The Bed-Stuy Baker Making Botanical Cakes Inspired by Sierra Leone
The Deligram is an ode to the artisanal food makers in New York. In our last issue, we highlighted five Black-owned businesses that we love in honor of Black History Month. Adding to that list, we’re talking about Pelah Kitchen, a dessert-focused micro bakery run by Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn, resident and former economic development policy advisor to the mayor, Jenneh Kaikai.
The Product: Bespoke, spice-flavored cakes covered in organic flowers.
The Deli Pick: The brown butter blood orange cardamom cake with brown butter cream cheese buttercream frosting.
How To Buy: Email Jenneh@pelahkitchen.com, for the seasonal menu and to place your order.
Price: 6” cakes, which serve 10-12, start at $89; 8" cakes, which serve 20-22, start at $112; and larger tiered cakes for weddings and other special events are available upon request.
I have baked since high school, like a Duncan Hines box [with] that really gross frosting that's in the jar. I went to Michael’s and got some piping things, and would pipe the frosting that was already in the little container. It was fun; I got better and started baking more pastries. I started Pelah in October 2020. I was working at City Hall in the mayor's office, because my background is in urban planning and real estate. New York was, like, the epicenter of the pandemic. It was frickin’ stressful. I was kind of just questioning everything, and I definitely needed another outlet. Obviously at the time we were home, and I started cooking a lot and kind of got back into baking for fun.
Building Black Bed-Stuy was doing neighborhood vendor markets. I reached out and they were like, “Yeah, sure. What's your business name, your Instagram...” I just put all that stuff together on the fly. That first pop up sold out, and then I did a couple of other pop ups with them. It kind of happened really, really organically. Sincerely, Tommy reached out to me at the beginning of last year and they were like, “Hey, we're looking for a pastry chef. Do you do wholesale?” I knew nothing about wholesale and when I think about my prices now I’m like LMAO! I was doing pastries for them for three months, three times a week. I was still working full time, mind you. Because of that, I really couldn't handle the pastries, so I just focused on cakes.
My family's from Sierra Leone and, at least a lot of Africans that I know, we don't like sweets. One thing that was always fun to me was certain flavors, like more spice-forward flavors. My mom's favorite cake is carrot cake and I perfected carrot cake for a while. I love spiced cake, like cardamom. I love cinnamon, I love all those warming spices, nutmeg, all that good stuff. [The] aesthetic of the cakes was super accidental. I had a roommate who was working at Brooklyn Grange Farm at the time and she would hang out with the farmers and bring us all these flowers. They were wild flowers, no pesticides and all that. I just liked putting them on the cakes and seeing how they looked!
I have a big goal, a capital G goal of one day owning a café. It's a café concept, you know, whether it's a café-floral shop, café-guest house, café-interior design. I’m also interested in thinking about ways to expand and connect my business more towards the country that my family is from, Sierra Leone. “Pelah” means home in our language, so I was thinking about ways to connect what I'm doing with home. I've been talking to some folks and doing some research on what it takes to roast coffee beans that are from Sierra Leone and bring that into Pelah.
There's a lot that I want to do. I think my capacity is the biggest challenge right now. That and money, because if I had money I would just hire someone to do my website instead of fumbling a bit on Squarespace every night until I'm like, “Okay, I'll do it tomorrow.” It's been months and I have no website.
Greatest hit: The carrot cake.
How to enjoy cake (longer): I always say this to folks: Before you eat a cake, if it was in the fridge, let it sit at room temperature for at least half an hour. If you want to freeze the layers you can freeze the cake layers that are frosted. You can wrap it in plastic cling wrap and then wrap it in foil, because that helps with condensation stuff, any freezer burn stuff. And put it inside a Ziploc bag, an airtight bag, and you can keep it in there for two months at least.
Where to eat in NY: In Bed-Stuy, there's a Jamaican woman and her husband and they own a café called Doctor’s Cave and they have really good food. I really love Daughter in Crown Heights. In Manhattan, there's a Japanese bakery in TriBeCa called Takahachi. The matcha’s amazing, and they make this pound cake that’s so light and fluffy and they have these matcha crepes with this red bean paste.... I mean, it's just… go! I love it.