Retrobaked

05/05/2019

One year ago today was our last artwalk, and we thought there was no better way to remember our time serving the GF/vegan community than to go out and support it...by eating ALL THE THINGS at Sarasota VegFest!

It was a beautiful day celebrating all the goodness in our own backyard, and running into so many sweet customers was the cherry on top. We miss you all dearly 💕 and hope you will go support these awesome businesses!

01/07/2019

Our top photos from 2018 are giving us all the feels. 💕 We hope you all had a joyful holiday season! We sure did miss baking all those festive treats for you (and who are we kidding...we missed eating them too!) but we are looking forward to an exciting New Year filled with hope, health and maybe even a few oatmeal creme pies. Cheers to 2019! ✨🥂✨

10/07/2018

Cheers to five years of Retrobaked. (And baking our first cupcakes in five months!)✨🕯✨

10/05/2018

Five years ago today, we opened for our very first artwalk. And even though we aren’t open this year, we are still celebrating! 🥂✨

💕 First, we celebrate all of you, and thank you for your years of support. For lining up in the heat, rain, and cold (ok, it was really only cold once!) to scoop up your monthly artwalk treats. For keeping Rachel busy as a bee baking cakes for your celebrations. And for your sweet reviews, word of mouth & encouraging enthusiasm that kept the Retrobaked wheels turning and made our dream a reality.

👯‍♀️ We celebrate our loyal family & friends who volunteered their time to package treats, sling cupcakes and wash dishes, from the first artwalk to last. We love you all dearly!

🏠 We celebrate the amazing opportunities we’ve been given. Opening a bakery out of our home in a funky art village and watching it develop a following and grow into something bigger than us was truly a once in a lifetime adventure. It will hold a special place in our hearts forever.

🙌🏼 And today, we also celebrate the fact that Rachel is improving! Lots of sleep, no stress and some life-changing therapies are giving us hope for recovery, and providing affirmation that our decision to close was truly the right one. Thank you all for your prayers, and please keep them coming!

🍪 All this reflecting has us missing so many things: seeing all of your faces at artwalks, decorating the shop, experimenting with new flavors, baking ALL the fall goodies, and most of all, we miss the oatmeal creme pies. 😉

We’re often asked if we plan to re-open, take custom orders, or write a cookbook. (These are all future possibilities!) We don’t know exactly what the future holds just yet, but we do know that if it’s anything like the past, it will be spectacular, and we are trusting that God has something special up his sleeve.
💖✨💖✨

Cheers to five years!
-Rachel & Luke

08/07/2018

Coffee date at the new & amazing Tellers! One of the owners was a sweet retrobaked regular & we are thrilled for her! Please go support this place! They’ll be offering vegan eats soon, and a wine & beer garden to follow! ☕️✨

07/06/2018

How sweet is this?! Huge thanks to Between Highlighters for this beautiful surprise! 🍪💕🍪💕 #sammiesforever

06/09/2018

This cutie proposed to one of our longtime customers with a basket of goodies. (He said yes!) 💍✨💍✨

06/01/2018

Swooning over these amazing replicas of our treats, gifted to us by the insanely talented Trina of Decadent Minis. 💕

When she found out we were closing, she sent this beautiful package filled with handmade keepsakes to memorialize our goodies, and we will cherish them & her kindness forever. Please check out her incredible work!

05/27/2018

Watching my favorite movie while packing and it’s giving me all the feels. 😭💖😭💖

05/25/2018

Last batch. 🍋🌸✨

05/22/2018

This little cutie melted my heart with her handmade cupcake card & flowers at our farewell pop-up. Thank you for your support, Taylor family! 💕✨

05/20/2018

Thank you all for an incredible send-off last night. 💕

Your pre-orders alone totaled more treats than we’ve EVER made for a pop-up (or an artwalk) and I had no idea how we’d get it all baked in time or where we’d even put it all. But by the grace of God and several all-nighters, we got. it. done. And with a few hundred extra treats to boot! 💪🏼

When it started raining, I was worried that no one would show up (one of my biggest fears). Seeing you all lined up in the rain with umbrellas, crowding into our little bakery on a random Saturday night for no reason other than grabbing our treats, made every hour of late night baking totally worth it.

It was an honor to host one last event in our little yellow cottage, and bake up some of my personal favorite childhood retro treats once more. I hope you enjoy them!

If you need me, I’ll be the one passed out on the couch with a half-eaten piece of pizza in my hand.

05/19/2018

TONIGHT’S MENU!

