Bakery

The wacky bakers at Charm City Cakes recently whipped up a big confection made to look like a bright yellow newspaper box. It was for a party celebrating City Paper's Best of Baltimore issue, which, as it turned out, bestowed one of its Best Of awards on the bakery. But the honor felt more like a pie in the face. The bakery, featured on The Food Network's Ace of Cakes, took the paper's "Best Cakes" category in 2003. This year, it won "Best Form Over Function." "There's no denying that the carefully sculpted confections of Charm City Cakes are beautiful," the paper wrote.

Benjamin F. DeBaufre, who for more than 50 years happily supervised the production of Berger's cookies, a distinctive chocolate-covered cookie that through the years undoubtedly contributed to the waistlines of its devotees, died Sunday of a heart attack at his Parkville home. He was 68.Mr. DeBaufre (pronounced De-BAW-free) and his late brother, Charles DeBaufre Sr., began working as children in the old Dallas Street bakery owned by the Russell family, greasing pans and smearing chocolate on the famed cookies that are as much a part of the local scene as crab cakes, the Orioles or August afternoon humidity.

Harford County authorities were searching yesterday for a masked gunman who shot and fatally wounded a bakery worker in a grocery near the Pennsylvania line late Tuesday.Lynda Katherine Blair, 45, of the 200 block of St. Mary's Road in Pylesville, died yesterday afternoon at Maryland Shock Trauma Center, police said."Nothing was taken from the store. Right now it looks as if she may have been the target, but we don't know," said Lt. Edward Hopkins, spokesman for the Harford County Sheriff's Department.

IT IS ONE thing to bake a little bread. It is another to live the baker's lifestyle. To do this, you must love heat. You should like night work. And you should be a fanatic about the texture and temperature of your bread dough.I concluded this after spending a floury evening with Pascal Zeimet, a baker for the eight la Madeleine restaurants in the Baltimore-Washington area. Zeimet has baked bread for 20 of his 36 years. He grew up in Marville, a small town in Northeast France. After working as a baker's apprentice, he bought his own bakery when he was 21.Then, acting on a dare from his brother-in-law, Zeimet took a job in America.

A 5-year-old from Eldersburg may have put America's most enduring doll on a new career track.Katelyn T. Messina entered a contest, sponsored by Mattel Inc., the manufacturer of Barbie, that diminutive, shapely bit of plastic with sales in the billions. Contestants were asked "what do you want to be when you grow up?"If she follows Katelyn's lead, consumers could see Baker Barbie on the shelves.The doll, which epitomized girlhood for millions of children, turned 40 this year, and Mattel decided it was time to put Barbie on the fast track.

John Hergenroeder, founder of Woodlea Bakery in Baltimore and patriarch of a German-American family that has been baking cakes and confections in the city for more than a century, died of a heart attack Sunday in an apartment above his bakery. He was 90.Mr. Hergenroeder and his wife, Dorothy Sporrer Hergenroeder, raised 12 children amid the sweet smells of baking bread in their home above their business at 4906 Belair Road in Northeast Baltimore.The bakery is best known for its peach cake, made with fresh peaches cooked with their skins.

More than two months ago, Sara Lee Corp. called in the unions at its bakery in the northeast Iowa town of New Hampton and told them it would close the plant unless the unions came up with "something" to make it change its mind.The threat drew nationwide attention, mostly for the way Sara Lee handled it.New Hampton had raised the money to lure Sara Lee to town in 1971. Two years ago, the town and the state government came up with another $1 million package to persuade Sara Lee to stay. At the time, the company indicated that it would be around for at least five more years.

Philip John Hauswald, who worked in the family-owned Hauswald's Bakery in West Baltimore for 40 years, died Monday of complications from a stroke at Catonsville Commons Nursing Home. He was 73.Mr. Hauswald worked in the bakery, founded by his grandmother in the early 1900s, from 1949 until the business was sold in 1989."This was his life's work, and he loved it," said his son, Ron Hauswald of Severna Park. "He, like everyone else, was involved in all aspects of the business."During his full-time tenure at Hauswald's Bakery, Mr. Hauswald worked mostly in the financial end of the business.

Once again, the back room of the Catonsville Bakery & Delicatessen is alive with the sugary business of sweets. Sacks of flour line the walls, and nimble hands knead bowls of smooth dough until fruit-filled pinwheels and other pastries take shape.Fourteen months after an electrical fire devastated the 50-year-old western Edmondson Avenue landmark, the bakery will reopen tomorrow.The long road back -- marked by a bitter feud with insurance adjusters -- has taken a toll on the small bakery's owners.

Edwina D. Ruhl, 87, bakery supply officialEdwina D. Ruhl, who worked with her husband in the Baltimore bakery-supply business that was founded by his family in 1789, died Tuesday at her Roland Park home of heart failure complicated by a bone infection. She was 87.Born in 1910 in Denton, the former Edwina Downes graduated from Girls' Latin School. She earned a bachelor's degree from the College of Notre Dame of Maryland in 1931.In 1932, she married George R. Ruhl Jr., president of George R. Ruhl & Son Inc. In 1993, Fortune magazine listed the corporation as the ninth-oldest business in the country.

