Now you can have your cake — and eat it too — thanks to Tricia Fages.
The 26-year-old teacher-turned-baker, who lives in Point Loma, has made a successful transition from previously running a Riverside County wedding cake and dessert company to creating The Good Scone Baking Co. specializing in gluten-free, vegan-friendly baking mixes and products throughout San Diego.
A scone is a single-serving quick bread, usually made of wheat, barley or oatmeal with baking powder as a leavening agent and baked on sheet pans. A scone is often lightly sweetened and occasionally glazed.
Fages talked about her business’s transformation.
“I was living in Temecula and went to school to become a teacher and I got started in the pastry world with a job on the side making wedding cakes and specialty desserts on weekends, and I would bring my cakes in to my students and they loved them,” she said. “I fell in love with the business side of cakes and pastries, and my husband and I took a leap of faith and I took a leave of absence from teaching to start a wedding cake and speciality dessert business called Cupcake Crush.”
Fages noted her new business became even more specialized after she noticed the preponderance of food allergies that existed amongst the general population, everything from gluten – and soy – to dairy allergeries.
So the Fages began addressing their customers’ needs via changing up the ingredients they used in their recipes. Tricia said the challenge soon became how to make hypoallergenic recipes that tasted good.
“Products on the market that were gluten- and allergy-free did not taste good to me and/or the texture, which is very important in food, was not there, ” she said. “We needed to create some new recipies that really tasted good, and were also affordable. That’s when I came up with The Good Scone.”
The Good Scone offers gluten-free vanilla and chocolate cake mixes along with a gluten-free, all-purpose flour. Recipes include items like vegan-friendly raspberry scones as well as biscuits, breads, cakes, waffles, cookies and bars, cupcakes, crepes and pancakes, desserts, muffins, pies, pizzas, frostings and other savory dishes.
Fages said she knew she was on the right track when she won a couple of baking contests in Temecula. “We won first place the first year, and second place the next,” she said adding that’s just about the time Cupcake Crush began to morph into The Good Scone.
“We do not have a storefront,” noted Fages adding, “We have a certified-organic, gluten- and dairy-free manufacturer in Vista.”
The vegan baker noted they came up with the recipes and packaging for the recipes which are then sold to retailers and, more recently, are also available online on Amazon, just in time for the holidays.
“The beauty of it is you can go online to our website, www.goodscone.com, and order,” Fages said pointing out The Good Scone’s products are also “versatile.”
“You can use Grandma Rosie’s favorite cookie recipe, and substitute our flour to now make it gluten-free,” she said.
Fages noted the food industry is “really taking off with gluten-, dairy- and soy-free vegan food,” adding “we have mastered the art of making healthy food products.”
The Good Scone’s products are also sold countywide at select grocery outlets as well as over its website and the Amazon website.
“We’re hoping to sign up for Amazon Prime,” said Fages of future plans. “We would really like to expand to more cake mixes.”
But for now, Fages said The Good Scone is content to “just get good doing gluten- and allergy-free products and recipes letting customers know they don’t have to compromise taste” to eat healthier.
For more information, call 951-526-6832 or email [email protected].