Surfside Beach bakery is home to hope, hospitality and family

The pineapple has long been a symbol for hospitality, and for one family it became a source of hope.

In 2011, mother and daughter team Aura Fuenmayor and Rebeca Kipp launched a business called The Pink Pineapple European Style Bakery [www.pinkpineapplebakery.com] in Surfside Beach, a full-service establishment providing everything from pastries and coffees to breakfast and lunch, all manner of custom baked goods to specialty cakes, including custom wedding cakes.

“We were incorporated on Valentine’s Day 2011 after making three or four wedding cakes over that summer, including mine,” said daughter Kipp. “We realized that it was something my mother and I loved to do – we love to make beautiful cakes together – and so, little by little we were creating this dream – and now we have a bakery.”

Chef Fuenmayor, originally from Venezuela, arrived on the Grand Strand in 2005 with her family after completing her culinary management degree in Florida at the Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale. Prior to that, she lived in England for seven years, where she trained at the renowned Tante Marie Culinary Academy, the largest independent Cordon Bleu school in the UK. She also mastered sugar craft at Brooklands College in Surrey.

But her marriage turned sour on the Grand Strand, and she found herself in an abusive situation – ultimately divorcing in 2011.

“We are believers, and I had my pastor take us out of the house,” she said. “A lovely couple from church allowed us [daughters Kipp and Kristin Mendible] to stay in a little house in Ocean Lakes Campground. It was just a little house, but the one next to it looked like a multimillion dollar house.”

That house was called Pink Pineapple.

“It had a bubblegum picnic table outside, and you could see the family coming together,” she said, adding that she used to look at that house with longing, like that was supposed to be her life.

Eventually, her husband moved out of her old house, Fuenmayor and daughters moved back in, and she said life started to get better again.

This is when she started doing cakes from home. And when it came time to name the company, what better a tribute was there than The Pink Pineapple?

Duties are well-delineated at Pink Pineapple. In addition to Fuenmayor and Kipp, Heidi Hennen is also on the payroll.

“Here at the bakery, I am the baker,” said Fuenmayor. “I do everything that deals with food: The inventory, ordering and receiving – the prepping of the food from baking to putting it in the display case. Rebeca does all of the front office: Payroll, accounting and taxes. “She also works the front, answers the phone – and mostly she is the one that will do the bridal consultations to see what it is they desire for their special day.”

Hennen is usually out front with the customers.

“Heidi will make sandwiches, prepare teas or coffees, serve the pastries – and obviously the one that tidies up the dining room and makes sure everything is pretty and presentable at all times.”

Hennen is also tasked with keeping up with the name tags for the myriad baked goods on display.

Fuenmayor estimates that at least 30 percent of revenue comes from the wedding cakes.

Kipp has a one-year-old son named Christopher, whom she refers to as the boss. Since he was born, her challenge was figuring out how to split her duties as mom with her business responsibilities – and how to divide her workday into two locations.

“Now that he is up and walking and destroying everything, I work from the house in the morning,” she said. “I have an office at home, and I work while he takes his morning nap. I call it the naptime entrepreneur. After he wakes up, we eat lunch and then head over to the bakery.”

Are there any “bridezilla” moments in regard to the wedding cakes?

“It’s the least stressful part of our life, because we absolutely love it,” she said – adding that the pressure comes into play after the cake is ready.

“Do they love it? Do they not like it? We kind of worry about whether it lives up to their mental image or expectations. We are not in their head, but actually making the cakes and putting them together – there is usually some Journey or Genesis playing in the background, or Vivaldi – that’s when we’re happy.”

What about the moment a new cake is finished?

“All of us come to the back – and usually my husband [Joshua Kipp] will come visit the bakery and have lunch, and we all just kind of stand back and look at it and go, ‘no, no, no – this is our favorite cake – not the one last week.’”

This story was originally published December 31, 2015 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Surfside Beach bakery is home to hope, hospitality and family."