Kornel Korczynski, a retired East Baltimore baker, died of complications from dementia Sept. 8 at Carroll Hospital Center in Westminster. He was 88. Born in Baltimore, the son of Ukrainian immigrants, he was raised in Curtis Bay and Highlandtown. He was educated in city public schools and at St. Mary's Industrial School. During World War II, he served as a military policeman and baker in the Army. "When he was in the Army, the Germans taught him how to bake," said a brother, Emil Korczynski of Felton, Pa. After being discharged, he returned to Baltimore and opened the Dutch Oven Bakery on Mace Avenue in Essex.

Fans of Geof Manthorne - you lovelorn legions who thrill at the sight of the slim, slightly bedraggled hipster/cake decorator who's risen to unlikely cable fame on Ace of Cakes - you swooning masses must know something crucial. You swooning masses include the woman who jumped on Manthorne outside the Baltimore bakery where the show is set, snuggling up to him cougarishly for a photo. Also the three middle-aged women spotted giggling outside the bakery, bumping into each other as they tried to peek inside the mail slot.

Fisher's Bakery, 8143 Main St., Ellicott City, has changed its name to "Sweet. A bakery & cafe." The bakery will concentrate on custom wedding and other party cakes, catering, and a cafe and deli business for tourists, residents and workers in the historic district. The bakery will remain partially open during the first week of January, when some minor renovations are planned. The Web site, www.fishers bakery.com, will refer customers to a new site, www.sweet bakerycafe.com. 410-461-9275 The owner, Ellicott City resident Christopher J. Sikora, purchased the bakery from the Fisher family about two years ago. Norbel student gets award for collage Mai-Phuong Trinh, a student at Norbel School in Elkridge, was the recipient of the Maryland Art Education Association award for her paper collage.

A few plastic bags of sugar cookies remain on the otherwise bare shelves. A thumbed and stained recipe book rests beside cold ovens. Signs taped to the doors and windows say "Closed." It's been 12 days since 68-year-old Hamilton baker Dietrich A. Paul died of Lou Gehrig's disease and the doors were locked on his Edelweiss Bakery and Cafe. No more German accordion music, Thursday afternoon sour beef and dumplings sessions and those legendary apple fritters, a confection one food writer called "a misshapen bear claw of bliss."

Dinner rolls come in handy during the Thanksgiving feast. They are discreet pushers, polite ways to position that piece of turkey or that mound of sweet potatoes onto your folk. Moreover, with oven space at a premium on Thanksgiving, the cook is likely to appreciate a guest who arrives bearing an item that does not require time in the oven. Pretending to be a last-minute invitee to a Thanksgiving feast, I recently took to the streets of Baltimore looking for dinner rolls. I experienced standstill traffic, the frustration of getting lost and the joy of snagging the last bag of rolls on the bakery shelf.

The wacky bakers at Charm City Cakes recently whipped up a big confection made to look like a bright yellow newspaper box. It was for a party celebrating City Paper's Best of Baltimore issue, which, as it turned out, bestowed one of its Best Of awards on the bakery. But the honor felt more like a pie in the face. The bakery, featured on The Food Network's Ace of Cakes, took the paper's "Best Cakes" category in 2003. This year, it won "Best Form Over Function." "There's no denying that the carefully sculpted confections of Charm City Cakes are beautiful," the paper wrote.

Sunday morning in Patterson Park: Dr. Ralph Brown stands at the base of the park's picturesque pagoda and debriefs eight bicyclists before a "bakery tour" of Baltimore. "You have to eat sweets and you have to listen," Brown commands in a tone that has endeared the pediatrician to his patients and their parents for decades. His dissonant instructions spur laughter. The tour he designed is an exploration of Baltimore's immigration history, but "If I called it a `history of immigration to Baltimore' tour, nobody would have any interest," says Brown, ready to roll in an orange wind shell and brown shorts over black tights.

There we were, with an old friend who had come all the way from Canada, dining out and hoping to get caught up on all the news. We found ourselves in one of those franchise restaurants - his choice - where attempting a conversation is sort of like trying to hit a major-league fastball with a baguette. I looked around amid a boundless sea of chaos and noise; it was hopeless. These days, restaurants almost scream at the patrons. How this came about I do not pretend to know, but it seems to me that many of them are designed to assault the senses.

Hoehn's Bakery Woodlea Bakery 4905 Belair Road, Baltimore -- 410-488-7717 Hours --6 a.m.-7 p.m. Tuesdays-Saturdays, 6 a.m.-4 p.m. Sundays In and out in --1 minute Here, the peaches were not so hot. Some of the fruit slices looked like they were past their prime, and others were grainy. The piece of cake, $4.75, was 8 inches long and 5 inches wide. Know of a good carryout place? Let us hear about it. Write to sam.sessa@baltsun.com.

THE T-SHIRT BAKERY 1706 Fleet St., Fells Point / 410-276-7171 / Open 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Monday-Thursday, 11 a.m.-10 p.m. Friday and Saturday, noon-5 p.m. Sunday ........................ The T-Shirt Bakery has just opened in Fells Point, and it is so cute. The slogan is "We make fresh shirts daily." Ardie Braxton, who says he's a distant relation of Toni Braxton, and his wife Sandy make one-of-a-kind custom T-shirts out of pima cotton and unusual fabrics like bamboo, soy and hemp. "Come in with a concept or no idea," says Ardie.