✨Behind The Apron - Meet The Bakers That Said No To Artificial Dye✨
The third part in this series and we're just getting warmed up!
In today’s installment of this series, I chat to Cat Bauer, owner of Tenderhearted Treats. Cat has a great story of how she got started and like myself, she started dye-free from the beginning.
1. What inspired you to start Tenderhearted Treats?
I was inspired to start Tenderhearted Treats by my own personal family values. We have been a dye-free family since my first was born nearly 10 years ago. I have always loved to make their birthdays special, but didn't want to ruin the birthday fun with meltdowns caused by dyes. So, being able to make my kids unique cakes with natural dyes and quality ingredients was super important to me. And, I quickly discovered that a lot of like-minded friends felt the same way, so as my skillset developed, I was eager to offer these treats to the community as well.
2. How did your baking journey begin—and how has it evolved since you opened your business?
My baking journey started with me baking treats for my family and goodies to bring to homeschool events my kids attended. Since I've opened my business, it's been ever evolving. One huge thing is mastering vibrant dye-free colors. Initially, using natural dyes resulted in light pastels, but with experience I can pretty much make any color scheme I could dream of. Another big thing for my business was learning to offer different allergen friendly options, such as dairy-free and gluten-friendly. One thing I've love about this field of work is that there is so much to expand on and master.
3. What does a typical day in your kitchen look like?
I spend about 5-6 days a week in my kitchen. I break down the week into certain days. For example, Mondays are my cakepop or cookie dough and cookie baking day. I also prep my royal icing that day. Tuesdays are my cake baking day and doing my 1st decorating layer on my cookies. Wednesday I finish any baking, do all the details on my cookies, and prep any deep buttercream colors I need to let develope (such as red, black, or dark blue) Thursdays I package cookies and decorate any Friday pickup orders. Then Friday and Saturday are my busiest decorating days. Sunday is my reset day to deep clean and relax. I don't do cookies every week, so the weeks I don't have cookies, I focus on family time or prepping pre-orders for holidays.
4. What’s your most requested item—and your personal favorite to make?
Custom cakes are my specialty! The majority of my orders are custom kids cakes that follow whatever their birthday theme is. My current favorite thing to make is tiered cakes or sculpted cakes with fondant details.
5. What’s one baking tool or ingredient you can’t live without?
Oh man, that's a tough one. My favorite ingredient is definitely my trusty plant-derived colors. My favorites are PRSM gel colors, blue spirulina, black cocoa, and enco naturals. But I've tried and use so many more than just those! It's really a science experiment learning what brands and what color combos to achieve exactly the color you have in mind. As for baking tool- I use my 2 secondhand mixers every single day.
6. What advice would you give someone who’s just starting out with dye-free or allergen-friendly baking?
My advice is to #1 ) learn color theory and #2 experiment! As stated above, you can achieve pretty much any color naturally with practice and experimenting, as well as learning how colors mix together. Also, lean into researching about how to achieve saturated colors such as developing your colors, the microwave method, bake stable colors, and using an immersion blender. A lot of times it's not the natural dye itself, but how you use it!
7. What’s something people might be surprised to learn about you or your business?
People may be surprised that I run this business 100% independently from my home, while also being a homeschool parent to my 4 children ages 1-9.
8. What do you love most about serving your local community through your treats?
I genuinely love being a dye-free option when it can be so tough to find- especially when seeking custom made items. It brings me so much joy that I can be this option for so many families who value it and struggle to find accessible goodies. I love that the treats I make are feeding children or expectant mothers, free from allergens and unnecessary chemicals. It's special to know I can provide a service for those with allergies so they aren't left out!
9. Your menu is free from artificial dyes, flavors, seed oils, and preservatives. What sparked that commitment—and what challenges have come with it?
Honestly, when I first opened my business, I was so focused on being free from artificial colors and flavors that I didn't even realize I was also seed-oil and preservative-free as well, because I have been eating like this for over a decade. It's just something that came naturally to me at this point in my health journey. But with that being said, it does come with it's challenges. From learning to charge my worth since ingredients are significantly more expensive to all the extra time put in to make so many things from scratch to hunting down quality ingredients that align with my business values. Its so very worth it, but I feel like it's something you have to really care about and see the value within it.
10. How do you approach decorating without using artificial colors? Any favorite natural ingredients or techniques?
I approach decorating with natural colors in the same manner as I think others approach synthetic dyes. I've always used natural dyes from the start so there wasn't a huge learning curve for me to have to make a switch. I love nearly all the natural brands on the market for various reasons. I love PRSM for their wide selection of colors and shimmers, that it comes in both gel and powders forms. I love Supernatural for their specialty sprinkles and chocolate melts. I love Watkins for being cost effective and to make pretty pastels. I love Color Kitchen for dying chocolate and royal icing, and also being bake stable. And I love various supplemental powders such as beet, spirulina and black cocoa for it's pure plant magic that doesn't only provide beautiful colors, but is also full of health benefits!
And that’s a wrap on chatting to Cat - I hope you enjoyed that as much as I did. Cat is such a reliable contributor to our growing Facebook community. I think we can all approach the dye free baking business in a similar way to Cat, with the right mindset!
See ya’ll next week for another look at this series ✨Behind The Apron - Meet The Bakers Who Said No To Artificial Dyes✨ and if you haven’t checked out the first two interviews, you can find them here.
Camella