Frequently Asked Questions
Why are your hours so limited? I stopped by and you weren’t open.
Our hours are limited for a couple of reasons…first, we are currently a small group of employees. We have intentions to expand as our business grows, but we are still in the early stages and operating with a tiny staff of bakers. Second, and more importantly, anyone that has baked with love before knows that time is an ingredient. Certain things simply can’t be rushed and are worth the wait. Hopkins Baking Company has made the deliberate choice to craft our baked goods in small batches with care and intention, as things were once done long ago. We presently spend half of our week preparing for service and the other half bringing you scrumptious food to enjoy. Even though the counter is closed on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, we are still available for order pickup with an appointment on those days.
I see the phrase “made from scratch” a lot. What’s so special about that – doesn’t every bakery make everything from scratch?
In today’s world of abundance and speed, it is very easy to overlook the effort that went into the treat you are eating. Let’s use our friend, the cupcake, as an example. The cupcake typically consists of three components: cake, filling and frosting. Most people don’t realize this means that if you are buying one of our filled cupcakes, we have made three different recipes for three different components to produce one final and delectable cupcake product. If you are buying a cupcake in a general supermarket bakery, chances are really good that cupcake was brought in frozen from a factory and possibly frosted onsite. Did you know that some bakeries don’t even crack eggs? They just use manufactured egg product. Other bakeries buy fruit filling in a plastic pouch or frosting in giant tubs from sales reps (don’t get us started on how their “buttercream” only contains shortening and no actual butter). These are all common, modern baking industry shortcuts that we at Hopkins Baking Company like to rebel against. In our kitchen, we like to joke and say “NO FAKERIES.” We think taking real, organic ingredients and producing something extraordinary with them is a very special kind of bakery magic that is absolutely worth all of the extra effort.
Do you have Gluten Free options?
We do try our very best to have some gluten free cupcakes on hand for our gluten free friends. However, gluten free baking is not our main focus. The best way to guarantee that we have something gluten free in the cake case on any given day is to give us a call at (908) 434-1091. You can also always place an order in advance. We can make any of our cupcakes or cakes (including the Metro Retro Crumb Cake) gluten free if we have advanced notice.
Why do you run out of certain products? I was there last weekend and you were out of cinnamon rolls.
Thanks to our fantastic customers that come to see us, we do occasionally run out of certain items because those treats are so popular. We are still a young company and are learning the trends of which days will be busier than others. We balance this information with our desire to not have any product wasted, as these are handmade organic baked goods. Our best advice? When in doubt, call ahead or come early!
Why does your menu change so often?
Our menu changes usually every six to eight weeks. This is for two reasons. First, sourcing organic ingredients isn’t always the easiest thing to do. This is probably why most bakeries will feature a few organic items on their menus, versus having the whole menu made organically as we do. (In fact, we currently have a couple hundred ingredients in our bakery, and less than ten of those ingredients are not organic). Because of our commitment to baking organically, we have to be flexible with our offerings based on what ingredients we can acquire. Secondly, sometimes our bakers just get bored. Food is meant to be an adventure, so why not have fun and explore as much as possible?
Why do you keep your cakes and cupcakes in the cold case? Other bakeries don’t always do that.
As mentioned before, we use real organic butter in our frostings. Butter firms up when it gets cold, which helps cakes and cupcakes stay beautiful as they travel with you out of the bakery (a bumpy drive with a room-temperature cake is much more precarious than with a cold cake). Also, we love to showcase our homemade fruit fillings and curds in our cakes and cupcakes, which taste amazing but do require refrigerated storage. We always recommend that for an optimal taste experience, you let one of our cakes sit out at room temperature for about twenty minutes before enjoying.
I saw a picture of a cake online that I want for my birthday. It’s not like the cakes in your cake case. Can you make a custom cake for me?
The short answer is: maybe? We do receive a lot of cake requests, and we really want to make every special occasion wonderful for our customers. However, part of our commitment to wholesome baked treats includes omitting all bioengineered food ingredients and using only natural food colors. In cake terms, this means we do not use fondant (which is not a dealbreaker for some customers, but does limit our ability to create showpiece sculpture cakes). We also do not use any dyes or artificial food coloring. If you see a pink flower on one of our cakes, that flower was made from freeze dried strawberries or raspberry puree, not factory-produced gel dye in a tube. If you don’t want fondant and are fine with natural colors on your cake, give us a call! We would love to discuss your idea with you.