Charlottetown bakery about to expand into second location devoted to cakes

While many businesses are just trying to survive the year, one longtime family operation in Charlottetown is expanding.

Buns and Things Bakery, located at 25 Brackley Point Rd., is getting to set to open a second location just up the street at 30 Brackley Point Rd.

Essentially, the cake part of the business has outgrown the current bakery and is moving into its own storefront property. It will be known as Cakes by Buns and Things.

“It was showing good growth and opportunity,’’ said owner Bill DeBlois. “This particular space, which is very close in proximity to the bakery itself, became available so we decided to take the opportunity to take a swing at it and have a cake shop. I think she outgrew (the bakery space) three years ago.’’

DeBlois is referring to his cake baker, Shelley Deveaux, who has been baking cakes for Buns and Things for the past 15 years.

Deveaux said she dabbled in baking cakes at first and immediately fell in love with it. She can’t imagine being happier doing anything else.

“I just love it. It’s fun and it’s different all the time. No two cakes are the same,’’ Deveaux said. “You can be artistic. You can kind of do whatever, really.’’

DeBlois admits the expansion comes at a time when business is down. Buns and Things was closed from March 18 to April 17 when public health restrictions were put in place around the coronavirus (COVID-19 strain). The business, which would normally employ more than 30 people at peak times, is currently running a little under that number.

DeBlois said space has been a challenge these past few years at the bakery. As the cake side of the business continued to grow, space in the walk-in fridge and walk-in freezer started to become tight, not to mention the pressure it put on the retail space. There simply wasn’t enough room to display everything. And, the lack of space started adding pressure to all of the different types of baking.

The new location will give Deveaux and her staff more room to work, and they’ll be able to display a lot more product.

Once they reopened, business has steadily started to rebound. Each week has been busier than the last one.

“The challenge now is that we’re limited to the number (in) the store at a time, so that physically restricts the number of people you can have through the store in a day,’’ he said.

Despite the slow-down, DeBlois said the demand for cakes has remained strong over the years. He credits Deveaux as a big reason.

“In all seriousness, her organization allowed us to get busier. It was how she went about doing things; the decorating she does, that all coincided with the fact that we changed recipes and mixes that we were using to make the actual cake itself, and the cake got better.

“It was a combination of things. …. People were buying cakes because she made them look beautiful, and then they ate them and they tasted good. The combination of those two elements has worked well for us.’’

Deveaux said she takes her job of making and decorating cakes seriously, calling it her life’s passion.

“I have a lot of customers who say they spend a lot of money for cakes at other places and they don’t taste good,’’ she said. “They look beautiful, but they don’t taste good.’’

Deveaux does take specialty orders. As long as she’s able to hand-draw the request, she can do the cake. She has an assistant who graduated from pastry school a year ago who Deveaux says is a huge help.

When asked if Cakes by Buns and Things might jump into the ice cream cake business someday, DeBlois says it might be an option down the road, adding “this spot gives us an opportunity to do stuff like that’’.

He said an opening date for Cakes by Buns and Things will likely happen sometime this month but, at the time of the interview, no date had been set.