I had the pleasure, along with many of my peers, to try the Humble Bake Shop on Friday, April 26th. I and many others were thrilled to hear that a new shop with sweet treats would be appearing during our lunch and advisory periods. As we had grown quite used to the regular crumble and nothing bundt cakes visits, a nice change was kindly welcomed. After purchasing a few tasty treats, I was more than happy with my purchase.
The Humble Bake Shop made a whole new variety of pastries that many of us had never tried before. The goodie menu consisted of three different types of cupcakes, two types of mallow bars, triple fudge brownies, puppy chow, hostess cookies, and pumpkin loaf. We wouldn’t have had the privilege of trying these tasty new treats without the founder of Humble bake shop, Erin. I had the privilege of talking with her during my lunch period.
In our interview, I found out a few interesting things about how the business started, where we can get another one of her tasty treats, and how she appeared in the AP room lobby. When I asked her about when and how her business started, she told me she created it around a year into quarantine; her husband had purchased her a recipe book filled with pies for her birthday and having nothing else going on during quarantine, she decided to make every recipe in the book. I, for one, thought this was super cool as she took a good thing that came from quarantine and acted on it. Not only was the creation of the bake shop something I was intrigued in, but also how she came up with the name. When asked, she quickly responded sharing her take on her shop’s name. One reason for the name being the joy it brought her hearing how people enjoyed trying her treats and making their days through baked goods. She also stated philanthropy was a big part of her life and that how she created Humble Bake Shop.
I also made sure to find out where we could find her again to try her next delicious items. Although she has no specific storefront to visit yet, she explained that she does take orders online and she occasionally appears at pop-ups in restaurants and breweries. When asking her how she found out about the Lincoln-Way lunch hour sales, she told me a very cool bit of information. She is, in fact, a Lincoln-Way alumna, and she happened to bump into Tim Daily (an employee who’s based at Lincoln-Way West) at a pop-up she attended, and he referred her to come to all three of the Lincoln-Way schools.
I really enjoyed talking with Erin and learning about her small business. I hope we get to see her again next school year. Although I and many of my peers enjoy our usual businesses who come during our lunch periods, I believe we should also include more small businesses to the mix. I think its important to recognize the talent within our communities and giving them a broader audience, creating more support for what they do. A community is no community without the ideas of the people, so let’s take the time to appreciate what they do and what they create to lift other’s spirits. Small businesses are the structure of our community.
