One night in Russia, a little girl fell asleep to the sound of the mixer in the kitchen, wondering what kind of cake her mother was making for her birthday.
The excitement of that anticipation led Alexandra Thompson to carry with her a lifelong love of baking, which she now brings to the Central Coast with Heart and Sugar—through which she makes cakes, cookies, and candy confections for celebrations and markets.
“My mom made our cakes with an incredible amount of love. She put so much heart in them and of course, she couldn’t do it without a bit of sugar,” Thompson said.
At 10 years old, Thompson was enrolled in the Kaliningrad School of Arts. However, neither paint and canvas nor pixels and print were her favored media.
“Although they didn’t turn me into another Malevich (my favorite artist), they most definitely gave me a better understanding of how to use a wide variety of artistic tools and techniques and provided the groundwork for my future endeavors at Heart and Sugar,” she said.
A lover of art, Thompson is also a lover of food. She studied Culinary Arts in St. Petersburg and spent time traveling, absorbing as many food traditions as she could. After completing a master’s degree in food engineering, Thompson took a vacation to Spain where she met a handsome bodyguard.
“Summer, sun, sea, wine, romance, falling in love … next thing I knew, I was married and living in America,” she said.
She used to live in Los Angeles, where Thompson made deserts for gatherings. Friends began to ask her to provide truffles and cakes for other people’s parties and the demand grew. When she moved to Santa Maria in the summer of 2013, she started Heart and Sugar to fill a gap she saw—deserts made with high quality, organic ingredients. The result are truffles as smooth as a contented sigh.
The only non-organic ingredient she uses is food coloring; she said the organic colorings she has tried in the past left her multi-hued offerings grayish-ly bereft of life.
Not just a baker, Thompson has, in addition to her degrees, a certificate as a chocolatier from the Ecole Chocolat Vancouver.
“One day I was baking peanut butter cup cakes, and [they] didn’t come out exactly as I wanted, and I ended up with peanut butter mass. Then it hit me. OMG I should dip it in chocolate and it will be like my favorite candy, Reese’s Pieces,” Thompson said.
Eventually, she would like to have a local storefront. Currently, Heart and Sugar’s wares can be found at the Orcutt Farmers’ Market every Tuesday from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., as well as her online store, which will be opening in October.
Despite being in America, Thompson does not feel the American rush to expand.
“I would rather grow slowly and properly so that all of my creations remain of the highest quality possible,” she said.
These days, every July 3, Thompson’s son goes to sleep listening to his mother’s mixer wondering what kind of birthday cake he’s going to get in the morning.
Staff Writer Michael McCone wrote this week’s Biz Spotlight. Information should be sent to the Sun via fax, email, or mail.
This article appears in Sep 18-25, 2014.