In 2021, Joyce Tang started Bake Sum at the Bread Project’s commissary kitchen. Five years later, the bakery recently moved into a second location in Alameda. Since those first pastry box pop-ups in Berkeley, Bake Sum has expanded its repertoire. There are more cakes, cookies, milk buns and mochis, and more flavors.
“We’re playing with tofu puddings and mango sticky rice,” Tang told me during a phone interview. “We’re constantly trying to add things that help with dietary restrictions.”
Bake Sum’s team, which has grown from 5 to 20, is always floating new ideas, more than they have the time or energy to execute. “We were carving out some time on Tuesdays for more experimentation and to launch some test bakes,” Tang said. “While that’s been fun, with our challenge of the new store, we’re having less and less time for that again now.”…