We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Alynn Martin. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Alynn below.

Alynn, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. So, naming is such a challenge. How did you come up with the name of your brand?

As a military brat, I grew up in Okinawa for about 10 years. After coming back to the U.S. in 2016, I have just missed it dearly. I was always visiting the convenience stores or bakeries, getting the bread and snacks there. One of the snacks I always got was dried Umeboshi, or preserved Japanese plums. I knew I wanted Ume in the name of my bakery, but I started off a bit unsure as they are not a sweet food and it seemed unfitting for a bakery. Then I realized as a kid I how much loved the Barbie Nutcracker movie and adored the sugar plum fairy. I’ve just always loved anything plum. From the flavor to the color, I had to have it in my bakery name. Initially I tried out Satō Ume, Satō meaning sugar, but it just didn’t flow right. Then it hit me! As a sort of play on Sugar Plum I decided on the name Amai Ume! In Japanese Amai means sweet and Ume means Plum. It just seemed to perfectly encompass my being; I’m like a sweettart or so I’ve been told.

Now we have little Chibi Mascots based off myself and my husband named Amai and Ume! (Credit for the Chibi design goes to Koryssa Siegfried from KibaDraws.)

Alynn, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

When I first started my bakery I set out on a mission to bring the nostalgic flavors from my childhood in Japan to Arizona whilst incorporating my love for cosplay and Anime. I had just left a job helping open a restaurant as their pastry chef and was pondering on where to go next. My friends and family encouraged me to open my own business, starting with a cottage food license!

From a young age I knew I wanted to be a chef. Cooking and baking is my passion. My love of cooking ignited the moment my dad taught me how to light the grill. I started off with “formal education” by taking culinary classes in high school while living in Okinawa, Japan. However, my real baking education began as a child learning to bake Houska (a Czech Bread) and Pan Dulce with my mother as she was taught by her Aunt and Grandmother! I know everyone says this, but I really believe my mom makes the best food. She has incredible range in cuisine. We’ve had many cultural influences in our life from our Latine heritage (on my mom’s side), my sister and I being born in Hawai’i and living in Okinawa for so long. I will forever be thankful for my dad’s service in the Marine Corps since it allowed our family to experience many cultures around the globe. I’m also incredibly grateful my sister has always been there to taste test my new recipes and experiments. (Poor Sis has tried some very interesting food combos for me.)

Once we moved back to the United States, my sister and I worked together as hosts in a sushi restaurant as we supported each other through college. I graduated culinary school in spring of 2017 and started work as a cook at a prestigious resort that fall. Over the years, I had many different positions in the restaurants I worked; from the hotline to Pastry. I enjoyed my time in fine dining for 6 years, but was still left longing for something. Eventually I realized: I missed making cute Japanese style baked treats! There are Japanese style bakeries in the valley but they didn’t quite have what I was looking for. With the encouragement of those closest to me, I finally wanted to have my go at creating the treats I cherished as an adolescent. I often frequented the local bakeries and convenience stores in Okinawa because I love bread. Breads have always held a soft spot in my heart and are one of my favorite things to bake, they were definitely going to be on the menu. I love to change it up by making different sweet breads inspired by Japanese bakeries.

After some deliberation I finally decided on the name for my bakery, Amai Ume. Once I figured that out, I started working on my brand. Of course purple was going to be my main color, all different shades. Then I designed my logo, printed business cards, set up a website and socials and got started!

Since we’ve begun I have done a lot of different events and markets from witchy to holiday to anime themed. I custom tailor each menu for each Popup! We’ve had booths at some of the anime/comic cons around Phoenix and worked with some themed night markets. We even supply for some local coffee shop’s bakery cases and make desserts for Animaru Maid Cafe’s events! We normally like to offer Milk bread, melon pan and Taiyaki (fish shaped waffles) as my staples. We love when people recognize our treats whether it be from anime or seeing it in the Asian grocery stores. To my knowledge, we are one of the few places in the valley that offer gluten friendly taiyaki! We try to make as many dietary inclusive treats as we can, from vegan to gluten friendly to reduced sugar. We’re also trying our best to keep things local by using local flours, eggs, and milks! For our items containing wheat we use Hayden Flour Mills and we even make our own oat milk using their oat groats!

To go along with Japanese style sweets and breads, I make kawaii cakes as well! I’ve also made a few wedding cakes over the years, including my own. (I even proposed to my husband with a little goth cake.) Kawaii and goth cakes are some of my favorite styles to make. The Vintage Cake trend has got a hold on me recently, they’re just so cute! On another note: as a queer owned business, I am nonbinary and use he/they, I love that I have the ability to create a safe space for fellow members of my community by being able to make cakes for any LGBTQ+ weddings.

I will always do my best to create treats that can be shared with a large population because I believe anyone should be able to eat sweets if they want to! I will forever be so thankful to my customers and support for giving me the ability to bring the treats and pastries I love to them.

Can you tell us the story behind how you met your business partner?

My business partner is actually my life partner as well!

My husband and I met in the fluorescence of a windowless kitchen behind the hotline at burners of the cold prep station in 2019. We started off as friends and began dating in 2020, a rough year to begin a romantic pursuit for sure. We moved in together in the fall of 2021 and had begun work helping open a restaurant. Once we both eventually decided to move on, he found a job elsewhere and encouraged me to start up Amai Ume! I ran the business by myself for a full year, with occasional help from him in his days off. This past fall, he finally left his job and we are in the process of moving the business from a sole proprietorship to a partnership as we are now legally married.

We have had questions raised about us entering a business relationship whilst maintaining our personal relationship and how well that works for us. However, since we started off as coworkers and have always been able to separate our time for work and our personal time together. Our chemistry as a culinary team really fuels the creation of our pastries. Bouncing ideas for different desserts off of each other’s brains has become quite the hobby of ours. We love looking at different flavor profiles and finding tasty combinations. Despite some doubts about going in to business with those you’re close with, it’s has been successful for us thus far. Our dream is to be like a quaint little mom and pop bakery. (Although I guess ours would be a Pop and Pop.)

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

Honestly, I am still unlearning this lesson to this day. I have had to unlearn the saying, “If you want something done right, you have to do it yourself.”

When I was younger I really took to heart the kind of toxic thought of needing to do everything by myself and never ask for help. Even when I really needed it. I pushed myself to burnout working 60 hours a week, making sure I did everything as perfect as possible. I always felt that my standard would never be met if I allowed someone else to touch my plates or desserts. I’m sure others have felt that way about me before as well, though. Once I worked in the industry for a while I realized that there are truly many different ways to accomplish the same goal.

I have also let go of the mindset of viewing making accommodations for yourself as a “bad thing.” Using a slicer or a frost form isn’t “cheating/laziness” or a lack of skill, it’s something to allow someone to continue creating their art and do what they love! Using assistive devices can help make your baking life (and daily life) a lot easier. Sometimes you have to save your wrists and hands when you’ve had a long day of decorations cakes and cookies! If you’re looking at a kitchen tool and thinking, “who on earth would need that?” Chances are: you might not require it, but it may make someone else’s baking session alot easier. I’ve grown to feel that if someone doesn’t do something your way they’re not necessarily doing it the “wrong” way. When the results are the same and what was expected, then making adjustments and using accommodations for oneself is a beautiful thing. I love that the world has started creating tools to make the art of baking and decorating a more accessible art form. We love accessibility here.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.amaiumebakery.com
• Instagram: @Amaiume_bakery
• Facebook: Amai Ume Bakery
• Yelp: Amaiume Bakery
• Other: Tiktok @amai_ume

Image Credits

AmaiUme Bakery
Itsakiba_