Bakers Collaborating in St. Augustine
Synergy: the interaction or cooperation of two or more organizations, substances or other agents to produce a combined effect greater than the sum of their separate effects. Creating a new entity that is greater than the sum of its parts is the goal of two St. Augustine bakers who are teaming up in a unique partnership focused on organic growth and serving their community.
Friends Kelly Crawford of Bell’s Baked Stuff and Emma Sterzinger of Songbird Pies found themselves at a similar point on their baking paths: to grow their businesses, and grow personally, they needed a dedicated workspace that was larger than where they had been producing their cakes, cookies and pies. They determined that joining forces to create a commercial kitchen would be the next step in their professional development. “It’s a little less scary taking a big leap with a friend,” says Crawford. “Cost sharing the overhead makes it achievable.”
They found a spot in St. Augustine that would suit both their current needs and future plans. “The main focus is to create a space of our own to keep doing what we currently do and allow for more growth and opportunity, to let our path take unexpected turns,” Sterzinger says. “We would love to have bake sales and take on larger catering orders.”
Sterzinger’s parents owned a bagel shop in St. Augustine, and this environment cultivated her love for quality baked goods and food in general. While she didn’t bake much in her youth, she studied baking and pastry in college and worked for Hilton and casual fine dining restaurants in the Chicago area. Her specialty, as the name of her business indicates, is all things pie, both sweet and savory. She enjoys making other types of pastry such as laminated doughs, enriched doughs such as brioche and European style pastries. “Right now I’ve been into galettes and exploring more savory pies,” says Sterzinger. “The thing I love about galettes is the versatility. They can be sweet or savory and don’t require any rigid recipe, anything goes.”
Baking has always been something Crawford loved to do. “My grandmother babysat me a lot as a child. She was always cooking or baking something and allowed me to help, so I think that’s how the seed was planted,” Crawford says. While she studied photography in college, her professional baking career began at The Floridian. When the pandemic hit, however, “everything changed for restaurants. The need for desserts especially declined,” says Crawford. “I saw pastry chefs across the country losing their jobs and starting baking businesses out of their apartments." Inspired to do the same, Crawford started selling variety boxes on social media. "When I launched Bell's I decided I was going to stick to my boundaries of how I do things and how I want my work to be. It’s worked well for me so far and my greatest joy is having people order cake from me because of my unique style and flavor combinations.”
While the two businesses each bring unique pastry offerings to the marketplace “we have similar approaches to the integrity of our product and have similar ideas of how we want to serve our community,” Sterzinger says. Sharing a workspace “is going to be a big change for us, but we’re excited about how efficient we can make our workflow in our very own kitchen,” says Crawford. “We both like to focus on bespoke goods, seasonality, classics with a twist, with a rustically beautiful aesthetic. I think our collaboration will continue that story outside of our respective pie and cake realms. Always with a lot of butter. Maybe we should call our business The House of Butter.”
Follow Kelly Crawford (@bellsbakedstuff) and Emma Sterzinger (@songbird_pies) on social media for current flavors and availability.
