Saint Street Cakes

New Brooklyn Bakery Saint Street Cakes Opens in Fort Greene | Eater NY

"Opened in Fort Greene at 86 South Portland Avenue (near Lafayette Avenue) on Wednesday, June 25, this bakery evolved from an Instagram cake business Knight started in 2021 after pivoting from political science and law—she studied those fields in college, interned at the U.S. attorney’s office during the pandemic, worked as a paralegal, and ultimately decided to go all-in on cakes in October 2023. Reflecting on her early inspirations, she says, "I loved seeing something drawn as a cartoon and being like, 'That is what I want to make.'" The menu is simple, offering cake slices and other baked goods; Knight’s cakes, as she describes them, "lean on the moister and denser side" and are "not too sweet" while still laden with house-made buttercream. Slices include almond cakes with pistachio-lemon buttercream; carrot cake with cream cheese frosting; and double-chocolate cake with berries and chocolate buttercream. There are also miniature cakes and, yes, "cake martinis— trifle-esque layers of cake and frosting in a large stemmed cocktail glass." She sells a mix of premade cakes as well as custom orders. Stylistically her work favors a more classic, old-school, wedding cake piping style—distinct from a wave of goopier, wackier cakes that dominate online—and Instagram cake makers are now so en vogue there's even a whole magazine devoted to them. The shop also offers other baked goods like salted chocolate chip cookies, lemonade-lavender loaves, and miso peanut butter cookies, and as she puts it, "American dessert classics but with some fun mixtures in there." Knight is particularly proud of the vegan and gluten-free offerings—like the Girlfriend brownie (named as a play on its lack of gluten)—and emphasizes technique and ingredient-forward baking: "Letting chocolate exist and be the main star of the show is something that I just really love," she says. "A good quality chocolate just tastes so good, and it’s a really interesting thing to try to build upon it. Gluten-free desserts thrive when they’re entirely flourless [...] things that are amazing not despite the fact that they’re gluten-free, but because they just happen to be." The space includes a view of the cake decorating station, a pastry case with a counter, and a small sunroom with a few dine-in tables; drinks include coffee, teas, and refrigerated beverages, and Knight plans to add weekend tea parties. Her business grew to the point of baking for brands like Tory Burch and being commissioned to make the cakes that pop star Olivia Rodrigo smashed on Saturday Night Live, as well as an album celebration cake for Suki Waterhouse. Wanting broader access and more community, she notes, "It’s been hard to grapple with the [fact] that the only way that someone could try anything I made was if they had like upwards of $100 to spend on a cake," and she cites "the community aspect of it and food bringing people together" as a driving reason for opening a storefront. She describes the overall vibe as "a cool artsy grandma with a lot of stories," combining "the welcoming nature of what cake is, then mixed with really classic flavors and a really funky exterior. It’s just making cakes that taste as good as they look." - Nadia Chaudhury