Boomtown Bakery is booming with great pastries

When pastry chef Allison Spicer started at Boomtown Casino in Biloxi in July 2015, the bakery was tiny.

“We were falling all over each other,” she said.

But things change and this little kitchen has grown.

“We support the restaurants at Boomtown,” Spicer said, “the Boomtown Buffet, The Grill and the BT Steakhouse with all the desserts, pizza dough, pastries and petit fours and almost everything sweet that they serve.”

General Store

The bakery also keeps the pastry case at the General Store loaded with cakes of every description ready to take home for a special occasion or just to appease that bothersome sweet tooth.

“Carrot cakes, turtle cheesecakes, the best cheesecake on the Coast (it’s a Boomtown original recipe), red velvet, Italian cream and Death By Chocolate,” Spicer said of the baked goods they produce.

The bakery also has strawberry and pineapple shortcake and pies including coconut cream, German chocolate, key lime, lemon, Mississippi Mud, pecan and peanut butter.

All the pies are made from scratch, as are all the cakes and pastries.

There is a shiny stainless steel island in the middle of the buffet, beautifully highlighted with spotlights and warm ambient light.

Slowly circle this decadent display of all things sweet and inviting and you just may have difficulty deciding where to stop and sample.

It is all worth trying.

Award winner

Spicer and her counterpart at the Hollywood Casino, chef Renee Lorange, were grand champions at the The Big Gateaux Show at the New Orleans Wine and Food Experience in May.

The Boomtown press release said, in part, “They competed against some pretty well-acclaimed chefs … to put together our seven tier, 5-foot, 5-inch tall cake … to match … their assigned muse, dancer … The Muse of Tragedy, Melpomene.”

Holiday baking

Besides the everyday pastries the bakery puts out, when a holiday nears, the Boomtown team of bakers kicks into high gear.

Whether you are visiting one of the restaurants for a special meal or if you want something from the General Store, you will find a holiday assortment of cakes and pies according to the season.

Special occasions

Some of the favorites include king cake for Mardi Gras, pumpkin pies for the winter holidays and the always-popular pecan pies.

“All you have to do is give us 48 hours’ notice and we will have it ready fresh from our ovens,” Spicer said of special orders.

Some typical special occasion cakes that are ordered include those for baby showers, graduations, birthdays, anniversaries and the occasional wedding.

During the Father’s Day weekend, the bakery had a buy-two and get-one free special.

Special orders

Most of the cakes that are specially ordered are the basic 9-inch round in two or three layers, but if you have other ideas about what you want, just pitch them to Spicer.

Baker Shirley Lloyd has been at the bakery since the beginning and arrives for work along with the rest of the team at 5 a.m. It’s a long eight hours of baking and decorating, but the Boomtown bakery employees are proud of what they do.

Spicer shared one of her recipes that is simple enough for even a non-baker, so if you have been thinking about learning to bake, here is a great first step.

This story was originally published July 6, 2016 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Boomtown Bakery is booming with great pastries."