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Date: 12/16/2020
SOUTH HADLEY – Melissa Pontbriant has been baking for nearly two decades on her own, learning the tools of the trade, perfecting her skills and building her customer base.
Pointbriant told Reminder Publishing that she initially began baking “about 17 or 18 years ago” for her oldest niece’s first birthday. Her two nieces, Nicole and Natalie, she said are both the inspiration for her baking and for the name of her business, NicNat’s Bakery and Custom Gifts.
“I started baking with Nicole’s first or second birthday. My brother was a young dad and wanted a Blue’s Clues cake,” she said. Pointbriant said that after her brother was unable to find the cake he wanted for his daughter, he turned to her and asked her to make the cake instead.
“I went to the store and got one of those molded cake pans and went to town,” she said. Pointbriant said she’s been continuously learning, teaching herself since then.
“I’ve been learning things on my own from there, making cakes for friends and family, watching YouTube to learn different things,” she said.
Her baking,for many years, was a side hobby while she worked as a dental assistant. However, she said in the “last eight to 10 years” she “really started to pursue it a lot more.” This led to her quitting her job a couple years ago and pursuing her craft full time.
She said becoming a full time baker, however, did not come without challenges. Pointbriant, who also makes custom crafts such as home decor items, wood signs, shirts and pot holders, said she began participating in craft fairs to sell cupcakes and get her name out. She laughed as she recalled when she first began selling cupcakes, “I was doing it illegally.”
After that, she said she “really started to try to look into how do I get licensed, what do I need to do?” However, shortly after she began the process of getting licensed as a cottage bakery in Massachusetts, the coronavirus pandemic impacted the area, halting the process completely. “I signed up to get my license, but the board of health wasn’t coming out to do inspections,” she said.
Having gone back to work after purchasing a home in South Hadley, Pointbriant said she and her husband decided it was no longer safe with COVID and she once again left her job as a dental assistant. She said she was finally able to get officially, legally licensed as a cottage bakery in “June or July.”
She said while she received a substantial amount of business while having a booth at the weekend flea markets at the Eastfield Mall in Springfield, business has increased during the pandemic. “I have not been this busy ever. With COVID so many people are just wanting to do something to celebrate and give a little cheer to celebrate,” she said. “All the bigger shops, the bakers are closing. Bakeries can’t afford to stay open.”
This, she said, was due to bigger bakeries relying on large weddings and catering business. She said this has never been the case for her business, as she relies on smaller orders from more long term customers to keep her business afloat. “For me a $35 cake could end up turning into a long term customer,” she said.
The majority of her business, she said, was cakes and cupcakes, but this was also due to restrictions around what cottage bakeries can and cannot sell. “There’s a lot of things as a home bakery you cannot legally make. People will say, like, can you do this, can you do that, they see people selling things on Facebook illegally. You see that and you say, ‘I can’t legally do that,’” she said. “If some of the laws changed you could advance your menu.”
She said she has to follow the same laws as commercial bakeries, including having a separate fridge, have the same equipment used by such bakeries and make sure to take temperatures to ensure food safety. While she used to enjoy using fondant more “because it’s easier,” she said laughing, she now said she enjoys using buttercream much more. “I’ve become more of a perfectionist,” she said.
While Pointbriant said she doesn’t have a website at the moment, those interested in ordering baked goods or home decor items through her can reach her via her Facebook page at NicNat’s Bakery & Custom Gifts. Pointbriant can also be reached via phone at 588-6838 or via email at nicnatsbakery@yahoo.com.