Kiwis are prepared to pay the 24-year-old Aucklander top dollar for a slice of her cakes.<\/p>\n
\n She baked alone. She started the cakes during the Covid lockdown in her second year of university in 2020, when she was attending online classes instead of face-to-face ones. She didn\u2019t have a soundboard
\n to talk through ideas. She did have her boyfriend, who always gave it to her straight, but it wasn\u2019t the same as a \u201cproper\u201d working environment. TV shows were company. Human connections were for the weekend.\n <\/p>\n
Victoria Roebuck, the founder of Baby Buck Baking, now turns heads among industry leaders. The Taiwan-born Aucklander is currently working with renowned chef Sean Connolly on a limited edition high tea experience launching at Esther restaurant on Valentine\u2019s Day. Just a month ago, she collaborated with Waiheke Island ice cream company Island Gelato on a flavour based on her popular Baby Bruce cake, inspired by the chocolate cake eaten by the character Bruce Bogtrotter in Roald Dahl\u2019s Matilda. In November, former MasterChef NZ judge Josh Emett raved about the same cake on social media.<\/p>\n
\u201cPicked this little nugget of a cake up today, and oh my God, it is spectacular … It\u2019s actually not that sweet, which is a great thing. It\u2019s absolutely delicious,\u201d said Emett in a 41-second video clip to 249,000 Instagram followers. \u201cQuite heavy, quite rich … amazing. Kids are just so fired up, it\u2019s not funny.\u201d<\/p>\n
Baby Bruce costs $36.50 \u2013 that\u2019s one slab of cake. Except it isn\u2019t just cake. It weighs 750g, can feed around four people, and contains around 250g of Whittaker\u2019s chocolate (a video posted on her Instagram, included below, shows how she puts the colossus together). The price tag may raise a few eyebrows, but taking into account rising chocolate costs, the price is justified, says Roebuck: \u201cYou have to experience it to understand it.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s very much homemade,\u201d she adds, explaining that a customer pays for quality ingredients, labour and skill. Made in larger batches, Roebuck slices it carefully herself. <\/p>\n
It\u2019s a cake that usually sells out. A quick scan of customer reviews on the internet and you find comments like: \u201cbest chocolate cake I\u2019ve ever had\u201d, \u201cmost insane slice\u201d, \u201cso moist\u201d, \u201cso decadent\u201d. In fact, it was difficult to find any negative reviews. <\/p>\n
The popular Baby Bruce cake often sells out.<\/p>\n
Roebuck is 24 now. She feels older. People say she\u2019s a viral hit, as if it happened by chance. But her success was earned. <\/p>\n
She grew up cross-culturally (Mum is originally from Taiwan, Dad is from Aotearoa) in what she calls an ingredients household after moving to the North Shore when she was three. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe had lots of ingredients at home, but never ready-made snacks just to eat,\u201d she explains. <\/p>\n
She says it was quite easy to see cooking as a career path, despite studying something not directly cooking related (marketing, information systems and film). Baking is something she enjoys \u201cdown to [her] core\u201d. She was the kid at school who baked the cake for friends\u2019 birthdays. She was the kid at home who made scones instead of complaining of hunger. She was the kid who taught herself.<\/p>\n
Her childhood Bible: the Edmonds cookery book.<\/p>\n
She remembers being 8 and waking up quite early at times while her parents were asleep. Hungry, she\u2019d go straight into the kitchen, but there would be nothing to eat. At least at first.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would just have … raw materials. So then I\u2019d make pancakes, scones. Stuff that is very entry-level. But we had an Edmonds cookbook. Then I would look at that and be like, oh, I can make this work … if I didn\u2019t have [ingredients] in the kitchen, then I would add other things to try and replicate what the recipe was.”<\/p>\n
Two-year-old Victoria (right) with her grandma (middle) and sister (left).<\/p>\n
Roebuck\u2019s grandparents lived just up the road. She smiles when she remembers them. The whole family would hang out together at their house on weekends. That\u2019s where they baked pikelets. That\u2019s where they watched MasterChef NZ. And that\u2019s why, when Emett spoke publicly about her food, Roebuck initially got nervous.<\/p>\n
\u201c[Any feedback] coming from him is a big deal,\u201d she says. \u201cBut he didn\u2019t have anything negative to say. So I was like, oh my God, this is really cool.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s satisfying and very rewarding knowing that your work\u2019s being recognised because I do have lots of imposter syndrome.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite the serious validation from industry heavyweights, Roebuck is open about struggling to accept that her business success is real and it\u2019s hers. \u201cI\u2019m quite upfront,\u201d she says. \u201cI think it\u2019s important to always be honest.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith food, it comes naturally … whereas me as a person, as a business owner, that\u2019s a different story.\u201d<\/p>\n
The imposter feeling has improved since she got the Newmarket shop space a few months ago. It used to be an optometrist clinic, which is hard to imagine now with theatre-like red velvet curtains concealing the kitchen; warm colours and steel tables. Getting it set up and running has been the \u201cbiggest project ever\u201d, she says, before pointing out that it took a village.<\/p>\n
Her friends made the curtains. A customer did the lighting. An Instagram connection did the signage.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s quite a team effort, which is why I find it hard to be like, \u2018this is mine\u2019, because it\u2019s really everyone\u2019s,\u201d Roebuck says.<\/p>\n
Roebuck has two employees: her Dad (and biggest fan), and another part-timer. She also runs cake decorating workshops. Before the Newmarket store, which is accessible to customers by appointment only, she operated from her home for a year and a half. Alone.<\/p>\n
Baby Buck Baking is known for the vintage aesthetic of some of their cakes.<\/p>\n
Now she thinks having people around her can be challengingbut company is something she wants to get used to. \u201cBecause that\u2019s how a normal, proper working environment would look,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
It could also help with situations like one that happened last October.<\/p>\n
A stranger with a bottle of wine in hand walked into the shop, grabbed a spatula from a bowl and started eating from it.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was honestly really scary to witness, but thankfully I wasn\u2019t in the kitchen alone at the time. It made me realise how unsafe that could\u2019ve been if I was by myself,\u201d Roebuck wrote on her Instagram post about the incident.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe eventually got him out of the kitchen, and he was arrested \u2013 but the situation definitely shook me up.\u201d<\/p>\n
The business name is a nod to Roebuck\u2019s relationship with her big sister, who she feels has been a big part of the Baby Buck Baking success. \u201cBuck\u201d is taken from her surname and \u201cBaby\u201d reflects her place as the little sister.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe takes photos for me. She helps me set up for events. She comes in to see how I\u2019m going and drops me off food … I talk to her about everything. This wouldn\u2019t be what it is without her,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, I feel like that\u2019s kind of a testament to her involvement, even though it\u2019s not direct. It\u2019s indirect. And I feel like she doesn\u2019t know it, but it wouldn\u2019t be something without her.\u201d<\/p>\n
On what the future looks like, Roebuck says she wants to establish a stable work environment and explore different varieties of products beyond the vintage aesthetic.<\/p>\n
\u201cVintage cakes are quite intricate. There is a bit more labour involved in actually creating them,\u201d she explains. \u201c[I want to make] cakes that are a bit more accessible, so everyone can try a Baby Buck cake.\u201d<\/p>\n
If cakes didn\u2019t work out for Roebuck, she says she wouldn\u2019t know what to do.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel nothing would compare.\u201d<\/p>\n
Varsha Anjali is a journalist in the lifestyle team at the Herald. Based in Auckland, she covers people, culture and more.<\/p>\n
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