Scrumptions Thanksgiving Pies Take The Cake

 Scrumptons owner Anna Carrerio held a staff meeting earlier this week to review the thanksgiving orders, did inventory to make sure the ingredients were all in place and then set up the work schedule.  She says that one person who doesn't get the directions right can cause real problems.

Carrerio has been at the bakery in Benny's Plaza on Post Road for 14 years and owned it for the last five.  Former owner Dana Delbonis is still her mentor and still comes in to buy her desserts.

The most popular pie for Thanksgiving is obviously pumpkin, but caramel apple is a strong second followed by chocolate cream and their "decadent chocolate mousse torte".

Baking begins at 4:00 am Wednesday morning.  The apple pies, which are the most time consuming, go first, followed by pumpkin.  At 6:00 am another staff member comes in to do the whipped cream work and fruit tarts, anything with fruit.  That gets the displays cases full and ready to go when the customers start coming in at 9:00 am, which is an hour earlier than usual.

For those customers whose taste isn't exactly traditional, there are also banana cream, lemon cream, holiday harvest, and all American apple pies, plus miniature pastries and dessert cakes. 

Carreiro says the majority of orders are from local, regular customers.  In the past orders came in on a regular and steady basis, but in recent years orders have become more last minute, as peoples lives have changed.  That poses a challenge for  production and inventory schedules, but she works hard to accommodate last minute requests. 

The only unusual requests this year came from customers with special dietary restrictions due to food allergies.  She had a request for a dairy free, lactose free cake.  Special requests are welcome, but because this order came in so close to the holiday she didn't have time to make a test cake and turned down the order.

"I didn't want to make something that might not be good," she said.

The bakery still bustles for the holiday, but Carrerio admits volume is down somewhat, due to the economy as well as competition from food stores who can put out a cheaper product.  However she competes by appealing to the niche market that appreciates something handmade.  There are no mixes and ingredients are painstakenly selected.  She and the staff regularly bake and sample their own test products.  Often they ask customers to sample them and give feedback. 

"It's the only way to make ourselves better," she says.

While Thanksgiving is big, it doesn't match Christmas, when Scrumptions cranks out all kinds of desserts and hundreds of pounds of cookies, including individual cookies for stocking stuffers.  Gingerbread houses are a big seller.

Cakes, including wedding cakes, are a big part of what the bakery does, and recently Carreiro says there has been a spurt in three dimensional cakes.  People want special occasion cakes that look like a car or some other object important to them.  Reality cooking shows on television have made the public aware of what can be done, and people come in looking for unusual designs.

Scrumptions regular hours are Tuesday through Friday from 10:00 am -6:00 pm, Saturdays 9:00 am -5:00 pm and the web site is www.scrumptions.com