The chef behind a Durham, N.C., bakery turned a nasty request into a work of art. We talked with the founder of Sweet Bumpas about his gorgeous creations that celebrate the rainbow-powered Love is Love ethos.
Sweet Bumpas bakery in Durham, N.C., specializes in celebrations cakes. This beautiful work of art … [+]
Our cakes don’t hate
Matt Bumpas runs a pretty chill, home-based business but his blood boiled recently after hearing a hateful voicemail asking him to make an “anti-transgender cake with lots of MAGA imagery.”
Instead of turning the table and pouring gas on that dumpster fire, Bumpas politely responded with a text asking the caller to check the Sweet Bumpas Instagram feed and let him know if there was anything there that would work for him. He even ended the text to the crass caller with a congenial “have a nice weekend.”
Yet the hurtful sentiment lingered and when Bumpas got a request for a transiversary cake, he and his head baker/cake decorator Nichole Anderson decided to put their whole hearts into the project. Voila, this layered beauty was boxed up for a happy celebration. But not before a photo was snapped and posted on Insta with the backstory.
The response was overwhelmingly positive. “It was incredible,” Bumpas said in a recent phone interview.
It’s not the first time the baker has turned hate into something sweet.
Matt Bumpus created a protest cake as a statement against the North Carolina Republican party … [+]
Please say gay
When Republicans in the North Carolina state legislature introduced a “Don’t Say Gay” bill in June, Bumpas responded with a sweet retort.
“We don’t usually write on our cakes, but we decided to make an exception,” he explained.
The response to the Please Say Gay cake offering was heartfelt, as orders poured in from as far away as Sacramento, Calif., and St. Louis. With a portion of the sales donated to the Durham LGBTQ Center, more than $1,200 was raised from the get-go.
“While the voices of a bigoted minority are being given too much air time these days, I have faith that folks like you, me and my right hand woman, Nichole will prevail with our message that everyone in our country is deserving of happiness, peace and respect,” Matt wrote on the Instagram post introducing that cake’s positive intentions.
The long and winding road
Following a career path has been an interesting journey for Bumpas who grew up in a conservative Southern community, later moving to Seattle to work as a school psychologist. “Then I decided to go to law school, but when I should have been spending time studying for exams, I was looking at the Seattle Culinary Academy’s website. I kept thinking this is really what I want to do, so I went for it.”
He didn’t focus on pastries, but eventually found his true calling in the kitchen at Poppy, chef Jerry Traunfeld’s groundbreaking effort to introduce diners to the pleasure of Thali-style dining with a Northwest twist.
He pushed the boundaries of what the final course meant, often dipping into savory territory in assembling the four or five bite-sized treats for the dessert Thali. One of his first efforts was a ginger chocolate spice profiterole filled with pumpkin curry leaf ice cream. “My biggest complaint about dessert is that they’re often just one-note, sweet,” he said.
After launching the Sweet Bumpas ice cream company, he got a reality check. Most people are all about vanilla, not adventurous flavors. Adjustments were made and there was some success, but eventually he shuttered the venture. He wanted to move back to North Carolina in 2019 to be closer to family.
The Durham, N.C., based Sweet Bumpus bakery is laser-focused on feel-good celebration cakes.
A happy accident
When he returned, Bumpas considered returning to work as a psychologist or opening an ice cream shop, but then he cooked up a business plan to launch a custom cooking class business where he’d come to homes and give lessons.
That mission was cratered by the arrival of the pandemic.
When he floated the idea of a cake business on his Instagram feed, the results were encouraging and Sweet Bumpas got a reboot in the spring of 2020.
“It happened accidentally,” he said.
Sweet!
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