They wanted to run a bakery. Now, they’re living the dream and making “meme cakes”

Craig Storer sits at a coffee table, fiddling with a scrapbook filled with photos of custom cakes, when the door swings open.

An overhead sound system comes to life — Ding! Ding! Ding! — as rays of sunshine stretch into the downtown Maple Ridge bakery on an unseasonably warm mid-March weekend.

Storer, dressed in a black t-shirt and apron, turns his head. His wavy grey hair, slicked straight back, makes him resemble a slightly older version of Matthew McConaughey. A smile stretches across his face. 

“Welcome!” He says, before turning his attention back to the scrapbook, flipping through the cakes that have brought some people to tears and gone viral on social media. 

There’s a white cake with the words, “MARRIED AF,” written on the top. There’s a cake celebrating a 23rd birthday. There’s a cake filled with roses made from red icing. 

In 2015, Storer co-founded Hansel and Gretel Bakery with his wife, Claudia. 

For years, Storer and Claudia dreamed of creating a local business that was involved in the community and served as a friendly face for Maple Ridge residents — impressive feats that can be made difficult with the proliferation of social media.

“I love to be, especially on Saturday, the person that is here talking to people, helping them with their orders,” said Storer, who grew up in Regina, Sask. “It’s my place, kind of like my house, and you welcome someone kind of like you welcome them to your house.” 

The couple met as undergraduates at the University of Victoria in the late 1990s. 

After graduating with sociology and German literature degrees, respectively, they both worked their way into the culinary arts sector — Storer as a restaurant manager for Milestones and Claudia as a pastry chef — throughout the 2000s. 

“It was always the goal to start something like this,” said Storer, who added that they both dreamed of creating cakes and baking pastries daily. 

“Food has always been a part of our journey together.” 

Since launching the business, Storer said, they both imagined that custom cakes would be an integral part of the bakery. 

But over the last few years, the bakery has received more requests for specially created cakes than ever.

Every week, Hansel and Gretel, with a staff of 12, bake somewhere between 20 to 30 custom cakes, Storer says. 

Some of the calls come from people who physically visit the store with an idea. However, most of the time, the requests come from customers reaching out on Facebook or Instagram, leading to everything from fried chicken to Mario-themed cakes. 

Their products have also become popular on Twilight meme Facebook pages. 

“Sometimes, someone kind of knows what they want, they’ll send us a picture and we roll from there,” Storer said. “Claudia is pretty creative, she’s the brainchild.” 

The rise in demand comes as many chefs are using social media — particularly Instagram and TikTok — to share their creative cakes. Food content on TikTok, specifically, rose dramatically during the COVID-19 pandemic, evident by a video of an Oreo cake that amassed more than 42 million views.

There’s no easy explanation for the rise of extravagant cakes, Storer said. But he credits the boom to the population growth of Maple Ridge and increase in people consuming baking shows on streaming services such as Netflix. 

“It fits in well in a lot of ways for our business,” Storer said. “People see products on Instagram, there’s certain trends they follow.” 

Although social media can distort people’s expectations of a custom cake through filters, he said that it has been a net positive for the baking industry.

“Our medium is very visual,” he said. “You can get pictures and videos out that people can see, it’s boosted the business.” 

Hansel and Gretel is contemplating expanding, Storer said. 

But right now, the couple is focused on growing the business at Hansel and Gretel and their sister location, Gingerbread Haus Bakery. 

Inside the bakery, on the abnormally hot March afternoon, Storer raises the blinds, opening the window to reveal a bustling Dewdney Trunk Road and two groups of people drinking beers and enjoying lunch on a nearby patio.

“The sun will not melt my cakes now,” Storer says to himself, as he moves to behind the counter. 

He starts rearranging a pair of cupcakes, beige pastries coated in a hot pink icing sugar, and lines them up neatly behind one another. It’s been a slow day in the bakery today, he says aloud. Residents must be paddling in the Alouette River or out enjoying a hike. 

He picks up a piece of metal that fell over sideways on the dash. He stacks it upright, revealing the price of strawberry shortcake, when the door opens. A woman with a tote bag walks in while talking on the phone.

Ding! 

Ding! 

Ding! 

Storer raises his head, lets out a soft, “welcome,” and waits to take the customer’s order.