Sugar Blooms keeps blossoming

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This article was published 19/12/2016 (3402 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A vacant space on McPhillips Street will soon be filled with mouthwatering cakes, pastries, chit-chat and coffee. 

Genevieve Melegrito, owner of Sugar Blooms and Cakes Inc., recently acquired the old Robin’s Donuts locations at Unit A-1020 McPhillips St., right next to the bakery, and plans to open a new café by the end of January. 

In the summer of 2011, she opened her first shop on Selkirk Avenue, where she quickly saw a demand for her pastries, cupcakes, and cakes. 

She later moved the storefront of Sugar Blooms and Cakes Inc. to its new location on McPhillips Street in 2015. 

“It was the best decision I’ve made,” she said. “Now with the cafe opening next door, we’ve been able to move our kitchen here.” 

Moving the kitchen from the old location is easing the stress of transporting her baked goods and boosting productivity, she said. 

After Robin’s Donuts closed, the owner of the space offered Melegrito the space to expand her bakery.

“A lot of our customers kept asking for slices of cakes even though at the time we just sold whole cakes,” she said. “So when the space was available, I thought why not give the people what they want?”

 Since she moved to the new location her business is flourishing, Melegrito said. 

“We haven’t finalized a menu yet, but I know we will have an all-day breakfast option,” she added. “But I want to ease into that and try other menu items too.” 

Melegrito says she plans to have the café open in the mornings and close around 6 p.m. when it first opens, but eventually wants it to be open six days a week (Tuesday to Sunday) until 10 p.m..

The owner, manager, and baker originally from the Philippines came to Canada with her family roughly 12 years ago to follow her dream of being a professional baker, and give her children the chance of obtaining a post-secondary education. 

Melegrito, a former missionary high school English and history teacher in Papua New Guinea, has studied at culinary schools in the Philippines, the United States, and Australia. 

In a few years, Melegrito plans to “semi-retire” and hand the torch to her daughter Nikki Melegrito, who has worked with her mom full-time for three years. 

“I graduated with a biology degree when I started working here full-time,” Nikki said. “I was planning to go back to become a chiropractor but fell in love with the art of decorating, so I stayed” 

Nikki also wishes to open a baking and cake decorating school eventually too. 

“There’s no school that caters to it here, so it be a great opportunity to be the first,” she said. 

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