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

Kimberly, appreciate you joining us today. To kick things off, we’d love to hear about things you or your brand do that diverge from the industry standard.

Since its inception, Bake Up has been questioning food industry standards, and saying “no thanks” to many of them. Saying “no thanks”, means you’ll need to develop a lot of patience, curiosity, and an open mind about finding another way. Many different experiences inform my thoughts on the food industry and my commitment to myself and my community to offer something different. Some of them include my experience as a consumer eating fresh baked goods outside of the American food system, from hearing stories about how food used to taste and make you feel, the stories of how my grandparents on my Mom’s side of the family worked the fields picking produce in Watsonville, California as immigrants from Mexico, and having worked at small, mostly independent and all locally-owned food businesses since I was 16 years old. At that time I began recipe testing I was 23.

When I made the first sale over 9 years ago, (our first wholesale coffee shop account in Quartz Hill, California to Sagebrush Cafe) it was born out of seeing the opportunity to serve something better than what was available to fill the pastry case. At that time it meant pastries that were fresh, from scratch, and familiar but unique recipes that were not overly sweet, rather full of flavor and texture. The response from customers was better than expected. The light in their eyes when they tried one of our pastries encouraged me to continue to follow that spark and overall to build a business on my own terms.
Starting out baking out of a licensed cottage home kitchen, and without any capital meant that every step of the way was going to be different than the industry standard. My home bakery was located in Acton, a rural unincorporated town in between the Antelope Valley & Santa Clarita Valley so everything from ingredients sourcing to delivery of fresh pastries to the customers would require some travel, partnerships, and planning. In the area of ingredients sourcing for example, access to the industry standard of ordering from distributors wasn’t an option. This sent me in search of the best ingredients I could get access to, which set off a lot of learning about the food industry we know today. Our ingredients have become higher quality over the years in response to our learning, tasting, and building direct relationships with other businesses in the food industry that are doing things outside of the status quo. You can often find these businesses (farmer’s in particular) at certified farmer’s markets. For the past 4 years we’ve been selling alongside these farmers every Saturday at the Old Town Newhall Farmer’s Market. Tasting the berries from Guttierez Farms was a revelation. Tasting the peaches from Bloom Ranch here in Acton was too. Once you’ve tasted the good stuff, you really don’t want to go back. In 2018, at LA Bread Week when I was pursuing Bake Up full-time selling to a couple of coffee shops and popping up at local events, the world of grain and flour quality was opened to me during a session hosted by Roe the owner of The King’s Roost on Sunset Blvd in LA. Since then we’ve been able to incorporate fresh stone-milled organic flours like Sonora, Spelt, and Hard Red, most from LA’s first urban mill in over 100 years, Grist & Toll, into our signature recipes.
Being able to highlight these flavorful ingredients and provide our customers with nostalgic treats that inspire a moment of joy and connection is our mission. I believe these differences raise the expectations of consumers and one bite at a time this will change the American Food industry for the better. Better for consumers, as the quality of real, good food (that hasn’t been stripped of its nutrients, sprayed with chemicals, and filled with unnecessary fillers) they have access to increases; better for farmers who see a demand for that better food and can set a fairer price than the unsustainable sliver they get from industry standard; better for the planet as whole grains provide more food, less waste, and support better land use; and better for the food industry overall as consumers get connected to the people and places their food is coming from.

Kimberly, 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?

My name is Kimberly Gonzalez. I’ve worked in the food industry since I was 16 years old. I began baking for friends in high school and just haven’t stopped. I am driven by the moment of joy a well-crafted treat can bring, and the connections it can spark. My bakery, Bake Up, was founded just over 9 years ago, when I was 24 initially as a side gig. My main job at the time was managing an independent coffee shop in the Antelope Valley. They were in need of quality pastries and the recently passed Cottage Food Law, made it possible for me to bake from my home kitchen before coming in for my shift. The response was even better than I imagined. After about 3 1/2 years, I committed full-time to growing Bake Up with the mission to bake flavorful, nostalgic treats to inspire a moment of joy and connection with real food, people, and community. Currently, you can daily find assortments of our baked goods at Sagebrush Cafe in Quartz Hill, both Bodhi Leaf Coffee Shops in Santa Clarita. On the weekends at Wide Eye Lounge in Santa Clarita. For the past 4 years, you can find us every Saturday at the Old Town Newhall Farmer’s Market. Occasionally, you may catch us at boutique pop-up events, and as of last week at the farm store at Bloom Ranch in Acton. We have also recently partnered with the Cart Collective, for sweet treat catering for corporate and private events. We recently launched our website, and have some items, like our beloved Spiced Granola available for shipping.
We’ve intentionally built relationships with farmers to source berries, peaches, and other seasonal produce to highlight in our baking, and we are also proud to support our local grain economy by baking with organic flours and incorporating fresh stone-milled whole grains into our signature treats. As a 100% woman-owned local bakery, we are grateful to provide our community with our from-scratch pop tarts, coffee cakes, cookies, pies, marshmallows, granola, and more!

Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?

~The Good Food CFO (Podcast), The Good Food CFO (Online Community on Circle), and Founder/Consultant Sarah Delevan

~Profit First (book) by Mike Michalowicz

~Entrepreneur Money Stories (Podcast), Kickstart Accounting (Bookkeeping & Accounting)

~COC Small Business Development Center (government resources)

~Re:Her (nonprofit dedicated to accelerating women entrepreneurs and leaders in food and beverage)

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

Bake Up, like every business that went through the pandemic and came through on the other side had to pivot and “settle in” to the new normal of inconsistency that we continue to work through now. In March 2020, we were baking from home, delivering a few days a week to local coffee shop partners, participating in seasonal pop-up events, and selling every week at our local farmer’s market. We had two part-time employees working in the kitchen and at the farmers market. We had to scale completely back for over. a month from the farmers market and reconfigure our whole set up/display/food handling and began doing door-to-door deliveries all over the Antelope Valley, Santa Clarita Valley, and Acton. Some events were cancelled and ingredient sourcing became incredibly inconsistent for quite a while. My husband was sick with covid, which closed the business down for two weeks. It was a very stressful time in the business, but I also saw how unstable every industry was at that time. it built resilience and a really another level of mental strength and flexibility about getting through and growing Bake Up. It deepened our relationships with our customers and fellow small business owners as we worked through it all.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://bakeuppastries.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bakeuppastries/
• Facebook: https://www.instagram.com/bakeuppastries/
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/bake-up-valencia?osq=bake+up

Image Credits
Cameron Epand, @lilyro_ and Kimberly Gonzalez