Frederick’s Pastries enjoying holiday rush

Thursday, December 22, 2011

Frederick's Pastries owner Sue Robert says the Yule Log is the shop's most popular item around Christmastime. It is a chocolate sponge cake laced with Grand Marnier, filled with a light chocolate orange mousse, rolled and frosted with a fudge frosting and decorated with edible mushrooms and a Poinsettia. (Submitted photo).

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The Santa Cake is another favorite around the holidays, Robert said, which can be made with pumpkin, chocolate, white almond pound, golden vanilla, or marble swirl cake filled and frosted with buttercream frosting (Submitted photo).

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Frederick's Pastries' holiday tray includes fudge bars, eclairs, chocolate covered cannolies and homemade butter cookies (Submitted photo).

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The Christmas tree cupcake sold at Frederick's Pastries comes in chocolate or vanilla (Submitted photo).

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The eggnog torte at Frederick's Pastries, layers of moist gold cake laced with Myers Rum, filled with pastry cream, Eggnog mousse, nutmeg and frosted with Eggnog mousse (Submitted photo).

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Frederick's Pastries' Twirly Swirly Peppermint jumbo chocolate cupcake filled and frosted with omemade peppermint buttercream frosting with bits of candy canes (Submitted photo).

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Frederick's Pastries owner Sue Robert says the Yule Log is the shop's most popular item around Christmastime. It is a chocolate sponge cake laced with Grand Marnier, filled with a light chocolate orange mousse, rolled and frosted with a fudge frosting and decorated with edible mushrooms and a Poinsettia. (Submitted photo).

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AMHERST – In the last few days leading up to Christmas, Frederick’s Pastries is as busy as the elves at the North Pole, owner Susan Robert said.

“December 22, 23, 24, those three days, those are the busiest by far,” Robert said. “The neat part about it is we kind of have a guess as to what’s going to be popular, being in business for so long, but every now and then we come up with something new. It kind of throws us for a loop.”

The most popular item at Frederick’s around Christmas – the Yule Log, Robert said – usually gets around 300 to 400 orders the last three days before Dec. 25.

That’s just the Yule Log. Add on Frederick’s other popular “Santa Cakes” and holiday trays of fudge bars, eclairs, cannolies and butter cookies, and the company meets about 1,500 orders over three days, Robert said.

In order to ensure every customer gets fresh goods for Christmas, Robert puts all hands on deck at her three locations in Amherst, Bedford and North Andover, Mass., she said.

About 28 people will be up all night Dec. 23 mixing, baking, frosting and packaging the sugary goodies that serve as centerpieces for Christmas tables around the state, Robert said.

In years past, Robert said she would have employees stay until 6, 7 or 8 at night in order to get all the orders done by Christmas Eve. Now the majority of the Frederick’s team pulls an all-nighter to keep up with the treats on her customers’ Christmas lists.

“It’s a crazy time of year,” Robert said. “Part of me says thank God it’s only once a year, but we really have a great time. … We just cruise. We get the Christmas tunes playing, maybe listen to some Elf. We eat a lot of pizza and we stay up all night.”

Robert’s parents Frederick and Gloria Lozier started Frederick’s Pastries when Robert was 8, so she’s used to the hustle and bustle, she said.

“We’re not going to change what we do from any other time of year to accommodate more orders,” Robert said. “We’re just going to stay later. The other option is we’re going to turn people down and say we’re not going to take another order.”

Robert said June’s graduation and wedding season sometimes calls for a halt on cake orders, because of the sheer size of the product meant to feed tens to hundreds of people. The smaller scale of the holiday desserts pushes Frederick’s to please everyone throughout the season, Robert said.

“This year, Christmas being on a Sunday, next week is a full week for everyone,” Robert said. “The weekends will be Christmas parties up until the time we hit the 24th. It’s by far the busiest holiday. It lasts the longest.”

Rather than hire seasonal help to accommodate the influx of orders, Robert says her workers fill up their time cards with time-and-a-half.

“We think of it as if we’re investing in our employees, this is the time of year where you’re going to get overtime,” Robert said. “They all get it. … If you make that cake too soon, it’s not fresh, the customer is going to speak to that. So they understand, you’ve been here for 22 hours, but you still have to look up and smile and say, ‘Merry Christmas!’”

Her employees also know to get their holiday preparations done early, because once the last week hits before Christmas, there’s no time for shopping.

“Tuesday through Friday and Saturday, they’re not going to leave,” Robert said. “But they look forward to it.”

Many of the employees have been through the Christmas cycle so often, they know what to expect, Robert said.

“For the past eight or nine years, we’ve got it down to a science,” Robert said. “It’s really kind of neat if people could sit back and see the amount that we could put out. It’s its own show in itself, to learn the personalities of the people involved, you know what they’re going to do next.”

In Amherst, the largest Frederick’s branch, and in Bedford and North Andover on a smaller scale, workers pair off into groups of assembly lines to work on the various orders, Robert said.

Frederick’s rack oven bakes 80 eight-inch cakes for 35 minutes at a time, Robert said, plus the time to mix the ingredients, put them in a pan, get them in the oven, pull them out, flip them, cool them and decorate them. Some products are then distributed between the three locations, Robert said.

“If anyone’s out there at midnight, 2 or 4 a.m., we’re out there delivering from Bedford, to Amherst to North Andover,” Robert said. “It’s the most proficient way to do it, to keep the consistency and keep it as fresh as possible. … We’ve got a system that we’ve ironed out. We’re pushing out a fresher product than we’ve ever put out, and we’re doing it tighter.”

Robert, too, is used to doing all of her preparations for her family on Christmas Eve, she said, because there’s not much time to do anything before that.

“I’ll go home Christmas Eve and get ready at 7 at night,” Robert said. “I have three kids, so I‘ll stay up all night again. Christmas, thank God, my parents are still in the area and they cook. I’m out and I’m numb, my full body tingles.”

And the workers who pump out the thousand or more Christmas goodies? They’re happy to take home a Frederick’s cake of their choosing on Christmas Eve, Robert said.

“The Yule Log, you think in your mind, ‘I should eat it because I can’t have it for another year,’” Robert said. “You play your own mind games. We give every employee a cake when they leave, and I can’t tell you how many take the Yule Log. It’s like, ‘Really? You just made 380 last night!’”

Maryalice Gill can be reached at 594-6490 or mgill@nashuatelegraph.com. Follow Gill on Twitter (@Telegraph_MAG).