EATS

By Kimberly Redmond

For Erika Oldham, life keeps getting sweeter. After more than a decade in business, the Teaneck native’s boutique bakery and café, Chic Sugars, expanded to add a second location in Bergen County at Westfield Garden State Plaza.

The new spot at one of the busiest malls in New Jersey, if not the entire country, follows a period of tremendous growth for the Englewood-based bakery, from a “one-woman show” run by a self-taught pastry chef to a full-fledged operation with a team of nearly two dozen employees.

Located in Center Court on Level 2 between Macy’s and Neiman Marcus, the kiosk offers awe-inspiring treats, such as muffins, pop tarts, cupcakes, cake jars, cookies, macarons and boutique coffee drinks.

Originally, the plan was to install a vending machine to dispense Chic Sugars’ popular cake jars but the bakery wound up leasing a kiosk in what Oldham described as “prime space” in the mall.

“We’re not going to come into Garden State Plaza half stepping,” she laughed. “So far, there’s been great reach and exposure here.”

“When I looked for a second Bergen County location, I choose Garden State Plaza for its amazing retail and entertainment offerings,” she said. “The mall has something for everyone and now guests and staff at Garden State Plaza can find fantastic coffee, cold drinks and the sweetest treats all in one place.”

Oldham never imagined she’d be the founder and “chief caketress” of one of the most popular bakeries in North Jersey. That’s not bad for someone who began baking “by accident” 13 years ago, when she tried — and failed — to make a cake for her oldest daughter’s first birthday. Nonetheless, she continued trying to learn, by watching YouTube tutorials and stayed focused on mastering the perfect cake.

“I’m like a dog with a bone,” she said. “When I decide I am going to do something, I work and work at it.” At the time, Oldham worked as an office manager at a hedge fund in New York City, but the single mother knew she needed to earn more to support her family. After launching Chic Sugars, Oldham continued her day job and spent each night dedicated to her “side hustle,” regularly staying up until 2 a.m. baking cakes for customers.

By 2014, she felt confident enough to quit her position at the hedge fund, so she could focus entirely on Chic Sugars. Oldham was about to lease a bakery in Manhattan, but two weeks before the deal finalized, she fell in love with an empty space in Fort Lee that she just happened to drive by.

Over the next few years, Oldham threw herself into perfecting Chic Sugars’ custom cakes and expanded her offerings to include a wide selection of cupcakes, brownies, cake jars and other delectable treats.

Oldham’s decadent and tasty creations have also gained a celebrity clientele that includes Jay-Z, Missy Elliott and Nicki Minaji, as well as earned her an appearance on Food Network’s “Winner Cakes All” in 2019.

Then, the COVID-19 pandemic hit.

With much of New Jersey on pause, that meant large scale celebrations, like weddings, baby showers and corporate events, weren’t happening. So, like most small businesses, Chic Sugars tweaked its business model in response to the changing needs of customers and pivoted to make smaller “quarantine-size cakes.”

Billed as a “scaled-back version of our edible works of art,” the tinier cakes gave people a way to still mark milestones during a rather bleak time. Chic Sugars also provided both curbside pick-up and delivery for customers.

“Quarantine cakes solved multiple problems. It helped people celebrate from afar,” Oldham explained. “We could drop cakes off when people were doing ‘drive by’ birthday parties, for example.”

“It also introduced people to a lower price point. Before COVID, you couldn’t get a cake under $300. Quarantine cakes were a whole new line of cakes at a whole new price point,” Oldham said.

Coupled with a revamped website that enabled customers to submit customized orders and have them shipped nationwide, Chic Sugars did not see a slowdown in business over the past two years.

Following growth in orders, Oldham was able to bring on a team of bakers and decorators for the first-time ever and help take Chic Sugars to the next level.

“Being in Bergen, the personnel I ended up with are Jersey based and I wouldn’t have found these set of ladies if I was in New York City,” Oldham said. “Everything happened the way it was supposed to happen.”

As normalcy starts to return, Oldham and her team are excited for what’s ahead.

In May 2021, the bakery relocated from Fort Lee to a bigger space on South Dean Street in Englewood.

“Things are picking back up,” Oldham said. “We’re starting to do 120-person weddings again, graduation cakes and baptism cakes. Our consultation numbers are getting bigger and bigger.”

Despite the successes during the pandemic, Oldham said she feels “a little guilty” over “having lucked up, ballooned and blossomed in that time frame” because “COVID ravaged lives and businesses.”

It’s made her even more appreciative of Chic Sugar, a venture she loves and spent years struggling to figure out how best to grow. She also remains humbled by her experiences, crediting it to some luck, a touch of fate and a whole lot of determination.

“For a long time, it was very much a chicken or the egg situation of where to spend money – marketing or payroll,” she said.

And while Oldham is very much considered a successful entrepreneur, she admits there are times she doubts “I’m not classically trained. I’ve taken some business classes when I went to Babson, but I didn’t go to Wharton or get a business degree,” Oldham said.

If Oldham wasn’t in the bakery business, the wife and mother of two daughters and one stepson believes she would likely be involved in some type of advocacy work or “somehow be in some political sphere.”

After finishing her undergraduate degree at Charleston State University, Oldham decided to become a social worker to champion for social justice and improve lives of the underprivileged. She went on to follow in her mother’s footsteps to attend New York Law School, with the goal of becoming an advocate for the disadvantaged.

But, she found that the law school experience didn’t satisfy her and wanted to follow her entrepreneurial-

“While we are a bakery, we try to do our part with social change. We are a minority owned, woman owned, mostly run by women, business,” she said.

And though she believes the odds may be against women and minorities in the business world, hopefully Chic Sugars can be an inspiration. In the past, Oldham has served as mentor for budding entrepreneurs and wouldn’t rule out teaching a business course at a local college one day.

In the meantime, Oldham is doing what she can to give back to others.

In addition to working with a charitable organization that provides customized birthday cakes for children in homeless shelters, Chic Sugars participates in reading clubs and fundraising initiatives with local libraries, schools and nature centers.

“There are many community and social issues I feel like truly matter,” said Oldham, who has a portrait of the late U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg hanging up in her Englewood bakery.

“I want to contribute to various organizations to help move the needle,” she said. “As a mom of two girls, I want to make sure we are in a positive to make decisions about our bodies and our own businesses.”

summer 2022 Publishers Sharon & Steven GoldStein

Associate Publisher Brandon GoldStein Editorial Director JeSSica humphrey-cintineo Art Director BmG marketinG

Contributing Writers Sarah elSpeth marilyn katzman merilee kern, mBa meGan montemarano richelle payne Stacie roSe audrey zona St. JoSeph’S health

BC Health, Beauty & Fitness is published by BC The Mag. Find us at www.BCtheMag.com

Bergen County The Magazine is published six times a year. Mail all editorial and advertising materials to 297-101 Kinderkamack Road, Suite 135, Oradell, NJ 07649 or email materials to steven@bcthemag.com. For advertising and information, please call (201) 694-5197 or (201) 694-5196. For subscription information or to contact us, go to www.bcthemag.com. Copyright 2022. All materials are the property of Bergen County The Magazine, LLC. and may not be copied or reproduced without written consent from the publishers.

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