WASHINGTON — Hyattsville, Maryland-based DC Sweet Potato Cake, which sells its cakes and cupcakes at dozens of retailers including Starbucks, Nordstrom, Safeway and Wegmans, will open a retail bakery in Baltimore.
The new bakery, named Baked In Baltimore, will have a grand opening on Sept. 22 at its brick-and-mortar location at 6848 Reisterstown Rd. in Pikesville. The Baltimore County location is the former Goldman’s Kosher Bakery.
Baked In Baltimore plans to give away more than 1,000 cupcakes at its grand opening.
DC Sweet Potato Cake received a deal to sell its products in hundreds of Walmart stores last year after winning a role in Walmart’s fourth annual U.S. Manufacturing Open Call.
DC Sweet Potato Cake’s co-owner, April Richardson, is a Baltimore native, and she had been looking for a way to contribute to Baltimore’s minority business scene.
After the Freddie Gray movement, Richardson said she vowed that she would do something impactful in Baltimore. Freddie Gray is the Baltimore man who died of a fatal spinal cord injury while in police custody in 2015, prompting days of rioting on the city’s streets and charges against police officers, some of were either acquitted or had charges against them dropped.
Richardson said she attended a meeting in Baltimore in 2015 with former Starbucks CEO Howard Shultz, who came to talk with employees about community involvement and racial sensitivity.
The following year, she met with then-senator, and now Baltimore mayor, Catherine Pugh at the
Congressional Black Caucus. Richardson said their meeting helped her realize that Baltimore needed another successful black company.
At Baked In Baltimore, Richardson said she also plans to expand into the coffee roasting business and create a program for ex-offenders.
In other bakery-related news, New York’s Magnolia Bakery, often credited with starting the cupcake craze, opened a D.C. outpost at Union Station this month.
