Sweet's the Game at Scandia Bakery

There’s something instantly comforting about : perhaps it's the friendly conversation, or the simple décor, or the kind staff, or the cases full of tantalizing breakfast pastries, hand-decorated cakes and tray after tray of cookies?

Or maybe it's the fact that at Scandia Bakery, you get to experience the other Sonoma: the Sonoma that exists away from the wineries, restaurants and shops. The bakery's populated by locals—many of whom were brought in as toddlers for a cookie, and have grown up blowing out candles on Scandia's birthday cakes—eventually ordering their own wedding cake from here.

“I recently hired someone I have known since they were a little kid,” said owner Marcela Barrenechea. “But most of the employees have been with us for a long time, and that’s great for the customers.”

The bakery’s most popular confection is their Princess Cake, a Scandinavian creation that has become a birthday and special occasion tradition for an untold number of customers. It has also become a favorite for weddings, comprising 50 percent of Scandia’s wedding cake orders.

While Barrenechea doesn’t reveal the details of the recipe, the dome-shaped delicacy contains a light and moist cake, fruit filling, a whipped cream layer and is covered in soft, almond-flavored marzipan. “For our cakes we only use three colors, ivory, pink and green,” says Barrenechea. “But you can order any color you desire.” The Princess can also be made into a “doll” cake—where a doll is contained within and the cake becomes her “skirt.”

The Sonoma institution was started by Kaj Friis, who catered to his substantial Scandinavian clientele with a perfectionists eye towards ingredients and processes to create traditional pastries and baked goods.

Barrenechea was one of Friis’ customers—not a local, and certainly not Scandinavian.

Originally from Bolivia, she came to Sonoma in 1989, after four years of study in Sweden.  Attracted by the bakery's friendly authenticity, she and Friis became friendly. In 1992 her hired her for a front-of-the-house position. Not content with pouring coffee, Barrenechea spent over two years cajoling Friis to let her in on his secret recipes.

But as she learned more about the business, the differences between baking and running a bakery became clearer. Friis had systems in place—right down to the kitchen layout, which he designed to fit all the industrial equipment in a Tetris-like configuration. Still, a certain level of choreography is needed, “We have no room to expand out, so we basically all have a dance that we do each day when we’re baking," says Barrenechea.

Slowly, Barrenechea took on more business responsibilites from Friis, whose health was failing. She took over as owner of the business in January of 2000 along with her husband, Eulogio “Chito” Rodriguez.

“We have not changed our baking methods or ingredients,” said Barrenechea. “I believe you should stay true to what you do well.”

She even keeps Friis's hand-written recipes, and uses the same ground of special purveyors, which she sees as integral to the baking process.  “In some ways, the flavors are ‘homemade,’” said Barrenechea. “We use fresh eggs and butter and we try to find products locally.”

After more than 11-years in business and thousands of cakes and cookies later, Marcela Barrenechea is still enthused about her life,

“I love what I do. You make people happy with the things you create, so the hard work is worth it. But the best part is the people; they’re really faithful to the bakery. Many of the customers have been coming here since Kaj first opened Scandia, and I know their children and grandchildren," she said. " That is very special to me."