For Local Baker, Cake is a Lifestyle

A small sign in Maralyn Tabatsky’s kitchen reads, “Life is uncertain. Eat dessert first.” On a large bookshelf a few feet away is The Cake Bible. Hanging on a nearby wall: “The Periodic Table of Desserts.”

For Tabatsky, cake making has transcended being a business. It is a lifestyle. You might even call it a craft.

Tabatsky, 60, is the founder of , a local pastry shop located on Alida Way in South San Francisco for over 15 years. And this weekend, her confections will be displayed alongside works of art at the American Craft Council's show at Fort Mason.

Tabatsky, a former special education instructor, began her part-time career in cake-making in 1987. The art of creating pastries began as a passion for Tabatsky, as she worked by special order and appointment only, which gave her flexibility considering her job as an instructor.

Tabatsky commented that her love for desserts derived from the mind of yet another teacher.

“I definitely got it from my family. I come from a baking family,” Tabatsky said. “My grandmother, my mother and my aunt all baked. My mom, in particular, taught me. Besides being a good baker, I was also really lucky because she was a wonderful teacher.”

Tabatsky absorbed her mother’s example to the fullest extent, as she had been a home economics instructor during Tabatsky’s childhood.

From the late 80’s up until the mid-90’s, Tabatsky rented out kitchens in order to practice her art and continue with her side business. But in 1995, Tabatsky decided to fully dedicate herself to the dessert business.

Tabatsky, who said she "needed a change," gradually began taking cake-decorating classes, and what started as a hobby transformed into a way of life.

“I started doing this gradually, just for friends and totally by word of mouth, and then I gradually built up the business,” said Tabatsky, who maintains that a sense of flexibility is one of the most coveted perks of being a small business owner.

“If I have something due on a certain time or date, as long as it’s ready by that time, nobody cares whether I did it at one in the morning or one in the afternoon, as long as it’s ready on time,” Tabatsky explained. “So it’s nice to have that flexibility.”

But like anything, there are challenges associated with building a business from the ground up. A colleague once described her style as controlled chaos.

“The Ed Sullivan show was an old variety show and he used to have kind of vaudevillian type acts,” Tabatsky said. “One of them was this guy who would spin plates on this long table on long sticks. On the top of the sticks, he would twirl a plate. He would do them one at a time until he had eight or 10 twirling at one time.”

“He would be running up and down the table to make sure all of these plates kept spinning,” she continued. “My colleague likened having my own business to doing that.”

As a former teacher, Tabatsky commented that she had no formal training in market, accounting, and other areas, all of which she had to learn on the fly.

There was one area however, in which Tabatsky was fluent.

“I’m good at spatial relations and math,” Tabatsky said, reflecting on a time she built a cake for a group of engineers, who made her task easier by providing her with precise dimensions. “The math is important.”

Aside from the technical and business aspects of her career, Tabatsky maintains that the incentives far outweigh the small amount of negatives.

The perk most emphasized is the connections that Tabatsky has been able to create and maintain over the years in the midst of her small business. In fact, Tabatsky acquired her long-time shop with the help of none other than a customer.

“I found this place through a bride actually,” said Tabatsky, who specializes in wedding cakes. “She worked in her father’s real estate management office and one of the places they managed was this building, and this space was vacant."

And helping people celebrate significant moment in their lives is one of her greatest joys.

“It’s wonderful,” Tabatsky said. “It’s really is a great feeling and a privilege to be a part of life’s celebrations. I get to see them when they’re at their happiest. That’s a very nice thing and it gives you a nice view of the world.”

Over the years, Tabatsky has transformed everything from cars, buildings, company logos, and computers into celebratory pastries. She even recreated King Kong climbing the Empire State Building into a cake.

“It’s a great thing when I bring a cake out and a little kid’s face lights up when he or she sees the cake for the first time. It’s really cool.”

Along with weddings, Tabatsky also does birthdays, graduations, and bar mitzvahs, among other celebrations.

“What’s really very gratifying as well is that over the years, I’ve often had the amazing opportunity to meet a couple when they’re getting married and then later on do their kid’s birthday cake, or meet someone for their bar mitzvah and then later on do their wedding cake,” Tabatsky said. “It’s wonderful to see these families and how they’ve grown.”

And coming up this weekend, Tabatsky will have yet another opportunity to make her mark on a celebration, this time in form of a birthday.

The American Craft Council is a non-profit organization based in the Midwest and will visit San Francisco from August 12 to 14 to celebrate its 70^th birthday at Fort Mason. In order to celebrate the 70^th year since its inception, the Craft Council has partnered with several bakers in the Bay Area to create cakes, cupcakes, cookies, and other desserts inspired by various artists’ work that will be on display at the show.

Tabatsky received her inspiration from the vases of American Craft Council artist Thomas Maras.

“Something about his work just really spoke to me,” Tabatsky said of Maras’ work.

San Francisco currently has the longest running version of the American Craft Council show, standing at over 30 years.