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By JENNIFER MOOONSONG
Glasgow News 1
Danielle Certain, the talented proprietress of Wild Flours Bake Shop, moved to Glasgow from Rancho Cucamonga, California when she was only six years old to a totally different lifestyle than what her parents knew in Southern California.
“The first thing that got me started baking was my mom,” Danielle said, reminiscing. Danielle was the oldest of four children, and was her mother Cheryl’s little helper in a kitchen heavily influenced by her great-grandmother’s German heritage and cooking expertise. They built their house here with the kitchen being a focal point. “Mom baked all of the bread from scratch, even grinding the flour. She kept a massive garden, and tried to teach us all to cook, bake and garden. It was a passion, and she instilled those values and that spirit in all of us. It’s in our blood.”
Danielle is grateful for all her mother taught her, and while initially being home-schooled in that same kitchen, she learned the basics; that quality ingredients and love are the key…then her creativity drove her to search for more.
“For our birthdays we never really had decorated cakes beyond the candles. Mom made us 9×13 German chocolate sheet cakes. It was a great cake, still one of my favorites,” she said.
Her youngest brother Connor requested that Danielle make his birthday cake on his tenth birthday when Danielle was 15 years old. “I tried to provide something that was beyond the perfect cake inside, but also amazing on the outside,” Danielle said. “Connor loved dirt bike racing so I decorated the cake like a dirt bike track with a ramp on it, and a wrecked bike and rider after the ramp with ‘blood’ on the cake. He and his friends loved it,” she said.
Danielle Certain of Wild Flours Bake Shop discovered her passion for baking when she was just a child, and her mother was one of her biggest inspirations.
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Since that time, Danielle’s interests and abilities have grown considerably. “I didn’t think I wanted to pursue the culinary arts in high school. I was a band geek and thought I’d play the French horn in an orchestra and be a musician like my Dad but my senior year, I quit the band and had to find a new path. Cheyenne Fant counseled me to pursue my passion so I started in the culinary arts dual credit program.”
Danielle received awards and scholarships and went to Sullivan University in Louisville to obtain a Baking and Pastry Arts Degree and make her mark in the Big City somewhere.
“I couldn’t wait to leave,” Danielle chuckled. “I thought I’d be on the cover of a Seattle culinary magazine,” she said. However, in a twist of irony, after studying her passion and living in Louisville, Danielle found she was homesick.
“Now, I just want wonderful things for this town. So many positive things have happened in my almost 25 years here, Glasgow is on the brink in so many ways, especially the downtown area,” she said. The challenge these days, Danielle notes, is that it’s not always easy to find allergy friendly items that are also tasty and she is trying to change that for the community.
Danielle Certain, the founder of Wild Flours Bake Shop, is a classically trained pastry chef. Her culinary creations incorporate many fresh and local ingredients when possible.
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Danielle is now 33, and three years ago she decided it was time to step up her pastry side-gig by starting a venture called Wild Flours Bake Shop, a bakery dedicated to specialized custom ordered cakes and baked goods, with the nod of a hat to her heritage of high quality ingredients.
“My great-grandparents were German immigrants who made their way into America by way of Canada before WWII. All of my family cookbooks are loaded with German recipes,” she said, and she loves those flavorful, traditional meals, but strives to give people the choices they need for special dietary conditions without sacrificing flavor.
“It has become me striving to meet the needs of my clients,” Danielle said. She doesn’t have a set menu so much as she has a plethora of knowledge and an ability to create whatever the customer desires, with the alterations necessary.
“It has helped me grow my passion for more than just decorated cakes. Those are still my favorite, especially wedding cakes, but I like to bake many different things,” she said.
Amongst her talents are making delicious baked goods that are gluten free, soy free, nut free, egg free, dairy free, dye free and vegan. Whatever the occasion requires, “I can adapt almost any recipe,” she said.
Beautifully adorned cakes that meet the needs of people with specific dietary limitations are just some of what Danielle Certain of Wild Flours Bake Shop creates.
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Wedding cakes are Danielle’s favorite.
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Unless a diet calls for it, the cakes are made with REAL ingredients and she is a big supporter of the local farm-to-table movement. You can taste the difference when high-quality fresh ingredients go into a cake baked with love and care.
For now Danielle is content creating masterpieces in her kitchen and doing pop-up events at places like Thornless Thistle and Cave City Cars and Coffee, and she is grateful and overwhelmed with the support she has received.
“Savannah at Studio 22 designed my logo and website, she’s amazing. Ryan and Christina Davis helped start Cave City Cars and Coffee and they basically called me up and said ‘you’ve got a booth, make it happen, we love you, bye’. They’ve been wonderful to me as some of my biggest cheerleaders,” she added. As for the future, she hopes to be able to offer people a bakery/lounge someday.
In the meantime she’s honing her skills, pushing boundaries and basking in the adoration of clients who love what she provides.
Traditional German flavors and techniques from the baker’s heritage are incorporated.
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“I’d say the best compliment I have gotten as a baker is that something reminds them of what their grandma made. I love to stir nostalgia,” Danielle said.
Wild Flours Bakery can be followed on Facebook. You can email Danielle at wildfloursbakeshopky@gmail.com or visit the website at nothingcakecantfix.com
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