A recipe for success: how one local bakery is making inclusivity a piece of cake

Growing up in his parents' bakery, James Schmidt had almost unlimited access to a mouthwatering array of tempting baked treats.

“They started Budapest Cakes in 1956, and I started my apprenticeship with them when I was sixteen,” he recalls.

“Back then, I would have eaten something from the bakery every day!”

So there was no small sense of irony when his eldest daughter was diagnosed with coeliac disease.

After getting tested himself, the then 34-year-old baker discovered that he had the same condition.

By then, James had swapped continental pastries for yeast-free cakes and was running Heidelberg Cakes, which his late brother Robert opened in 1991.

“It was wholesale back then, so we delivered to all the Westfields and supplied a lot of other bakeries.”

As the business celebrates its 35^th anniversary, James (who is now the Executive Chef) is still busy making a range of filled gateaux, tortes and sponges, but one important aspect has changed.

“We didn't know what gluten-free was when we started,” the lifelong baker says.

“But after I was diagnosed, I still wanted to eat some cake!”

James spent years experimenting with different flours and recipes before he was satisfied that his gluten-free cakes tasted as good as those made with wheat flour.

There was never an official announcement when Heidelberg Cakes switched to being a 100% gluten-free bakery a decade ago, “and the cakes were so good that we didn't lose a single customer.”

Not all of Heidelberg's customers are gluten intolerant; “some people simply choose us because we make amazing looking cakes,” James says.

“But there are always a couple of us coeliacs at a party, and normally we miss out.

So when people order a gluten-free cake that tastes just as good, we still get to eat it and everybody wins.”

Every week, James fills a display fridge with ready to go cakes and slices, but about 80% of the bakery's output consists of custom orders.

“Wedding cakes are a big part of our business, and special occasions like birthdays, christenings and graduations.”

A team of twelve chefs and pâtissiers designs and decorates up to 150 cakes a week, many featuring incredible custom-made sugar decorations like Tiffany boxes, Sherrin footballs and cartoon characters. 

About half of Heidelberg's customers now order online, through a website with thousands of pre-priced options that can be customised for size, flavours and coverings.

And for those who prefer to order in person, James and his team always have a range of samples ready.

The vast majority of James' creations are cut and filled sponges “because we can turn that into anything that gravity lets us do,” and his favourite flavour by far is the vanilla raspberry that combines layers of moist vanilla sponge with sweet white chocolate ganache and tart raspberries for “a match made in heaven.”

Customers can also choose finishes like custard-based buttercream, rolled fondant or glossy ganache that's poured on hot.

Orders range from six-inch cakes to giant raspberry flans over half a metre in diameter that require custom-made cake boards and feed 180 people.

In many ways, those cakes are the best advertisement the business can have.

“That's 180 people tasting our product and saying 'this is a really nice cake – where did you get this from?' and we get customers that way all the time.”

Visit today

20 Nelson Street, Stepney
T: 08 8362 5111
W: www.heidelbergcakes.com.au
I: @heidelbergcakes