Oct. 20, 2022

Chef April Austin has opened her own kitchen for her custom cakes and other desserts and has expanded the business to include an event venue for smaller gatherings with full catering services.

With the new offerings, Cakes & Confections by Chef April is now Chef April Cakes, Confections & Celebrations.

“My mom told me from the very beginning, ‘You need to include ‘Chef April’ because that’s how people know you.’ And I’m like, ‘I don’t want to include my name.’ Before, it was ‘by Chef April.’ So now we’re just putting it out there, and it’s Chef April Cakes, Confections & Celebrations. … My mom’s like, ‘finally, you listened to me,’” Austin said, laughing.

Chef April is in a retail center at 3210 E. 10th St., east of Hy-Vee. With the expansion into catering for the event space, her husband, longtime chef Nick Rerick, is joining her in the business.

The two met while working at the Callaways, which is where Austin began building her reputation for wedding and celebration cakes and other desserts. After the restaurant and event center closed in 2019, she began sharing kitchen space with Chef Jeni & Co., providing custom orders and making desserts for restaurants.

Her new home on 10th Street is a long space. She and Rerick remodeled it with white board and batten paneling with black walls above. The flooring is a wood tone. The south wall where the entrance is located is mostly glass, and Austin plans to add curtains.

The room is filled with five custom wood tables that each can seat 10 guests. They’re collapsible, so Austin can store them easily and put up cocktail tables to push capacity from 50 people to about 80.

“It’s a great spot for baby showers and wedding showers and birthdays and rehearsal dinners,” Austin said.

The couple is putting together a menu but will work with each client to customize offerings.

“We’re very flexible to work with, any budget that people have, because not everybody has a $50-a-plate budget,” she said. “To get some of the smaller parties like the showers and stuff that like, not everybody wants to have a full sit-down meal, so we can offer appetizers and dessert or something like that as well.”

She envisions even small gatherings of 15 to 20 people.

“We’re open to do any sort of dinner here, if you want to have a nacho bar up to a five-course meal.”

Guests typically will be able to rent the space in four-hour blocks, giving them time to decorate if they want.

She’ll continue to do her custom baking and eventually might add a bakery case for walk-in customers if she thinks there’s enough demand.

While the renovation work took a couple of months longer than she expected, Austin is pleased with her first space that’s all her own.

“I’m really happy with the space. I’m happy the way it turned out. I think it’s really pretty.”

Chef April is having an open house Nov. 15, likely from 4 to 6 p.m. Austin will post updates on the business’ Facebook page.

Chef April to relocate, expand bakery to include event venue