There’s nothing like TikTok to turbocharge the marketing of a wee Calgary bakery. That’s what Crème Cream Puffs owner Carly Hamilton recently discovered when she posted a video of her little industrial-area shop, just off Macleod Trail.
Two weeks later, sales of her inspired cream puffs and macarons had increased 600 per cent, with 105,000 likes and counting. That’s what the kids call going viral or blowing up.
Of course, I had to hustle down to snag some celebrated cream puffs before they sold out for the day. Luckily, I was in time to grab a six-pack box featuring the following flavours: best-selling crème brulee, salted caramel, blackberry mascarpone and chocolate egg cream. I didn’t realize I could be a cream puff fan till that first blissful bite through burnt sugar and vanilla cream.
The macarons are damn good, too
Also as they say, Crème was an overnight success six years in the making. After writing a food blog in Hong Kong, Carly studied at London’s Le Cordon Bleu and worked in a Michelin-star restaurant before returning home to Calgary.
There, she played with cream puff recipes in her parent’s kitchen, testing her product on friends and relatives before graduating to online and restaurant sales. Eighteen months ago, she expanded to a commercial kitchen and walk-up retail sales.
Hitting the jackpot on TikTok is great but only if the underlying product justifies all the acclaim. So how does Carly and her burgeoning crew maintain the chef standards?
It starts with handmake choux dough, topped with crunchy, cookie-like cracquelin and filled with small-batch pasty creams, citrus curds and esoteric things like marshmallow fluff and carrot cake crumble.
A bustling kitchen just off Macleod Trail
Crème’s cream puff menu changes every month, all the better to prompt repeated visits. Just don’t arrive late in the afternoon, when the display cases may well be empty.
Creme Cream Puffs
Unit 2, 5524 1A Street SW, Calgary
Online orders and walk-in sales Wednesday to Friday 10 am-4 pm and Saturday 10 am-3 pm. Closed Sunday to Tuesday
587-429-5846
Marathon Mouth 