Boutique Baker

A New Calling: After 12 years as an in-house beauty publicist for such companies as Hard Candy, Urban Decay, and Bliss Spa (for which she helped organize the San Francisco launch), Genevieve Ostrander felt restless. “I thought there was probably something out there that was better suited for me,” she says. While she was uncertain about what to pursue, the decision seemed obvious to friends who had seen the cookbook-obsessed Ostrander pass out holiday pies and other desserts after weekends devoted to baking. They convinced Ostrander to sell her homemade goods to acquaintances, a move that eventually led the self-taught cook to open Delilah Bakery in January to keep up with demand.What She Does: With a team of four chefs, Ostrander bakes Southern-inspired desserts from scratch, ranging from such classics as peach cobbler and apple pie to liquor-soaked specialties like pecan bourbon pie and whiskey bread pudding (prepared with Jack Daniel’s instead of milk). “We really pride ourselves on being a small business that genuinely cares about quality and customer service,” says Ostrander, who loves knowing the majority of her customers by their first names and displays Polaroids of neighborhood kids in the bakery. It’s a mom-and-pop-shop approach that she extends to catering for small groups. “I’m not out to dominate the world,” she says. “I would love to get clients that use us regularly, to the point where we know them on a personal level.” That doesn’t mean her clients are all tiny operations: Microsoft has turned to her for in-office meetings, and had her create a mini dessert bar that included her supersize red velvet cupcakes. And for a Children’s Defense Fund benefit, Ostrander created a cupcake decoration station for kids, providing them with sprinkles, gummy worms, Oreo crumbs, and other sweets.

Future Projects: Having worked on hospitality suites in her former job as a publicist, Ostrander feels that the care that goes into her desserts (pie crusts are rolled by hand, and commercial mixers and powder mixes are nowhere to be found in her kitchen) makes her goods ideal for the high-end atmosphere of such events.