Northshore Magazine

Northshore December 2018

Northshore magazine showcases the best that the North Shore of Boston, MA has to offer.

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NORTHSHOREMAG.COM 74 DECEMBER 2018 PHOTOGRAPHS BY SCOTT GOODWIN / I N - D E P T H / Baker Mary Bandereck has perfected the art of the pie. By Sarah Shemkus YIPPIE FOR WHOOPIE! Mary Bandereck was not supposed to decorate the cakes. Girls were not allowed in the kitchen at the traditional Italian bakery where she worked in high school, so she was supposed to stick to waiting on customers at the counter. But sometimes she ignored that rule. Sometimes, when a customer wanted a last-minute cake, Bandereck went ahead and piped a "Happy Birthday" or a "Congratula- tions" on a premade dessert instead of calling the cake decorator up from his work. And her boldness paid off. When her employers found out what she had been doing, they realized she had a talent, and she became the first girl allowed to decorate their cakes. Within a month, she was working on wedding cakes, and she was hooked. "That's where I realized I loved decorating cakes," she says. "I just loved the bakery atmosphere." Today, Bandereck and her husband, Chris, are the proprietors of the Topsfield Bakeshop, a thriving retail shop and wholesale opera- tion known for its fresh baking, its commit- ment to detail, and, perhaps most of all, its whoopie pies. Customers stream into the Main Street bakery, even on a cold and rainy morning, and out back, bakers churn out Baker Mary Bandereck takes whoopie pies to an art form.

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