MollyCake is baking up a storm in Burlington

It all started when Christine McLaughlin’s kids wanted some cool cakes. With a background in graphic design, she combined her artistic talent with a true adoration for baking.

“I’ve always had some kind of a creative outlet, and when I was at home with my kids, cake became my creative outlet,” McLaughlin says. “A lot of people start with slab cakes and go from there. I started with 3-D structures. The first cake I ever did was the Cookie Monster sitting on top of a cookie in 3-D.”

When other people saw and tasted her amazing creations, they wanted cool cakes too. By 2011, she was too busy to keep working out of her house and opened MollyCake in downtown Burlington. Two years ago, she switched from running a bricks and mortar location to owning a commercial kitchen space and offering her made-to-order custom cake creations and delicious baked treats only online. 

“I wanted more balance in my life, and I wanted to be able to see my kids a little bit more, so I decided to rent the kitchen out to other small businesses,” says McLaughlin. “A lot of them are new businesses. They’re young and have a lot of great energy that’s fun to work with.”

About half of MollyCake’s business is custom cakes. Some of her creations include a two-scale replica of a Lego Ninjago, a 3-D standing Yoda, and a pirate ship.

Scroll through the custom cake page on her website, and you’ll see cake replicas of everything from a hot dog and French fries to a dinosaur head. Customers can go to the website, choose what they want their cake to look like, then choose from an assortment of classic, premium, and seasonal flavours.

MollyCake also does a lot of custom orders during wedding season. McLaughlin believes each wedding cake should represent the spirit of the couple. The wedding cake process includes a tasting session where the customer gets six flavours of cake to take home and sample and a personalized consultation to discuss the special day in detail and find a design that suits them.
 

MollyCake also has more casual indulgences that are just as delicious and always made with only fresh, quality ingredients like butter and cream, pure vanilla bean paste, and couverture chocolate. There are also gluten-free options.

The Cookie is a signature MollyCake offering Christine has been making since she started. It was selected by a pastry committee of customers who rated eight different cookie recipes on a number of criteria. The winner has three different kinds of chocolate and pieces of a broken-up Skor bar.

Other perennial favourites include mousse cake, cheesecake, brownies, eclairs, macarons and butter tarts;  during the holidays, MollyCake only offers special menus. There’s pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving, and Christmas is all about gingerbread houses.

It’s hard to argue with McLaughlin's conviction that dessert is the best part of any meal. Don’t forget to save room!