For those Blo-No residents who enjoy watching “Cake Boss” on television, they are now lucky enough to experience custom cakes live.

Open 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. every Tuesday through Saturday, Sugar Mama opened at the end of January at 405 N. Main St. The Bloomington bakery was originally created a few years ago and started right out of a kitchen.

Starting off as a teacher, Krista Gaff, co-owner of Sugar Mama, stayed home after having kids and grew up with a family who had a love for baking, she explained.

“I just started decorating and just messing around with tools and playing around and really enjoying it and just made excuses to make cakes for friends and family,” she said.

The cake business expanded when a friend suggested Gaff create a Facebook page for cakes. After finding a commercial kitchen, she partnered up with Susie Tod, co-owner of Sugar Mama, a year ago.

Melanie Kaplan/Photo Editor: A new bakery called

Aside from custom cakes and cupcakes, different kinds of baked goods are sold at Sugar Mama daily.

“For retail, we offer a lot of cupcake flavors, many even regular sizes. We offer cake pops – we call them sugar babies since we’re Sugar Mama,” Gaff explained.

“We just keep adding to our menu. Right now we have gooey bars, which is an oatmeal cookie bar with a lot of caramel and chocolate inside. We have sugar cookies, we have cherry bars — we both have a lot of recipes.”

One item, which will be expanding on the menu, is beverages. Currently, bottled beverages such as milk, pop and juices are sold, Gaff added.

In the future, Sugar Mama will be brewing hot coffee and tea.

While Tod is more of the baker, Gaff is more of the decorator, Tod explained. The two accept custom orders daily and while waiting for orders to be prepared, anyone is available to stop by the bakery and even enjoy a bite at a table or chair in the seating area.

“We’re trying to accommodate every celebration. We just, in fact, had a celebration of life from a cancer survivor, and we’ve done anything from birthdays to funerals to weddings; we try to make every day a celebration,” Tod explained. “Whether it be something big and numerous or you just want to take your daughter out for a cupcake because she got a good grade on a test.”

The reason Gaff loves her job is because of how much fun she has decorating, being able to help celebrate peoples’ lives and being a part of surprises.

“It’s just a happy place and a happy thing to be a part of. We get to provide something that draws people together and I love emphasizing that because that’s what makes me most happy, what’s most fulfilling about it,” she said.

Located next door to The Coffee Hound, the owners knew they could not find a better place, better neighbors or better cooperation, Tod said.