Behind the Business: Jamie-Lynn Pokrzywka of Batter Up Bakery

Jamie-Lynn Pokrzywka, owner of Batter Up Bakery at work in the kitchen. Photo courtesy of Jamie-Lynn Pokrzywka.

Ever since she was a child, Jamie-Lynn Pokrzywka has had a strong relationship to making baked treats and desserts. Learning alongside her mom and grand-maman, she said they would make molasses cookies and French Canadian classics. The ones that come to Jamie’s mind are the “things I used to like to eat,” like sugar pie, which was “a big family favourite,” along with sucre a la crème (for the uninitiated: it is a rich Canadian fudge).

She said she has fond memories of making recipes and eating them, but what stands out most strongly in her mind was sharing them with her extended family. “I just loved being around people in the kitchen and having fun,” said Jamie-Lynn. “And we were a big family of goofballs. So, you know, fun memories of my mom looking at me and being like, ‘Hey, Jamie!’ and grabbing flour and smashing it on her face and making funny faces.”

This foray into baking with her playful family helped propel Jamie-Lynn toward her current role as owner and head designer of Batter Up Bakery, a bakery that focuses on creating specialty cakes and custom baked goodies.

 

Interior design meets cake decorating

While she attended Humber College for interior design, Jamie-Lynn would bake to unwind after a long day, and began experimenting with decorating cakes. At the time, reality baking shows were all the rage, many featuring stunning and ambitious specialty cake designs. “I was definitely a Cake Boss fan,” she said, referring to the show about Italian-American Buddy Valastro’s wildly successful cake business in New Jersey. Jamie-Lynn said she also watched Ace of Cakes, which followed Duff Goldman and his team as they constructed elaborate edible art cakes under pressure. Goldman, who would shape cakes with unconventional tools like drill saws and blowtorches “was a cool one too, because he really would push that envelope,” said Jamie-Lynn.

She said that her interior design background informs her approach to custom cake making. Explaining how those worlds converge, Jamie-Lynn said, “There’s a couple different factors in interior design you look for. Whether it’s the colour combination of finding symmetry (balance within certain colours) or working with scales (making sure one thing in reference to another isn’t too big or small).”

“It’s about learning and listening to keywords as well,” she said. “If somebody says, ‘Oh, I want a really romantic feeling on my wedding cake,’ and they send me something that’s the complete opposite, I’m like, ‘Well, I don’t think that’s what you mean,’ or, ‘How can we dissect it so that it meets more of your criteria?'”

Jamie-Lynn said her business’s work really comes down to listening carefully for what people are trying to express. Sometimes, she said she needs to help them “break it down to better understand what they’re actually saying. Because a lot of times, they don’t know.”

She said she loves the challenge of specialty cake making. “To this day, I still get excited when like people ask me, ‘Okay, I have a really crazy request. And this is what we’re gonna do.'”

The ability to learn something new every day and hone her skills, Jamie-Lynn said, is a big part of what motivated her to start her business. “I get so excited, because it’s not something I typically do,” she said. “And it’s interesting to try to like push the envelope of what your skills actually currently are and how you can make them better.”

What sets Batter Up Bakery apart

Jamie-Lynn is not one to opt for the easy route. She said she knows the bakery could find stable success focusing on quantity instead of starting from scratch each time to produce unique creations. “I would be bored,” she said.

“If I just opened up the store and had a million cupcakes being sold, for sure we’d make way more on a daily basis,” she said. “But that stuff still takes time. And because we’re such a niche bakery, then we’re able to really focus on those fine details.”

“I get up at 4am every morning, and I don’t have a hard time,” she said. “I come in and I’m excited. And I’m happy to see what we’re doing.”

She said on average, her bakery fulfills about 20 to 30 custom orders a week. Some weeks are more “insane,” as Jamie-Lynn put it, where the bakery creates up to 45 custom orders.

Having a supportive team

Just as Jamie-Lynn looks back fondly on memories of being with family in the kitchen as a child, she said she also values how her work allows her to connect with the business’s clientele. “We love to be a part of everyone’s celebration,” she said.

She said she also appreciates how the bakery’s work brings her and her team together. “If we’re done early on a day, we’ll order some lunch and chat and have fun. I’m a huge advocate of ‘work hard, play hard.'”

“We have a really good team. They get excited when we do fun stuff, too. And I think that’s really important, to make sure that our team feels creative as well,” she said.

Jamie-Lynn expressed gratitude at finding a team that are as passionate as she is about what they do. “It’s just seeing how excited some of the clients get when we get a really nice email back and I send it to them like, ‘Hey, this is the cake you worked on.’ And they’re excited. They’re like, ‘Oh my God, that’s awesome.'”

Going forward

Jamie-Lynn is proud of what she and her team have been able to accomplish with the growth of Batter Up, but she is quick to acknowledge that the business’s growth comes at a price.

“With the pandemic, it was really challenging,” said Jamie, referring to the fact that the last year has prompted small businesses to work even harder just to keep their doors open. “I was really lucky that I was in a period of growth throughout the pandemic,” she added.

“Spare time has been limited, unfortunately,” said Jamie-Lynn.

She said one of the biggest things she is excited for is to open the bakery’s doors and meet people face to face. “It’s been really hard to be like, ‘Here’s your cake,’ and shut the door for takeout,” she said.

“Like anybody else I think we’re all looking forward to some normalcy,” said Jamie-Lynn. She said she looks forward to “just having people come in and say hi and get to meet people. And be able to spread the sweetness throughout Ottawa.”