Life is sweet
Crafting cakes for Torontonians warms baker Julia Gallay’s heart. She spills the sugar with Lex Harvey
Instead of watching cartoons as a kid, Julia Gallay tuned into the Food Network. Rather than hitting the playground on weekends, she dragged her parents to cookbook signings. Now 24, Gallay, whose nickname is “Gallz,” operates her own micro-bakery, Gallz Provisions, out of her kitchen in north Toronto, where she makes beautiful and delicious layer cakes. She started her Instagram account @gallzprovisions to show off what she was cooking and baking in her free time, but when she was laid off from her job at a medical-nutrition company last summer, Gallay took it as an opportunity to throw herself into doing what she loved.
The first week it launched, the bakery received five orders. Three months later, Gallay now makes a dozen cakes a week. Customers put in requests via Instagram DM with their favourite flavours, and Gallay takes it from there: a desire for something chocolate becomes an espresso-soaked masterpiece with whipped-mascarpone ganache and coffee Swiss-meringue buttercream; a love of lemon becomes a buttermilk confection with whipped lemon-poppyseed ganache, cream-cheese buttercream and lemon curd.
All cakes come topped with fresh seasonal flowers and fruits, each creation as much a work of art as it is a delight for the tastebuds. Gallay, who comes from a family of doctors and studied science in university, says professional baker was not the career she envisioned for herself, but her love of science guides her craft. She treats her kitchen as a lab, viewing butter, sugar and flour less as ingredients and more as elements contributing to a delicious reaction. Her meticulously made cakes reflect that precision.
The pandemic has forced people to find new ways to mark special occasions and celebrate loved ones. It brings Gallay joy to use her own “love language” — food — to bring happiness to others. Now that her business is growing, Gallay is excited to venture beyond cakes. A couple of weeks ago, she hosted her first pastry pop-up. Soon she will start giving back by donating a cut of her proceeds to charity. “I feel like I’m touching the lives of so many people, and it’s amazing.”