✨Retro cupcakes
✨Dunkaroo cookies & dip
✨Oatmeal creme pies
✨Sammies
✨Fudge-dipped sammies
✨S’more crispy treats
✨Strawberry crispy treats
✨Walnut fudge brownies
✨Cosmic brownies
✨Double fudge brownies
✨Choc peanut butter bars
✨Cake shots (s’more, oreo, choc PB)
✨Frosting Shots

💖We open at 5pm!

💖We made lots of extras for walk-ins!

💖If you’re picking up an order (and you don’t want any extra items), please head straight to the blue counter to grab your goodies and go. Extra treats can be found in their normal spots!

05/17/2018

Planning our weekend. 💖💖

05/16/2018

Our ✨FAREWELL POP-UP✨ is this Saturday, 5-7pm, and we’re making extras for those who didn’t pre-order, plus a few off-the-menu surprises. 💕

05/14/2018

Toasty s’more brownies. 🔥💕

05/13/2018

Happy Mother’s Day to all you moms out there! Especially this lady right here, who’s been my biggest supporter since day one.

From that first phone call when I nervously asked what she thought about a bakery called “Retrobaked” (because her opinion mattered most), to slingin’ hundreds of cupcakes at our final event.

She’s been at every artwalk, busy behind the scenes packing treats and doing dishes (and always showing up with flowers to decorate our porch and homemade meals to fuel long nights of baking), and together with my dad, she painted every room of our bakery and made most of the furniture.

She is a hard-working rockstar and without her, my dream would not have been possible. Thank you for standing by my side (usually covered in powdered sugar) for all these years. You are so loved and appreciated! 💖

05/12/2018

Bradenton's Sweet Side: Your last chance for batch of gluten-free treats from this sweet spot

Thank you for another sweet feature, Bradenton Herald! Check it out for a Retrobaked recipe you can make at home. 🍪💕

05/10/2018

Pink Sno-balls. 💕 Part of our Farewell Pop-up menu!

05/07/2018

Friends, we have no words for the amount of love we felt Friday. 💖 From the massive line that started at 4:30 and snaked around the block, to all the encouraging words, prayers, cards & gifts. You turned our last artwalk (which we thought would be emotionally devastating) into a beautiful, incredible memory.

Thank you for braving the heat and the wait to support us (even when we sold out), and for sending so many amazing pictures. We have the sweetest customers in existence and we appreciate each and every one of you.

For those who couldn’t make it, we will be having one last ✨FAREWELL POP-UP✨ on Sat, May 19. This event will be pre-order only and will be your last chance for treats before our break. Menu & details will be posted tomorrow.

Until then, we’ll be recovering from the chaos with movies and vegan mac. (Rays Vegan Soul gifted us an ENTIRE PAN!!). 🙌🏼😮🙌🏼

05/04/2018

Join us for our last artwalk, tonight 6-9:30pm! We’ve made a record amount of treats & we can’t wait to see you all! 🍰 🍪💕

CUPCAKES:
✨Toasted S’more
✨Key Lime Pie
✨Birthday Cake
✨Death By Chocolate
✨Lemon Lavender
✨Peanut Butter Fudge

COOKIES:
💕 Oatmeal Creme Pies
💕 Peanut Butter Creme Pies
💕 Sammies
💕 Chocolate Creme Sammies
💕 Cranberry Orange Bars
💕 Chocolate PB Bars

BROWNIES & BREAD:
✨Double Fudge Brownies
✨Mexican Hot Choc Brownies
✨Choc Chip Banana Bread

RICE CRISPY TREATS:
💕Funfetti
💕Strawberries ‘n Cream
💕Pumpkin Spice

SHOTS:
✨Frosting Shots
✨Sammie Shots
✨Cosmic Brownie Bites

As a courtesy to all customers, please limit 6 of each treat/person (6 brownies, 6 sammies, etc.) and 6 of each cupcake flavor/person (6 s’more, 6 key lime, etc.) until 8:00pm. ✨ See you soon!

05/03/2018

✨We have a favor to ask!✨

Luke and I rarely have time to walk around and take photos during events, so we would LOVE it if you guys could snap a few.

Whether it’s a pic of you and your treats, or the event in general, we would be so grateful for the memories of our last artwalk.

You can e-mail pics to [email protected] or tag us on FB/instagram. (P.s. we can only see tagged photos & stories if your profile is public.)

This would mean so much to us.
Thank you! 💕

05/01/2018

It couldn’t be more fitting that our last artwalk falls during Lyme Disease Awareness month. We’re also shocked at how many reached out to share their own battle with Lyme. 💚

So, we’re making one of our most popular flavors, ✨Key Lime Pie✨ to bring a bit of awareness to a disease that is highly misunderstood.

