The accidental bakery

Third-generation Sandpointian returns to open The Cakery on First

By Ben Olson
Reader Staff

Abby Stolfo’s road to opening a new business led her back home to Sandpoint. 

The third-generation Sandpointian recently opened The Cakery on First, located at 323 N. First Ave. Located at Ward Tollbom’s former Hen’s Tooth Studio location, this small-batch bakery specializes in organic ingredients, stunning cakes and pastries, espresso and other delectables. 

Though it’s the grand opening of the brick-and-mortar location, Stolfo has sold her creations at the Sandpoint Farmers’ Market since 2023, quietly building up a reputation as a baker who makes treats that are not only delicious, but also that look like they jumped off a glossy pages of a magazine.

After graduating from Sandpoint High School, she attended the University of Idaho in Moscow to study finance before realizing she didn’t want to work in that industry at all. 

“I did that for about nine months and I couldn’t handle it anymore,” Stolfo told the Reader. 

She then attended culinary school in Boise and briefly found work as a pastry cook for a renowned chef in San Francisco, where she continued her education.

A co-worker then told Stolfo about a new opportunity working as an assistant to a food stylist, making and styling dishes for photo shoots.

“I jumped on the job for Eating Well magazine with this food stylist and had the best time,” Stolfo said. “Unbeknownst to me, I had gotten in with one of the truly best stylists in the city.”

After working as an assistant for five years, Stolfo went solo as a stylist and her career really took off.

“I have incredible clients,” she said. “I mean, if you walk in the grocery store, you’ll see a lot of my work. The Lay’s packaging is my work; the Williams Sonoma catalog. It blew my mind. I mean, I’m just a girl from Sandpoint.”

Stolfo probably would’ve stayed in her career if the pandemic hadn’t changed everything.

“When California shut down, I got in a rental car and I drove home,” she said. 

She bought a house in Sandpoint before the real estate prices went astronomical, so she moved back into it, thinking it would be a temporary situation to wait out the pandemic.

“’What am I gonna do to keep myself busy?’” Stolfo asked herself. “I’ll just start making cakes out of my house for something to do.”

She spent two years turning her detached garage into a commercial kitchen, still working as a food stylist remotely. She hadn’t fully committed to moving back to Sandpoint.

“Then I realized, wow, I’m so much less angry and stressed out and not hyper-vigilant all the time,” she said, which convinced her she wanted to be in North Idaho again.

Stolfo applied to be a Sandpoint Farmers’ Market vendor and was accepted, so she began creating high-quality works of culinary art with the help of her mother in the home commercial kitchen.

“My mom has done this with me from the beginning whether she really wanted to or not,” she said. “She’s been amazing and it’s a testament to moms who will just help you do whatever ridiculous thing you want to do.”

After establishing a customer base at the market, Stolfo’s selections moved from cakes to a wider range of pastries.

“The funny thing is, I’ve never felt like I was a natural baker,” Stolfo said. “I’m like a reluctant baker, which might sound terrible, but people sometimes ask if it was my dream to own a bakery and I’m like, ‘No?’ It’s like an accidental dream. But I love it.”

That “accidental dream” took a big step forward when Charlie and Donna Parrish met Stolfo at the market and told her they had a storefront opening up when Tollbom announced his then-upcoming retirement.

“Charlie and Donna are the most exceptional, generous, wonderful people,” Stolfo said, adding that she was enamored by the downtown location, and also thrilled to be among the burgeoning “bakery district” around First Avenue and Cedar Street, which includes the well-established Bluebird Bakery and fellow newcomer Sawyers Bakery.

“People are so funny, they’re like, ‘Oh my gosh, the battle of the bakeries,’” she said. “But everyone has been so kind. [Bluebird Bakery owner] Jill [Severson] has been so generous. I emailed her and told her I was thinking about opening a cakery and she got right back to me and said, ‘What do you need?’ She even sent us flowers on our opening day.”

Opening June 20, the Cakery on First offers a unique selection of items. Some menu selections include banana cardamom cream cheese coffee cakes, blueberry rhubarb butter crumb muffins, carrot cupcakes, chocolate zucchini bread, lemon curd pound cakes and tarts, to name a few. There will be daily slices and special offerings along with a standard menu of favorites.

“I really want to offer nostalgic baked goods that you want to eat,” she said. “They are like home recipes, but we put a little bit of a twist on things. I’m also working on a selection of savory items. I’m looking for more well-rounded offerings.”

To pair with her sweet and savory selections, Stolfo also offers Doma coffee from Post Falls, specializing in espressos, cappuccinos and lattes, among others.

The majority of all of her ingredients are organic, and every item has that food stylist’s touch making it look almost as good as it tastes.

“This is the accidental bakery,” Stolfo said. “It’s really more of a food stylist creative outlet than a bakery.”

Current business hours are 7:30 a.m.-3:30 p.m. Thursday through Sunday, but Stolfo may fine tune this in the near future. She said she’s currently looking for a dishwasher with weekend availability. Visit thecakeryonfirst.com for more info.