Buttercream Bakeshop Opens in Shaw Today

When pastry chef Tiffany MacIsaac started to work on the menu for Buttercream Bakeshop, she worried whether she would have enough to fill the showcase.

Then she started bringing stuff over. “I was like, ‘Oh shit, breakfast is enough to fill the showcase.”

Indeed, expect no shortage of treats from MacIsaac and her partner Alexandra Mudry-Till. Breakfast pastries will dominate the morning, along with Compass coffee, and then more dessert-type treats will start to come out around 11 a.m. In lieu of breakfast sandwiches, there are breakfast buns filled with eggs, cheese, and sausage plus savory scones. MacIsaac has also developed a mint mocha iced coffee inspired by the stuff dispensed at cult convenience store Wawa. There are also chai drinks and a Thai iced coffee with cold-brew, condensed milk, and cardamom.

Since her days as pastry chef for Neighborhood Restaurant Group, MacIsaac has been a master of refining junk foods into beautiful desserts. At Buttercream Bakeshop, she’ll have her versions of Ho Hos and Mallomars. And then there’s a long list of other goodies: chocolate-covered Oreos, brownies, cookies, hand pies, cheesecakes, shortbreads, tarts, and more. Some recipes, like brownies or oatmeal cream pies, are carryovers from Birch & Barley or Buzz Bakery.

“I’m not going to let something die just because I got a new job,” she says.

But there’s also a lot of new stuff, like kouign-amann, a crusty cake with layers of butter, sugar, and honey in the dough. MacIsaac calls it the “Queen B” since no one seems to be able to pronounce its real name. Another highlight: “flakies,” which are like croissants but round like a cinnamon roll and a little crispier on the edges. Some of them are plain and rolled in sugar, while others have passionfruit curd filling.

As for the ubiquitous cupcake, MacIsaac takes no hard stance. “I don’t personally love cupcakes, but a lot of people do, so I’ll probably have one cupcake a day,” she says. “I’m not going to alienate a whole sector of people that are obsessed with cupcakes.”

Wedding and other celebration cakes have already become a big part of the business, as MacIsaac and Mudry-Till focused on catering orders in the lead up to the shop’s opening. MacIsaac expects the custom cakes to make up at least 25 percent of her business going forward. Buttercream Bakeshop has an online store where people can click and buy cakes, cookies, and breakfast goods.

But for those who don’t want to splurge on a whole cake, slices will be available in a few different flavors each day, including a Snickers-inspired one with layers of devil’s food, peanut butter, and caramel that’s glazed in chocolate.

“I would do an entire bakery of just chocolate and peanut butter if that wasn’t too weird,” MacIsaac says.

Buttercream Bakeshop will open at 7 a.m. weekdays, 8 a.m. Saturdays, and 9 a.m. Sundays. It closes at 7 p.m. on weekdays and earlier on weekends, but MacIsaac is looking to possibly extend the hours later if diners in the neighborhood are interested in swinging by for dessert after dinner.