Hot Cakes

Dessert Heaven

Once Autumn Martin cottoned on to chocolate, she never looked back. It's a love story, really, one that took definitive shape in the kitchen at Canlis and has led to a molten chocolate cakery in Ballard.

Hot Cakes is an old-fashioned store front on Ballard Avenue. There are some savory edibles, but this is really all about sugar. Indulgences include certified organic salted caramel and chocolate sauces, mostly organic cookies, molten chocolate cakes (peanut butter cup, dark decadence, s'mores, vegan dark chocolate), bread pudding, crème brûlée, grilled chocolate sandwich--you get the drift. Shakes, boozy shakes, boozy floats. And cocktails like the Smoked Old Fashion with chocolate bitters and an orange twist. "I'd been thinking about my next step for a year, and got serious about a business plan in the summer of 2011," recalls Autumn. "I was thinking about wholesale vs. retail. I really love people and you don't get that instant gratification in wholesale. I decided to create a unique dessert shop where people feel special, and learn about being organic and local. Everything we can get locally, we do."

It took awhile to raise the funds for her project. "Spreadsheets and ROIs were new to me and it was hard to understand and own. The more people who turned me down, the better I got. I found investors, and my landlord helped me get a loan. This is the perfect location." Ironically, she's grown to love the business side of things and working with numbers. "It's like a puzzle: you have to fit all the pieces together--how to make people happy and how to make money."

Demo started in January 2012, "which was really fun." They removed walls, redid plumbing and electric, sanded floors, and built furniture themselves. "We opened on May 18, 2012, and it's been strong ever since."

Her newest project has just been released--a milkshake cookbook. "I had to complete it in three months, by December 31, 2012, right as work would start on the restaurant. That worked, but I didn't realize how arduous the editing process would be. It didn't wrap up until May or June. I'll be doing a book tour on the west coast--here, Portland, San Francisco, and L.A. I love writing, and am working on another book deal now--something desserty."

While Autumn was still in culinary school in 2002 (click here to read her history), she was hired at Canlis as the lead in pastry. "My job was to create new desserts, specials, maintain production, and manage the team of three. it was really fun. My tastes were pretty eclectic for Canlis, so some ideas where shot down, but they explored more creative roads. I discovered the depth of chocolate in my second year there from a rep who dropped off samples that were labeled with percentage and origin. I had to ask her what that meant. It was fascinating to me that trees bear a fruit that farmers pick and ferment and it gets made into chocolate. I was 22 or 23 and discovering so many things. I knew I was going to dedicate myself to chocolate."

In 2008, she did an auction dinner where she wanted to create something "country, darling, and chocolaty." She made a molten chocolate cake in a Mason jar. By the end of the evening, three of the 12 guests had placed orders for the next week. She told them she'd make it easy on them by giving them the raw cake batter so they could bake it when they were ready. That was the birth of the molten chocolate cake. She produced them at Theo, and both Theo and Picnic Food & Wine sold them. She also sold them at the Ballard and Fremont farmers markets.

After taking a five month trip to Spain working on an organic farm, she returned in February 2010 and started working the markets again. She created a line of salted caramel sauces and cookies. Since it was summer, she created a fresh fruit pocket pie (easier to sell than molten cake on a hot day). She worked the farmers markets for 1-1/2 years until she had her business plan in place for Hot Cakes.

Right now, her future includes another book (maybe more) and evolving the restaurant. "It's maybe 30% of what I want it to be. We have flow and seating issues when it's busy, as it always is on weekends. And I want to expand the menu by making more confections--it's what I love to do."

Connie Adams/April 2013