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| Lux Bakery |
Lux Bakery.
“Lux Bakery & Cafe is a locally-owned eatery tucked in near the corner of William Cannon and Brodie in the heart of Southwest Austin.
Our bakery includes fresh baked pastries, muffins, cinnamon rolls, scones, cookies, brownies, cheesecakes, cakes, hand-dipped chocolates, and hand-decorated sugar cookies that can all be custom ordered for parties, events, gifts for someone special, or just because!
Our cafe includes chicken and tofu gyros, Vietnamese sandwiches, internationally influenced wraps, vegetarian items, and a variety of salads and soups. We also feature our famous fresh fruit smoothies and bubble drinks.
We serve up Vietnamese sandwiches, Thai flavors, German recipes, American familiarity, and Austin charm. We bake in-house, by local people, for local people. We pride ourselves on having a staff that lives in Austin, works in Austin, and buys products from other Austin-based companies.” [Lux Bakery]
September 18th was Lux Bakery’s 3rd Annivesary. They celebrated with $1 cupcakes, $2 bubble teas, and $3 hot dog/drink combos. Face painting was provided to the kids by AustinFace Painting and free cupcake decorating, which I was extremely looking forward, was provided by Jenny Imm Corbin. She teaches various classes at Whole Foods Culinary Center downtown. More information can be found here. However, I was not able to partake in the event due to traffic.
My friends and I did enjoy the chocolate, and vanilla cupcakes dressed with chocolate buttercream, lemon buttercream frosting, and strawberry buttercream frosting. And the red velvet cupcakes dressed with cream cheese icing. They also had little sample teasers of their whoopie pies!
After eating a cupcake, or two, or maybe three… I was in desperate need of something to wash down the sweetness and was surprised to see bubble tea on the menu! I ordered Jasmine Tea and was taken back when asked “iced or blended”? A blended Jasmine tea with bubbles? Mind tickling.
Other flavors include Almond, Black Tea, Chocolate, Coconut, French Vanilla, Grape, Green Apple, Green Tea, Honeydew, Ice Frappe, Jasmine Tea, Lemon, Lychee, Mango, Mocha, Passion Fruit, Peach, Pina Colada, Spiced Chai, Strawberry, Taro, Thai Tea, Vanilla, Vanilla Chai, Watermelon.
Left to right: Blended Jasmine tea with bubbles and blended chai tea with bubbles.
Although I decided to drop by on probably a rather busy day, Ann Lux, owner and founder of Lux Bakery, graciously took time out of her day to answer a few questions I had for her.
ATasteOfKoko: Why did you decide to open up a bakery?
Ann Lux: My family has a couple of Thai restaurants in California so I have been in the food business since high school. I don’t know when the idea of owning my own business started, but I remember talking to my best friend one day while we were in college that we wanted to own a business together. Since I like baking and she liked what I baked, we figured a bakery would be a perfect fit! I love the color, presentation, smells, and creativity the sweets bring. Ever since then, I have been looking at baking books, surfing online, researching bakeries, and testing different recipes. Some were good and some were bad, but I like what I do 🙂
What is the biggest challenges that you meet?
Being a new business. When starting a business, everybody dreams of success and nobody dreams of failure. The first year was the hardest for us (as I’m sure other small businesses goes through similar struggles). Our biggest challenge was to get our name out there and compete with the big chains like Sam’s and HEB. For people who are looking for homemade, baked on the premises custom cakes and sweets, they don’t mind paying a litter higher prices than the chains. We have worked hard to get where we are today and now we have our loyal customer base that comes back to us for every birthdays, holidays, and special occasions.
What are your favorite cakes to make?
Not wedding cakes. I love making kid cakes. They’re much more fun and creative.
What are your best selling flavors?
Chocolate cupcakes with mint buttercream frosting, red velvet, and vanilla cupcakes with strawberry buttercream frosting. The cheesecakes are also very popular.
What was the most interesting cake you’ve had to make?
It requested by a daughter for Mother’s Day and birthday. The cake was black with a strawberry cake. There was a design of a rainbow and a skeleton.
What are your inspirations?
Visiting other local bakeries and seeing their set ups. Also researching the internet for cake ideas.
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| ATasteOfKoko with Ann Lux from Lux Bakery |
Lux Bakery & Cafe
3601 W William Cannon #175
Austin, TX 78749
http://luxbakeryandcafe.com/index.cfm
http://www.facebook.com/LuxBakeryCafe
