Our Story
The Hidden Berry Cakes & Breads story began in 2002, when my family left Russia and settled down in Texas. Very soon nostalgic memories of Eastern European cuisine made me look for local substitutes and imported goods. The seeming similarity of many products turned out to be misleading, and the majority of Russian food stores could not satisfy me with the quality of their assortment.
The only solution was to start experimenting. Baking at home and working at several bakeries gave me the knowledge and experience I needed. In about a year I was able to provide my family with bread which was very close to what we had been enjoying years ago and thousands of miles away. I still bake this bread every day. It is a simple wheat loaf made of flour, water, salt, sugar, oil and yeast, a daily bread with the right taste and an affordable price.
Having mastered a few types of bread, including my favorite rye loaf, I began working on cakes and cookies. Friends liked them, and we often baked them for special occasions. Among a huge variety of Eastern European pastry, I was particularly interested in treats that have a longer shelf-life and can withstand shipping. Tea cakes with berries proved to be the best. When properly wrapped they stay fresh for weeks, and as some people say, even mature with time.
Ten years later I graduated from UT Austin, and got a job up north, moving the bakery to New Hampshire. However, it became clear after a while that bread attracted me more than academic scholarship. I quit all other jobs and concentrated on the bakery, feeling blessed and happy. Human occupations come and go, but some stay longer than others. People have been turning a mixture of milled grains and water into loaves of bread for thousands of years, and it is unlikely that this tradition will be abandoned any time soon... After five blessed years of baking in New England, making good friends and fighting with snow, I moved the bakery back to Texas, back to where it all started...
