From a four-tiered, multi-colored wedding cake complete with draped and folded fondant and air-brushed rose petals made of white chocolate to tasty fruit tarts, chocolate chip brownies and Frisbee-sized cookies, Tammie Coe’s signature pastries have a way of turning any moment into a joyous occasion.
Her cakes, which come in three sizes, are a multi-sensory artistic experience, beginning with the bold colors and free-formed design and leading all the way to the taste, which has been known to cause people to speculate on the divine origins of these sweets.
“Tammie Coe is going to a special heaven reserved for people who make the world a beautiful, fondant-covered place,” says one national food critic.
While most people are at first pulled into the cakes by their the rich, bold colors of the fondant drapery, it is what is inside the cake that keeps them coming back for more. And more. The Milk Chocolate Cakes features “next to flourless” Milk Chocolate Sponge Cake which is layered with Chocolate Mousse and Toasted Hazelnuts. Her famous “Zebra” includes White Chocolate Mousse layered with Chocolate Cake and Raspberries. While still another signature features Banana Foster Cake, a banana cake laden with orange brandy and caramel cream.
For Coe, though, creating such sweetness is in part a work of art and part a connection back to her childhood in Virginia where she learned to make things from scratch by her grandmother and created her first cake in her mother’s kitchen at the age of twelve.
“I made my first wedding cake when I was twelve for a family member’s wedding,” says Tammie. “After that experience, I started taking cake decorating classes, watching Julia Childs, reading all the magazines. It was something I loved. I was hooked.”
After graduating from high school, Coe went to the Johnson and Wales Culinary school in Rhode Island and received her degree in Pastry and Baking Arts. After finishing the two-year course, Coe then entered and completed the Advanced Standing Course in Pastry, where she learned many of her signature pastry treats.
Culinary school proved to be advantageous for other reasons besides the pastry training, as it was there where she met her future husband, Michael John (MJ). At the time, MJ was a fellow bakery student and now he is one of the youngest Certified Master Bakers in the country.
After spending time in Florida and Wyoming, working at such places as The Breakers in Palm Beach and The Ritz Carlton in Naples, the two came to Arizona to seek out their culinary fortunes.
Since arriving in Arizona, Tammie has always taken chances and followed her instincts to place herself at the forefront of the culinary scene. In the late 90s, she worked at the culinary hotspot Michael’s at the Citadel, and then, a few years later when an ordinary strip mall in the beautiful Arcadia district in Phoenix was renovated into a hip, market, grocery and pizzeria titled La Grande Orange, Tammie joined the team and sold her unique pastry offerings. At the same time, MJ supplied the space with his signature creations, his artisan breads, which include French loaves, olive bread, croissants, foccacia, and cibatta.
“We sold a lot of items out of that little glass case,” says Tammie. And, when Tammie and MJ simply ran out of room to keep up with all the orders, they opened their own bakery in the same plaza, using $70,000 of their own money to buy the best oven from France, which came with its own person to assemble it.
Now, with the trend in Phoenix moving towards the newly renovated and refurbished downtown area, Tammie and MJ are stepping into that arena as well. They have purchased a new loft in the Roosevelt Arts District. But these lofts are a little more special than the usual. Just like their baking, in a way. The Artisan Lofts, which are modern interpretations of the traditional street-front walk up, allow the owners to turn the bottom story into a retail space. Of course, Tammie and MJ couldn’t resist. Although they will keep their Arcadia location as their permanent bakery, the new space will be a small café which will sell their now famous breads and pastries while serving up Eli Coffee and Espresso. It, too, has become a sign for city leaders of the future success of the downtown area.
But for Coe, it still has to be about the basics.
“I believe in good ingredients and an understanding of how they fit and come together,” says Coe. “You can’t just add things, you have to know how the ingredients mix in a bowl, how they respond to one another. That’s a big part of it.