March 14, 2017

Meet Carolyn Van Buskirk of Half Baked Co. in Burbank

Local Stories

Today we’d like to introduce you to Carolyn Van Buskirk.

Thanks for sharing your story with us Carolyn. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
It all started with a deep passion for baking. I love to bake and my husband is a businessman, so when we met we decided to combine our two talents and create a small business out of it. It started in our tiny apartment, selling to friends and family for baby showers and whatnot which quickly grew into more and more friends and families until, we couldn’t bake out of our tiny apartment anymore, so we found a small storefront space in Burbank right on Burbank Blvd. that we thought would be perfect. We actually had to build the whole commercial kitchen in it ourselves, since it was originally a small little cottage, but I fell in love with the charm of it and my husband was up for the challenge, we were young, ambitious and kid free at that point, lol. Dealing with the city, health department and contractors was something I swore I would never do again, until just two short years down the road when we were busting at the seams and the Lowe’s hardware store two doors down from us closed up and went out of business. It was a huge space, with so much more potential. I saw more room for cakes and Prescott saw more room for sales growth, so we bit the bullet and moved the bakery, not that we really had any other choice, since we had literally run out of room in the other space. Luckily, it was the same landlord so switching mid lease wasn’t a problem. So here we were again, building another health code, city approved production kitchen, dealing with even more contractors and this time I had a baby on my hip to boot! A few more years and employees later, brings us to another baby on the way and a beautiful bakery space that my husband and I built for the long haul. We have already filled it pretty well, but this time we made sure there would be space to grow into it for years to come.

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Definitely not a smooth road. I loved the baking aspect of everything, the decorating, the making things look pretty and designing side of things. Having employees, bills, tough customers, taxes, etc. was not what I had in mind when I thought about opening a cute little bakery. These were things that my husband knew would be part of it but I don’t think I really had any idea what I was truly getting myself into. Being a business owner is tough. You never know what the next day will hold, what type of letter you might get in the mail, what type of Yelp review is going to be written about you or what type of issue you may have to deal with next. I think we have learned a lot along the way and have become smarter over the years, but there have definitely been quite a few trying moments over the last six years that have made me question if this is really what I am meant to be doing. However, it all comes back to the passion and if you can keep that going, then you can have just enough motivation to convince yourself not to give up, but to be honest, being a soon-to-be mama of two along with owning the bakery has me pretty nervous, so if you know anyone looking to buy a bakery, lol!

Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about Half Baked Co. – what should we know?
Half Baked is a health conscious custom cake and dessert bakery that bakes with half the fat, calories and sugar but with twice the flavor. We thrive on using all natural better-for-you ingredients like applesauce in place of half the oil, non GMO whole wheat flour, almond milk instead of cream and lots of other healthier swaps to make you the best tasting healthy treat possible. Half Baked specializes in gluten free, vegan and sugar free baked goods to cater to every dietary need. We have the unique capability to make any type of custom cake design come to life, the possibilities are endless and best of all is that not only will your cake look beautiful, but it will taste delicious because everything we do is still 100% from scratch with the absolute highest quality ingredients, something not many other bakeries can say anymore these days.

Any shoutouts? Who else deserves credit in this story – who has played a meaningful role?
The one person that deserves the most credit is my husband. Without him I probably would have failed within the first year! He knows how to run a business, how to brand, how to sell and has taught me so much over the years. Without him, I might have had a tasty product and pretty bakery but that doesn’t keep the doors from closing on you. I also have a pretty solid team right now, which is crucial since I am pregnant with my second child and although I know staff can change in a blink of an eye, I pray that this team stays because they really are great and that helps me keep my work life balance in shape. Being a good mama is my number one priority now, so making sure I have people at the bakery that truly care, are dependable and love Half Baked as much as I do is super important and I feel like I have that right now. Lastly, I would say we have a handful of absolutely awesome clients that really support our small family owned business. These folks have been coming to us for years and it’s quite a special thing because I get to do their wedding, then their baby shower, then their kid’s first birthday and so on. It’s really cool. That and the local Burbank studio support that we get keeps us thriving. We love baking for the studios, working on crazy last minute TV show needs and especially lately even renting out our beautiful store front as a filming location, it truly looks amazing on film and I get giddy overtime I see it featured on some show.

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