month of even more heightened demand. She hired two part-time staffers when she opened – and they ended up working full-time hours to keep up with demand.
Origins
Originally a bakery advisor with Ready Bake, an affiliate of Weston Foods, Drummond fell in love with the Maritimes traveling to train bakers and cake decorators at Loblaws-owned businesses in 2017.
“I’d fly in and be like, this is beautiful and everything smells like trees, what a great way to spend the summer. Originally my job was supposed to come with me, and that’s why we moved here. We came out and bought a house.”
A short while later, things changed, and Drummond had the choice between retaining her job in Ontario or leaving it and moving to Moncton.
“I took the plunge and figured it out when I got here.”
Sam Macdonald is a Huddle reporter in Moncton. Send him your feedback and story ideas: [email protected].