Kati Olexiewicz and Ashley Berens the Co-Creators and Co-Owners of KNEADY Bakery are back at SDCC with their amazing baked treats. The popular 2018 Comic Convention Care Package is back with Robert Brownie Jrs., Game of Scones, Rice Krispin Glovers (The Snack to the Future), and Lord VoldeS’Mores … just to name a few.
To make things easy the packages can be picked up on Saturday at SDCC, we highly recommend these sweet treats over anything you’ll find inside the con. Not only are the treats appropriately named for SDCC but are absolutely delicious…. let’s catch up with KNEADY Bakery…
Which came first for you baking or the geeky stuff? And when did you make the decision to marry the two?
Definitely the geeky stuff. We only got into baking recently, and just happened to be good at it. Our mutual love -nay- obsession for pop-culture is what brought us two (Kati and Ashley) together in the first place in high school. We always wanted to start a business together though, so when we both started baking and wanting to start a business, it seemed like a great idea. We didn’t have the geeky stuff incorporated for the first year though, and it got boring fast. So that’s when we decided to re-name everything with puns and that’s when KNEADY really blossomed into what it is today.
How do you come up with the names for everything? like Game of Scones or Salted CaraMel Reynolds Bars…. is there alcohol involved in the creative process?
Not as much alcohol as you would think, actually! Maybe a more herbal refreshment perhaps? But as fellow geeks would know, a perfect pop-culture reference and pun made with your best friend gives the best buzz of them all. It started with a text – Robert Brownie Jrs and Rice Krispin Glovers The Snack to the Future – then it all snowballed from there.
What’s new in this years SDCC 2018 Care Package?
We are very excited to unveil a brand new Anime themed treat, that we will be debuting at this year’s Anime Expo where we will be attending as fellow nerds only. We can’t wait to tell everyone what it is! Along with the new treat, we have made 2 different menus for this year’s boxes so that people who order 2 or more boxes will get mostly different assortments!
Were there any products that didn’t make into the care package this year? What were they?
It’s hard to make a well-balanced assortment box. We need to make sure that our nerdiest and best puns make it into the care package, but we need to make sure we don’t exclude our best treats even if they may not be represented at the con. Game of Scones for example are a popular and DELICIOUS item, but Game of Thrones won’t have a panel at the con this year. I still might not have the heart to exclude them completely, so maybe people will get to try them when they come pick up their box or something 😉 Also, it was hard to put in our SuPIEnaturals into boxes as we have to make full pies, and we want them to be easily eaten and shared, so we might find another way to incorporate Supernatural into the boxes even if that means no pie. We will just have to see!
You are sort of the rebellious bakery, do you love having that label? Was that the plan all along?
That was NOT the plan all along. We started out with an extensive menu, including cakes and cupcakes, saying “yes” to every client, over-exerting ourselves, losing motivation and morale, and therefore losing taste and quality in our product. After that fateful text message of the puns, we stayed up all night re-doing our entire website and logo and promotional materials and we became a lot more US. We may have scared away a lot of wedding clientele, but we gained a lot of COOLER clientele. By saying no to people who wanted cakes and cupcakes, we became a bakery that was sought after because we bragged about putting taste first and we got to choose our clientele more carefully. We started theming desserts for wrap parties, award shows, comic book launch parties, convention pre-parties, and just all-around nerdy events. We found that instead of feeling rebellious, we actually feel more connected to a community who is more like US and who appreciates us more. Our clients are just as unique and rebellious as we are and we LOVE IT.
Kneady Bakery comes up with the most inventive and fun names and delicious baked goods, any plans for a store?
THANK YOU SO MUCH! We actually do have plans for a store very soon. We don’t know exactly where or when yet, but most likely in our hometown in the Conejo Valley, and if that works out, we will definitely open one in LA.
What do you recommend visitors to San Diego definitely check out?
San Diego itself is so beautiful that everywhere near the con will be a beautiful view. We love Coronado Island and The Tipsy Crow in the Gaslamp District! But during the con, even those without passes will have PLENTY to do everywhere outside the convention center.
What sets SDCC apart from other cons?
The sheer size. Everyone has deemed SDCC the worthiest con for every single up and coming movie, tv show, anime, video game, and vendor of comics and art – that everyone shows up for panels and that commitment gets people from all over the world to fly out just to attend. We had two different orders come in from the UK and Ireland for our boxes – can you even believe that? It’s so cool!
What’s one thing you are looking forward to at SDCC 2018?
I’m actually most looking forward to walking around downtown and seeing everything going on outside the con. There is ALWAYS something fun!
What’s next for you after SDCC 2018?
After SDCC we have a lot of August food and beer festivals lined up, but mostly we start preparing for HALLOWEEEEEEEEN! We have a crazy amount of Halloween parties that we do every year, and we have a lot of fun with that so we can’t wait!
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