A cake baked in Red Hook

Born and raised in Red Hook, Luquana McGriff makes some of New York City’s most beautiful cakes, cupcakes, and cookies.

In 2016, McGriff started her own one-woman dessert-catering company, A Cake Baked in Brooklyn. At the time, she was a 911 dispatcher for the New York City Police Department. She’d held the job since 2001, but a childhood passion for baking, instilled by her great-grandmother, had stuck with her.

From her home kitchen in the Red Hook Houses, McGriff made cakes and cupcakes for her coworkers’ birthdays and retirement parties, earning renown in the NYPD. “People would say, ‘Who made this cookie? Luquana McGriff? What are you doing here, girl? You’re missing your calling!’” she remembered.

Renting a commercial kitchen in a coworking space in Bedford-Stuyvesant, McGriff started her small business as a part-time endeavor while still working full-time. Before that, she’d found time in her schedule to learn the ins and outs of running a company – from bookkeeping to marketing – by studying at the public library and taking NYC Business Solutions classes offered by the New York City Department of Small Business Services, as well as NYCHA’s eight-week Food Business Pathways Program.

Her culinary skills are self-taught. Transitioning to professional baking, McGriff had to learn how to use icing tips and pastry bags and how to create more elaborate designs. She was a natural. But even as enthusiastic word-of-mouth led her to more and more clients, she doubted whether, with two daughters to support, it would be wise to leave behind a stable income at the NYPD.

“You’re half out the door and half in. You don’t know when to make the jump,” she described. “I love helping people, and I was doing that at the police department, but I felt like there was no growth anymore. Was I going to sit there for the rest of my life and answer emergency calls? I just really wanted to pursue my dream of having my own business, and I feel like I’m still helping people in the cake world. Food is a comfort for people, and desserts make people happy.”

In early 2018, McGriff took the leap and quit her job. Subsequently she catered events for Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Salesforce, and Kate Spade and earned the attention of WNBC and NY1. But she faced a new challenge when the small-business incubator in Bed-Stuy whose space she’d rented shut down, and she couldn’t find another affordable kitchen in Brooklyn.

As a result, for now, A Cake Baked in Brooklyn, ironically, bakes its cakes in East Harlem, an hourlong drive from McGriff’s apartment. On the bright side, she’s had the opportunity to meet lots of other chefs at her new coworking space in Manhattan, and she’s also been attending a business workshop at Columbia University.

In the future, she hopes to expand her menu of offerings to include brunch items like croissants – right now, morning events can be awkward, since not everyone wants to eat a cupcake at 9 a.m. Most of all, however, McGriff wants a brick-and-mortar bakery where she can showcase her creations for the public.

“I love Red Hook, and I think Red Hook is the dopest, but I don’t know if I can afford anything in Red Hook,” she said. Once, when she inquired about a retail space on Van Brunt Street, the landlord told her that the rent was $10,000 a month.

Even though her company primarily caters corporate events, McGriff would like A Cake Baked in Brooklyn to maintain an involvement in the community and in the lives of ordinary people – for instance, she often donates to Icing Smiles, a charity that provides birthday cakes to the families of critically ill children. She believes that a storefront would facilitate connections between her business and the public.

In the meantime, however, she plans to use the event space RE:GEN:CY on Commerce Street to hold cookie-decorating workshops. She believes that the classes will provide a refuge in a fast-paced city. “People can sit down, put their phones down, and really be social and creative. The takeaway will be even better than the cookie or cupcake: they’re going to meet people, they’re going to learn a skill. It’ll be fun and not stressful.”

McGriff has big plans, but she’s struck by how far she’s come already. “When you think about doing a business, you get discouraged to know you have to do all of these things. Looking at it head-on, you’re like, ‘I can’t get over the obstacle; I can’t do this.’ When I look back at it, I’m shocked myself to see how many things I accomplished.”

Brett Yates