Talent + quirkiness = bakery success in Elm Grove
Natalia Roman still has photos of her first attempt at decorating with fondant. It wasn’t pretty, but she persevered. Friends and family kept her busy with work.
Nine years ago, she started creating cakes. In May 2016, she took the leap and opened Crumby Art Bakery, 890 Elm Grove Road, Elm Grove, with Andrea Metzger, who does the majority of the baking.
While Roman gets creative with decorating, Metzger is the mastermind behind their scones and cookies, including more than 30 varieties of specialty flavors such as white chocolate habanero and butter beer. The pair also offer parties and teach classes for kids, sharing baking and decorating techniques.
Roman lives in Milwaukee with her husband, Joel Galarza, and their four children, ages 9, 11, 13 and 14.
Beginnings as a baker
I have an art background. I went to school for fashion designer marketing. I was a stay-at-home mom watching this show following three bakeries in LA, Chicago and New York. This was before “Cake Boss.” I watched every episode, and they worked with fondant. It looked like Play-Doh. It looked amazing.
My husband bought me my first fondant. I made my first cake. It was really ugly. I kept the picture to keep me humble. I was using basic recipes I found online. I wasn’t even a home baker. I barely baked for my children. I wasn’t a Betty Crocker-style mom.
Social media start
Friends and family started asking me to make their cakes. Those were the MySpace years. Facebook didn’t even exist. It was through social media that I was pushed to keep learning. I’m completely self-taught.
Her style
I always approach the fondant work
from an artistic point of view. Can I paint on this? I don’t use stamps or molds you can find in stores. Everything I do is usually by hand.
It takes two
When I decided to open the store a little over two years ago, I knew I couldn’t do it alone. I needed a baker. I approached my friend Andrea Metzger, who was a home baker.
She had a day care at home, and I would taste her treats. They had such a nostalgic taste, and they were so perfect. She prides herself on no preservatives, no artificial flavors. She really pushes herself to make these crazy things 100 percent from scratch. We really play off each other.
Building a business
All of my children were in school. My husband was like “Is this a side gig?” It was taking up so much time. (I thought) Let’s go for it. I wanted to give my kids an example that it’s never too late to follow a dream or start a new one…
What’s the worst that can happen? It doesn’t work out, then we shut down. Then when we’re little old ladies, we say, remember that one time we tried to open a bakery? Wasn’t that fun?
Crumby Art
When I started the business doing
cakes at home, then moving to a commercial kitchen, I also sold cake toppers online. That’s what boosted my business. I was selling nationwide.
Looking up names for my business …I had a million names, but I did my research to see that nothing else like it existed. A lot were cutesy, but none of those fit my personality very well. Then I thought of Crumby Art. It is a play on words, with crumbs, but when you say it, it sounds like crummy art.
Some people say “I love that name!” Other people say, “Do you realize what your name sounds like?” I say yes. When they see it spelled out, they realize it has something to do with food.
It helps with customers, too, since we’re not a classic home-style bakery or a fancy French bakery. We’re very nerdy. I think when you hear our name, you know what to expect. We’re more fun and quirky.
Kitchen collaborations
We had a lot of mentorship going into this. Sweet Spot Bakehouse, in Whitewater, she was so kind and let us come in her kitchen.
Beyond basic
We’re known for really crazy cakes, that’s my end of things. Then we have scones, muffins, sugar cookies. The craziest thing we’re known for is our weird cookie flavors. Our weirdest is white chocolate habanero. We have over 30 cookie flavors on our website that can be special-ordered, and in the store we have six flavors weekly.
Crazy cakes
Definitely the weirdest request, this guy was proposing to his girlfriend and wanted two cakes. One cake he wanted to be a male lion, but a zombie lion. The other one he wanted a zombie lioness with a wedding ring.
Trends in taste
We have a lot of cookie weddings this season. It may be because we specialize in so many types of cookies. We do cookie cupcakes, cookie sandwiches — our most popular is a carrot cake cookie sandwich — and we can do tiered cookie cakes.
Desserts at home
Before I opened the shop, I would go all out. It was always over the top. My poor kids. Now we always make sure the kids have a great birthday treat for the class. Everyone knows you own a bakery, so the pressure is on.
Fork. Spoon. Life. explores the everyday relationship that local notables (within the food community and without) have with food. To suggest future personalities to profile, email nstohs@ journalsentinel.com.