My Biz: Mother-daughter bakery in Marion is about teamwork

When Cindy Kettelkamp goes shopping for the week's baking supplies, one cart simply won't do.

“I buy 250 pounds of flour, 69 powdered sugars, 49 brown sugars and 5 to 6 gallons of canola oil,” she explained. “I buy butter whenever it is on sale.”

She recently placed an order for 10 cases with a local grocery store because it was on sale for $1.77 a pound.

Kettelkamp and her daughter Emily Hamilton began selling their pastries in 1996 at the Marion Farmers Market and opened their storefront for Kettel House Bakery and Cafe in 2012.

“We started out as vegetable vendors at first,” Kettelkamp recalled. “But it is a long time waiting for vegetables, so Emily (who was 9 at the time) began practicing her baking in preparation for State Fair and 4-H projects. And over time she became very good at it.

“She is just absolutely excellent.”

After graduating from college, Emily returned to Marion and told her mother they should open a bakery. She found the 1937 house they currently occupy while her mother was on vacation.

Emily, a University of Northern Iowa graduate with a degree in art and studio drawing, incorporates those talents into the design and decorating of cakes and cupcakes. She recently did a coffin birthday cake for a client who was celebrating a later-in-life birthday.

“The coffin had a wood grain pattern and everything,” she grinned.

The bakery supplies to corporate accounts each week in addition to filling the counters in the store.

“Emily ... runs all of her kitchen staff,” Kettelkamp said. “I still bake some, but I've moved more into managing the business end and doing the ordering and delivering,”

Kettelkamp previously had worked in other bakery retail stores in the area, in addition to helping with the family's dairy farm - all while raising 12 children.

“Five are biological and seven are long-term foster children or adopted,” she said.

“We have 4 full-time bakers, plus a host of part-timers,” explained Kettelkamp. “Both Emily and I bake and then we have an evening baker and an overnight baker who comes in around 8 o'clock and bakes all night until she gets her items done for the morning.”

“My grandmother makes our Tuesday deliveries,” Hamilton added.

Cinnamon and pecan rolls, kolaches, cupcakes, biscotti and scones - and on weekends blackberry as well as orange rolls emerge from their ovens. The products are also for sale around the city in Fareway Stores, New Bo Market, Brothers Market in Lisbon and Brewed Café downtown in New Bo.

Soups, sandwiches and salads are also on the menu.

“Emily and I enjoy working together. It's so cool to work with your daughter and build something like this,” Kettelkamp added. “If I wasn't doing this with Emily, I wouldn't be doing it."

Emily shares the sentiment.

“If she wasn't a part of this, I couldn't do it," Hamilton said. "She's been my mentor because she has been in business a long time.”

• Name: Cindy Kettelkamp and Emily Hamilton
• Title: Owners
• Company: Kettel House Bakery and Cafe
• Address: 945 Sixth Avenue, Marion
• Phone: (319) 310-5509
• Online: www.thekettelhouse.com

Know a manager or company in business for more than a year that we should consider for “My Biz”? Contact business editor Michael Chevy Castranova at michael.castranova@sourcemedia.net.