Addrea Groff’s love language is food. In particular, preparing food for others to show their love.
“I have a lifelong love of food” She said. “I love seeing the joy it can bring to another person. And so I have always shared my love with people through food.”
That led to her starting Yummy Crumb Bakery, where she makes a variety of baked goods – from custom cakes to decorated sugar cookies to French macarons and everyone’s favorite chocolate browned butter cookies.
“These are the fan favourites” said Groff. “People just go crazy over them.”
Groff started baking for others and taking custom orders in 2011, but a few years ago she realized her kitchen just couldn’t keep up.
“I had been baking from home and outgrew my place”, She said. “And so my husband was really the one who convinced me to start a business because I just wasn’t that brave, but he really encouraged it.”
Groff and her husband Tom Groff bought a vacant building at 13 N. 11th St. in downtown Fort Dodge in 2019 and completely renovated the space to build two storefronts. These storefronts now house the Yummy Crumb Bakery and the Green Dragon Bookshop. The addresses are now 11 N. 11th St. and 9 N. 11th St. respectively.
“I love downtown because my grandparents owned an antique shop down here my entire childhood.” said Addrea Groff. “I love seeing something happening down here and bringing some light into our downtown area.”
The bakery’s storefront officially opened in April.
While Yummy Crumb isn’t open daily, Groff does host “pop up” Sales events on selected Saturdays. Customers line up for a chance to purchase the freshly baked goodies. You can also skip the line and pre-order on Groff’s website, www.yummycrumbakery.com.
“Last week I had maybe 1,000 and by 1pm it was all sold out.” She said. “People can pre-order online. I started this a few months ago. They can pre-order so they don’t have to just walk in and take their chances with what’s there.”
Groff has taken several courses at The Chopping Block, a culinary school in Chicago.
“I need to keep developing and honing my skills and now I’m just starting to play in the kitchen,” She said. “Maybe you start with a recipe, but you might end up somewhere else. There is a lot of experimenting going on.”
Her favorite product is the French Macarons, a tricky meringue and almond flour soft cookie sandwich known for a ruffled ring around the bottom of the cookie called The “Crown” or “Foot.”
“I love making macarons because there’s just this satisfaction of being able to make this thing that so many chefs around the world find really difficult to make.” She said. “And when I can do them and they have their perfect little feet and they’re okay, it just feels really good and gives me the greatest satisfaction.”
The next bakery pop-up sale will take place today from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. You can find a menu on the bakery’s website. The next pop-up will be on August 27 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.