By MOLLY DAVIDSON / Staff Writer

HOOVER—When Carol Gregg baked her first batch of Baby Bites, she had no idea the bite-sized cakes would lead to a career. Since that first batch, Baby Bites transformed from a treat Gregg made for her children and friends to the foundation of her bakery, Pastry Art Bake Shoppe.

Gregg opened Pastry Art Bake Shoppe’s first location in Homewood in 2006. Due to popular demand, a second location was opened in Hoover’s Inverness Corners shopping center.

“We just found a niche that people liked,” Gregg said of her signature Baby Bites. “It just really took off.”

The “two or three bite mini cakes” come in more than 20 different flavors, ranging from traditional flavors, such as chocolate, red velvet and vanilla, to the more exotic strawberry margarita, key lime and pumpkin spice.

Each Baby Bite is baked from scratch—icing, cake and all. In fact, every baked good sold at Pastry Art, from cookies to wedding cakes, is made by hand from Gregg’s own recipes.

“We make everything from scratch. We don’t bring any premade mixes or icings into the shop,” Gregg said. “It’s time consuming, but it’s worth the quality you get. We consider quality over quantity… it’s of the utmost importance to me.”

In addition to overseeing two storefronts, Gregg stays busy designing crafting custom cakes and Baby Bites for special occasions and weddings. Demand for wedding catering was so high, Gregg said she had set a limit of four weddings per weekend.

“We limit it to that because we want to give each one the time it deserves,” Gregg said.

Through her career, Gregg has made a variety of unique custom cakes for special occasions, including a submarine, the videogame character Mario and castles.

“It’s a real privilege to be included in a special event,” Gregg said. “We take it seriously and we make sure everything is the way it should be.”

When not busy with day-to-day shop duties or perfecting a cake for a special occasion, Gregg can be found in the kitchen experimenting with recipes.

“I just love being in the kitchen, developing new recipes,” Gregg said. “If you like your work, you don’t work a day in your life, and that’s pretty much how I feel.”

Pastry Art Bake Shoppe is located at 940 Inverness Corners, off of U.S. 280 in Hoover. The bakery is open Tuesdays through Fridays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.