FOREWORD

Nestled deep in the BC Interior, Nelson is home to one of the most charming little bakeries this side of the Rockies. As with the town itself, the journey to the bakery is almost as scenic as the destination. Imagine yourself leaving the bustling main street, climbing up or driving past the staircases that pass for sidewalks in this steeply pitched mountain town. You look around, enjoying the 360-degree mountain views and the friendly “hellos” from passing locals, but you’re starting to feel a bit . . . hungry. When you reach the leafy neighbourhood aptly known as Uphill, you’re greeted by the sweet smell of baking drifting out of an open window. Welcome to Epiphany Cakes!

Here you’ll find morning dog-walkers stopping to enjoy a treat in the glorious spring sun, a parade of littles clambering onto the child-size stepping stool to select a house-made ice cream sandwich on a hot summer afternoon, wool-swathed locals sipping coffee and enjoying slices of cake on a crisp autumn day, and bundled-up adventurers stopping by to fuel up on their way to or from—sometimes to and from—various winter activities.

Epiphany’s founder and baker-in-chief, Melissa Owen, has created a beautiful, whimsical delight of a bakery, and the sweet treats within are the expression of a highly skilled and experienced pastry chef and a deeply creative soul. Everything is lovingly crafted from scratch, with an eye for beauty and an attention to detail that makes each item a revelation. The recipes in this cookbook will give you a taste of this experience—familiar for locals, inspiring for future visitors.

One of my absolute favourite items is the iconic Epiphany Lemon Tart. The pastry is lightly golden, the filling glossy and yellow; the lemon custard is an impeccable balance of tart and sweet and creamy. If chocolate is more to your taste, the Classic Brownies and Salted Caramel Tarts are guaranteed crowd-pleasers. If your family or guests have dietary restrictions, you’ll find recipes, like the Chocolate Quinoa Cake, that they can enjoy too.

Melissa’s passion for her work and the way she and her talented staff genuinely care about their customers shines through the Epiphany Cakes experience, both at the Cake Window and within the pages of this cookbook. Bon apétit!

Sarah Butler
Author of The Wild Heavens

HOW IT ALL BEGAN

Cookbooks are the perfect mélange of my very favourite things: photography, baking, and writing. The book in your hands is a dream that has been percolating for many years. I love cookbooks and have a ridiculously huge personal collection. I am delighted that my book is now a part of yours.

I took a circuitous route to the life I have today as the owner of Epiphany Cakes in picturesque Nelson, BC.

Food is my love language. I adore preparing it, sharing it, reading about it, photographing it, and of course, eating it. Yet I didn’t cook or bake at all when I was growing up. I barely have a single childhood memory that involves me in the kitchen.

I grew up in Bahrain, a tiny island in the Persian Gulf very close to Saudi Arabia. It’s so tiny that the letter “B” in “Bahrain” covers the entire country on most maps. My mother, Kamelia, was Egyptian. My father, Larry, was American. The food in our home was always inspired by my mom’s heritage. There were no cookies or muffins in our kitchen. I grew up devouring crème caramel, Turkish delight, and baklava.

The flavours of my childhood were a gorgeous, strange hybrid. In Bahrain, it was mangoes, fresh dates, jasmine, phyllo, pistachios, and salty ocean air. In Iowa, where my sister and I spent summers with our grandmother Esther, it was juicy sweet corn, pork and beans, homemade sun tea, and Lucky Charms.

My dad’s parents were dairy farmers near the Iowa–Minnesota border. After retiring from farming, they bought a small restaurant called the Corner Café in Lime Springs, Iowa. Growing up, I loved hearing my grandmother’s stories about the cafe, but I never imagined I would one day work in a kitchen myself.

I moved to McMinnville, Oregon, at age eighteen for college. I studied communications and maintained a complete lack of interest in the kitchen. I loved food but had zero curiosity about preparing it. By chance, during my second year at school, I found a job at Piontek’s Bakery and Cafe. in downtown McMinnville. The owners, Ken and Peggy Piontek, were a wonderful, quirky pair famous for massive cookies and the best baguettes in the area. They hired me to make coffee and serve customers at the front counter. I enjoyed the bustle of their busy kitchen and the constant flow of delicious baking that emerged from their huge oven. I tasted my first snickerdoodle cookie at Piontek’s—something I won’t ever forget.

I left McMinnville to begin an MFA program at the University of Oregon in Eugene. I was studying fine art photography, but life continued to gently nudge me into the kitchen. I got a part-time job working at Fenton & Lee, the sweetest little chocolate shop in Eugene’s leafy downtown. There, under the watchful eye of the owner, Janelle, I spent my shifts around a large table of women making and packaging chocolates. I loved how Janelle ran her crew and how friendly the work environment was. We rolled truffles, dipped caramels, and wrapped confections in colourful foils while listening to Louis Prima and chatting endlessly.

I enjoyed life in Eugene. I loved being surrounded by art and artists and being creative every day. But after seven years in Oregon, I missed the heat of the desert. It was time for me to return home to the Middle East.

When I was twenty-five, I moved to Dubai and started working at an advertising agency. It felt exciting to be living in such a vibrant, international community. I enjoyed all the luxuries that Dubai had to offer (so much amazing food!), but it was clear that working in an office was not my calling. I did art projects here and there—taking black-and-white photos on the weekends, snapping Polaroids everywhere I went—and became increasingly interested in writing. But I was restless and felt a deep call to spend more time being creative.

In 2000, my mother died suddenly, and I knew that it was time for me to leave Dubai. I ended up in Vancouver, BC, with my new partner, Nick, a scuba diving instructor whom I’d met in Dubai. As I grieved the loss of my mother, I explored our new city. I shopped at the fruit stands, made elaborate sandwiches loaded with cheeses and pesto from the Italian delis on Commercial Drive, wandered around the artist studios on Granville Island, and I began to cook—a lot.