Grab some gingersnap-spiced tangy lime goodness Friday night, & find more Lyme facts at lymediseasechallenge.org.

04/30/2018

Luke: “If it doesn’t have chocolate, it’s not a dessert.”

Also Luke: “Lemon lavender is my new favorite cupcake.”

Try Luke’s all-time fave Friday night! 🍋🌸

04/26/2018

Thank you all for showering us with so much kindness over the last few days. All the sweet messages, prayers & encouraging comments mean so much to Luke & me, and they've made this difficult decision so much easier to bear. We’ve always been blown away by your support of our bakery, and now by your support of our decision to close. We can’t wait to see you all next Friday! 💕 ✨

04/23/2018

Friends, it is with heavy hearts that we announce that May 4th will be our last artwalk.

We are closing our doors for a (hopefully temporary) hiatus due to complications with Rachel’s health. 👇🏻 Please continue reading for a note from Rachel:

As many of you know, the driving force behind my desire to bake gluten-free, plant-based treats was food allergies and health issues of my own. It's brought me great joy to turn a negative part of my life into something positive, spending my days creating delicious treats for those who usually go without: fellow celiacs, vegans, and everyone in-between. I absolutely LOVE my job.

But, my own health has worsened over the years, and I’ve recently been diagnosed with a handful of serious conditions, including late stage Lyme disease. The thing with chronic illness and Lyme is that they are extremely difficult to treat, and require strict dedication to healing with abundant rest and no stress (quite the opposite of bakery life). While my heart desperately wants to continue baking for you all, my body is literally shutting down and telling me to rest.

Running a small business can be brutal on your body, even for a healthy person. The physical & emotional stress of wearing dozens of hats can be overwhelming, especially for a perfectionist like myself!

While I’ve been blessed with a supportive husband, parents & friends who graciously volunteer during events, for the most part, Retrobaked is a one-woman operation. And keeping up with the demand has sadly become a stumbling block in my road to recovery.

Each artwalk requires weeks of planning & prep, and without the luxury of giant commercial ovens & a full staff, I instead make thousands of treats by hand, one batch at a time, one sleepless night after another, out of a tiny home kitchen. (To give you an idea, it takes an entire day just to make enough frosting for one artwalk!)

I count all of this as a blessing, though. A testament to how much we’ve grown & how much you guys have embraced our treats. The demand simply boggles my mind, and I am forever thankful.

I’ve often told customers that we are growing so much, we either need to expand, or quit! The dream of course was to eventually open a full-service bakery & hire a proper staff. But that can’t happen until I am healthy. After years of putting the bakery before everything else, it’s time to make my health a priority.

But I’m not giving up on Retrobaked! My goal is to do whatever it takes to get better so that I can once again spend my days baking birthday cakes & oatmeal creme pies. I have far too many new creations I’ve yet to share with you guys, and I can’t wait to get back at it, this time at full strength. 👊🏼

But until then, we hope you will join us for one last hurrah! We’re pulling out all the stops with a special “greatest hits” menu, from s’more cupcakes to Mexican hot chocolate brownies & all the fan faves, as a thank you for your years of support. We’ll be joined by Rays Vegan Soul, Blue Sage Market Co. & one of our original collaborators, Sunshine Canning, plus giveaways from GoodEarth Pure Soaps.

Please help us plan for the demand by taking a moment to RSVP to the event here: https://tinyurl.com/y95yewjj

We plan to make as many treats as humanly possible, but as always, we recommend coming early for the best selection. We hope you will join us! 💕

Much love,
-Rachel & Luke

Photo credit: Salvatore Brancifort

04/20/2018

Little Debbie who? ✨

04/18/2018

🥕✨🥕✨

04/16/2018

Breezy weather + chocolate cherry superfood crispies. 👌🏼🌻✨

04/13/2018

Key lime pie cake. ✨💚✨

04/11/2018

Candied orange fudge. ✨🍫🍊✨

04/08/2018

Thank you all for coming out this weekend! We hope you enjoy your treats as much as this cutie. 🌈💕

04/07/2018

Garden walk today, 12-4pm! 🌸✨ We have cupcakes, brownies, sammies, oatmeal creme pies & marshmallow crispy treats!

04/07/2018

Garden Walk today! We will be open from 12-4pm with cupcakes, cookies & treats! 🌻

04/06/2018

We’re open & still fully stocked! ✨