Flour Power
Meagan Smith, owner of Little Bird Bakeshop, channeled her sweet tooth into something even sweeter: a creative outlet.
It took Meagan Smith until college to churn out her first batch of chocolate chip cookies. And now, only a few years after her first foray into baking, Meagan has made up for lost time. She opened Little Bird Bake Shop in September 2008, and her unordinary cupcakes (lemon basil, orange creamsicle) and desserts (salted chocolate chip cookies, pecan shortbread bars) have garnered praise at local weddings and with corporate clients like the Moxie.
Meagan’s goal for Little Bird is to encourage a return to back-to-basics baking, and she uses as many local, organic ingredients as she can. “I look for simplicity,” she says. “Being fancy isn’t always better.” Meagan, who works as the director of alumni relations at Drury University, uses her free time and weekends to bake in her home kitchen. She sells the goodies from her mom’s café, Tea Bar & Bites.
Meagan’s family wasn’t the least bit surprised she made the leap from recreational to professional baking. Her entire family has inherited the culinary gene. Meagan’s sister has baked treats for Mudhouse, her brother cooks for The Pasta Factory in Columbia and her mother has owned Tea Bar for nearly five years. Meagan occasionally takes baking classes through OTC’s continuing education department, but most of her knowledge has been learned through trial and error. “I’m okay with not being that classically trained chef,” she says.
As a French and business major in college, Meagan spent time studying and teaching English in France. Meagan found herself meandering through bakeries and sampling French pastries. She returned to the US with a new love for baking, and a new passion for opening her own bakery. But what she didn’t realize is just how much work was involved. After getting her business license in September of 2008, Meagan got her first gig: baking 400 mini cupcakes for a wedding. With a little help from her boyfriend, Meagan pulled it off, and the orders kept coming in. “It’s a real second job,” says Meagan, who spends between six to eight hours a week baking for Little Bird.
Meagan hopes one day to open Little Bird in it’s own location, ideally a sweet spot downtown. But for now, the self-taught baker is content experimenting with recipes on the weekend, improving her cake decorating skills and taste-testing her favorite lemon bar. She follows recipes but adds her own modifications, drawing inspiration from zany yet innovative cookbooks such as The Modern Baker and Baked: New Frontiers in Baking. Next to the cupcakes, Little Bird sells a large amount of brownies. Meagan, a self-proclaimed chocolate snob, bakes dense, fudgy brownies for the serious chocolate-lover. Meagan’s other creations, such as mango cheesecake with basil-lemon syrup or the spicy chocolate soufflé cake, have foodies raving. “I like using old-fashioned recipes and giving them a modern twist,” she says.
With more than ten variations of cupcakes and sales soaring, Meagan looks forward to seeing where Little Bird Bake Shop takes her. Life is indeed sweet.
