MANAYUNK

By Megan Douress

Photography By JPG Photography

You’re all bundled up as you head out to Main Street. The sound of music brings a smile to your face. The street is lit up as shoppers shuffle to finish their holiday shopping. You pass 4409 Main Street when something hits you—the smell of freshly baked gingerbread and hot chocolate. The scent is a familiar one—one you could count on for the last five and a half years.

The owner of Sweet Elizabeth's Cakes & Bakeshop, Liz Paradiso, was out walking her dog on a similar wintery night when the idea of opening her own bakery dawned on her.

“I saw a ‘For Rent’ sign and thought, ‘You know, I wonder if the neighborhood needs a bakery,’” Liz remembered. “I took a leap of faith and signed a lease, and that was five and a half years ago. I spent months asking neighborhood people, ‘Would you go to a bakery if there was one here?’ The neighborhood has really responded well.”

Since she first opened her doors, Sweet Elizabeth's Cakes & Bakeshop has become a staple on Main Street. Her signature creations—especially her delicious cupcake flavors—are a favorite among Manayunk residents. But since the summer, the bakery has been running slightly differently—Liz gave birth to her second son, Leo, all while the bakery was transitioning bakers. Liz and her small staff made the decision to slow things down in August and only had the shop open on the weekends to make it more manageable for the new mom.

“I’m a small business,” she said. “This is the reality of being a mom. Our customers were so great at understanding our position. They were still loyal to us and came back when we reopened to normal hours.”

Despite the challenges of having a baby in the bakery, Sweet Elizabeth's Cakes & Bakeshop is back up and running full steam ahead, but things are looking a little different in the kitchen now.

“Life is a little crazy here at the bakery,” Liz said. “Having a four-month-old has its challenges and its rewards. The customers love him! It’s really nice to have him here with me while he’s so little, and I’m grateful that my employees are amazing. When I’m working on something that’s time sensitive or temperature sensitive, they’ll rock him or entertain him.”

These days, Liz typically checks in with her baker first thing in the morning, then can be seen walking Leo on the towpath until he falls asleep. That’s when she finds time to catch up on emails and decorate her baked goods. Once Leo wakes up, she takes him for another walk down Main Street and catches up with other Manayunk business owners. And it’s not out of the ordinary that Liz returns to the bakery for a night shift, where she rocks out to her own music, drinks late night cups of coffee, and gets creative with cake decorating.

Now that the holidays are approaching, the staff has been creating menus for Thanksgiving and Christmas and working on new designs for their store cakes, which customers can walk in and purchase on the spot. One thing Liz is especially excited for are their seasonal drip cakes—a trend that she came across by following Australian bakers on social media.

“We’ll have a Thanksgiving one that uses all of the autumn colors,” Liz said. “Our Christmas one is going to be pink and teal with lots of white snowflakes and glitter—kind of fantasy-Christmasy look—so there will be lots of sparkles on that. They are so aesthetically beautiful, and then to add these different textures into the cake is really cool. We’re excited to offer something a little more unique to our customers than just a traditional cake—something really over the top as well.”

They’ve also been working on some new techniques for their wedding cakes. With New Year’s Eve being on a Saturday, Liz and her team are bracing for a busy day, especially for the True Romance cake.

“That’s a chocolate cake with a champagne buttercream, layered with fresh strawberries that have been soaked in champagne, a chocolate ganache drizzle on top, a hand-painted sugar rose, and we sprinkle it with glitter,” Liz said. “We would put glitter on everything if we could, but not everyone loves glitter so we have to restrain ourselves.”

The bakery will also be baking up some of their yearly holiday favorites—their chocolate bourbon pecan pie, pumpkin spice cake, and sticky gingerbread cupcakes, which were previously featured on The Cooking Channel.

“They are a really sticky, moist, super gingery, perfect warm-you-up type of cupcake,” Liz said. “I can’t wait for Christmas now!”

The bakeshop also has some extra fancy cupcakes in the works for kids coming in to get a sweet treat, like turkey, Santa Claus, and glittery snowflake cupcakes.

“It’s amazing that we get to create nostalgia for kids in Manayunk,” said Liz. “I take that very seriously, that we are part of creating memories for kids. What’s better than kids and Christmas? Nothing…except maybe kittens and cupcakes!”

“I really love the holidays,” she added. “I think the events we have here are amazing, which is one of the reasons why I wanted to be a deeper part of the community by opening up a store rather than just being a resident. The storefronts are beautiful, the events are fabulous, my four-year-old Wilder loves seeing Santa and loves the music on Main Street—it makes you want to shop when you hear that happy music! And I love how the bakeshop always smells amazing around Christmas time.”

So when she’s not in the bakeshop, what does Liz like to bake for her family around the holidays? The Christmas classic, Buche de Noel, or the Yule log cake as some know it. Knowing that people consume a lot of calories during the holidays, Liz is making it a little bit of a lighter dessert this year—a chocolate sponge cake with an espresso mousse filling, caramel drizzle, and whipped cream on the outside.

“It’s very festive,” Liz said. “Forget the flowers—put this beautiful cake in the middle of your table with fresh flowers around it!”

The bakeshop will be baking up their own Buche de Noels for customers this holiday season as well, using only the freshest ingredients.

“I feel like everything we create is for a special occasion, so that’s why I feel like it’s so important to bake everything from scratch using really top quality ingredients,” Liz explained. “If you’re going to indulge and treat yourself, it should be top notch. It should be luxurious—it should be the best chocolate, the best butter, the best vanilla we can get because that’s going to turn into a memory for you.”

The statement is especially true around the holidays, something Liz and her staff take to heart.

“We’re honored to be a part of our customers’ holidays. Even in the smallest way, it’s a very sweet way to be a part of it.”