Racine-resident Nikki Folgers-Lindstrom knew she loved art and cake, but she also realized her children would be going off to college and she wanted to open her own business.
And after a four-year long journey, Lindstrom Bakery, 516 College Ave., will open its doors on Jan. 3. She calls herself a cake designer first, and then a baker. But her hope for the shop is that people will find unique bakery items, including: cookies, breads, brownies, cakes and cupcakes.
Self-taught by watching YouTube videos, Lindstrom volunteered at La Villita, her friend’s bakery, for years before opening her own. She taught her friend how to make rosettes and work with fondant, a sugar paste, and her friend taught her how to make different types of bakery.
“I’m just really excited this is finally happening,” she said.
She loves making wild designs: a seven-foot-long dragon, a cake fashioned in the shape of a Starbuck’s cup, a birch tree with the names of a wedding couple on them, a cake made to look like an alien coming out of a belly and upside down wedding cakes.
Lindstrom grows particularly fond of her designs because there’s cake, then there’s cake, she said.
“I love when people are happy to see the work,” she said. “I’m sad when the work goes because I want to keep all of my cakes.”
Being Swedish, Lindstrom said she comes from a long line of carpenters and bakers. And if Lindstrom could just make sculpted cakes, she would be in heaven.
“This is our passion, both of my grandmothers are artists, my children are artists, and that part keyed in with the baking that I already knew from my grandmother,” she said.
The bakery will also offer classes in working with fondant and frosting cakes on Mondays and Wednesdays. During the class time, a children’s story hour will also be available at no charge,
“I’m really excited about the story hour because the children will be able to decorate a cookie or a cupcake as a gift,” Lindstrom said. “We did that at La Villita to help the kids in the neighborhood because they needed somewhere to go.”
But putting together the bakery space has been a family effort as Lindstrom’s brother, her son, her father, her sister-in law and her daughters have all helped to make her dream a reality. George Lindstrom, Nikki’s son, worked on putting together a bakery case as the family rushed to finish putting on the last touches on the shop for a private ribbon cutting.
“I’m really proud of my mom for opening her own place,” George said as he worked. “But she also helps feed homeless people as well and she’s done a lot of charity work.”
Once open, the shop hours will be from 5 a.m. to 8 p.m. Sunday through Friday, and closed (but some hours by appointment only) on Saturday.