By Margaret Carroll-Bergman — Correspondent
Olivia Strauss and Jessica Thelen are the new owners of Concord Teacakes in West Concord, but the young women are old hands when it comes to working in the bakery.
Thelen, a Cordon Bleu graduate, first put on her apron during a culinary school internship in the Teacakes kitchen 12 years ago.
And Strauss started working at Teacakes right out of high school and then part time while a student at Emerson College.
“I took a gap year, and I love baking,” says Strauss, who also began her career working as an intern in the Teacakes commercial kitchen eight years ago. “They only had jobs at the shop, but I only wanted to bake. “
Both women were encouraged by their mothers to intern at Teacakes.

Thelen, who is from Salem, had a friend who was a cake decorator at the bakery, and Strauss, who is from Wayland, had visited Teacakes over the years.
The two purchased the business in June from founders Judith Fersch and Peter Mahler. The new proprietors haven’t offered internships yet but plan to do so soon.
Decades of sweets
Fersch founded Teacakes 40 years ago and built the business from her kitchen to the storefront at 59 Commonwealth Avenue. Though Thelen and Strauss are starting a new chapter, they have not severed ties with their former mentor.
“Judy still works in the kitchen,” says Thelen. “She works the graveyard shift, after we close, and preps salads and sandwiches and everything in the little ‘to-go’ cases.”

Strauss graduated with a marketing and communications degree and studied entrepreneurship at Emerson. After she graduated from culinary school, she worked full time at the bakery.
Meanwhile, Thelen had worked her way up from intern to a Teacakes bakery manager.
“We do everything together,” Thelen says. “We knew it would be a good partnership.”
The interns-turned-entrepreneurs manage 32 employees and are developing the bakery’s wholesale arm.
This Thanksgiving, 1,600 pies were baked at the Teacakes commercial kitchen on Domino Road, with most distributed to Pemberton Farms in Cambridge and Neillio’s in Lexington. The bakers also fulfilled Christmas orders.

Ambience and aromas
The retail shop on Commonwealth Avenue has an old-fashioned look and feel, with café tables and chairs, along with glass display cases filled with cookies, cakes, cupcakes, brownies, scones, turnovers, muffins, and other pastries.
“We’ve been changing out some of the displays, and we’ve painted to freshen up,” says Strauss.
“We’ve been trying to do little things to heighten what is already there,” Thelen says.
While Strauss runs the business end of Teacakes, Thelen is in charge of baking and fulfilling orders. Both work on product development. They’ve created a line of seasonal baked goods, for instance, piña colada, caramel apple, and peppermint bark cakes, as well as new designs for specialty confections.

With inflation, the cost of ingredients is rising.
“Eggs are $2.30 a pound right now; it’s crazy,” Strauss says. (Eggs are sold in a plastic bag, already opened; they are not sold by the dozen.) “Sugar has increased 45%. We have to watch it carefully. Always watching. We have good vendors that we use. They usually work with us to get it down to a reasonable price.”
The young women say they are in it for the long haul. The regular customers, neighbors, commuters, and co-workers make Teacakes a fun place to work.
“I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else,” says Strauss.
