Yum Bunnies Cakery is back and better than ever; on their long journey to Waltham

If you only knew Yum Bunnies from its popular Instagram page, you’d know that founder and cake decorator Jessa Sahakian is nothing short of an artist. You would know her mother is known as “Dukes,” and that their new space on Main Street in Waltham opened in February and is painted entirely pastel pink. Even the appliances share the same bright, Easter-egg-esque hue.

However, you wouldn’t know that their previous location in Belmont was sold out from under them after 16 years leaving the pair at a crossroads. The path they chose — to relocate to Waltham — was a great relief to their legion of intensely loyal customers. But it was not an easy journey. 

“We had eight months of just every day sucked, because all I wanted was to be doing this,” Jessa said as her mother attended to customers. “It was so sad. We had people telling us, ‘You’ve made my kid’s birthday cake every year since he was born, and now he’s graduating high school.’ It was a really hard time.”

As much as she wanted to make those cakes, she couldn’t, as much of Jessa’s equipment was either stored or under water. “Our old place, they gave us 60 days to get out. Then, we finally found this place, and it was just an office building, so we had to install all the plumbing and stuff.” Then a substantial basement flood destroyed the months of painstaking progress the duo had made.

“Our followers, they’re so supportive. When the flood happened, I just stopped posting. It was supposed to be an exciting time, and I didn’t want to make it a sad thing,” Jessa said.

Up until that point, Jessa had managed to keep it positive on Instagram, staying consistent with her lighthearted memes and inside jokes. After the flood, though, not even humor could lighten the darkness of their uncertainty. 

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The first thing you’ll notice about Jessa and Dukes when you meet them in real life is how funny they are. The two are constantly cracking each other up, even as they do all the menial tasks that come with running a restaurant. 

Native to Watertown, Dukes was an educator and director of community education for the town’s public school system for decades — what her daughter calls “a real job.” Now she’s dedicating her retirement to keeping the books and helping her daughter with the legwork of the business. During our interview she broke down boxes in the corner while Jessa stirred a large bowl of chocolate batter.

Educated in culinary arts at Johnson & Wales University, Jessa always loved sugar. But she was picky. “To get me to eat something, my mom would call it Yum Bunnies. Anything that was tasty, we called Yum Bunnies.” Thus, the name of their shop was born. “We couldn’t be like everyone else. What was I gonna call it? Cakes by Jessa?” she jokes. 

After several years training at Icing on the Cake in Newton, Jessa knew it was time to go off on her own. She started the first iteration of Yum Bunnies in Belmont. For 16 years she developed close relationships with clients who came to her for every celebration. She can rattle off their names and personal details with ease, which only made it harder when she couldn’t serve them for so long.

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As long as Yum Bunnies was away, Jessa’s customers never let up begging for her to return to the cake business. “People waited and waited and kept saying, ‘You’re the only cake we want. You’re our favorite cake. My birthday wasn’t the same without you.'” 

It was their support that pushed Jessa and Dukes down the road to Waltham, as hard as moving was. 

“We were saying, ‘Should we just give up?’” Jessa said. “We could’ve sold all our equipment, had no debt, and I could’ve gone to work at Market Basket. But we said, ‘You know, we should press on.’”

In the eight months since finally opening their new store at 977 Main St., Jessa and Dukes have been rewarded for their efforts. Much of their clientele followed them to Waltham, and they couldn’t be more grateful. “One woman messaged me and said, ‘If you build it, we will come.’ And her daughter was one of the first people in line.”

Despite the challenges, Jessa and Dukes, alongside additional baker and best friend Gemma, find it hard to stay down.

“Cake is a happy business, right? You don’t really have any bad occasions that you’re making cake for, so it’s just celebrating with people and the fact that they choose you to make the thing for their special occasion,” Jessa said.

The bright pink walls are also helpful.