Celebrate 10 Years of Cake Life Bake Shop with Thanksgiving Pie

The name “Cake Life” might conjure images of elaborate wedding cakes, colorful icings, and beautiful fondant details, but for Lily Fischer and Nima Etemadi, it meant standing over a garbage can eating cold pizza — their first meal of the day — after several long, grueling hours of custom cake making, decorating, and delivering.

Reflecting on how little their days resembled the glamorous professional cake making shown on television, they jokingly said, “That’s cake life,” and the name stuck.

A lot has changed since those early days. Fischer and Etemadi, college friends who joined forces after separately pursuing careers in baking, have grown their home-based cake business into one of Fishtown's best-known bakeries (thanks in part to a few TV baking competition wins and one devoted customer named Beyoncé).

This year, Cake Life Bake Shop celebrates 10 years on Frankford Avenue as a woman-owned and queer-owned bakery, with a yearlong celebration of returning favorites and a look back at the treats that helped build its following.

As Cake Life prepares for its busiest time, its Thanksgiving menu offers a taste of what the bakery has become known for: familiar seasonal favorites, a few creative twists, and plenty of desserts available in store if you forget to preorder.

On the menu is what Etemadi calls the “trinity” of 9-inch Thanksgiving pies: pumpkin, maple pecan, and caramel apple crumb. There’s also a chocolate chip cheesecake and a pumpkin spice latte cheesecake. If layer cakes are more your thing, Cake Life has five to choose from, including a gluten-free chocolate chip layer cake and two vegan options.

“We like to put our little spin on it,” Etemadi said about the Thanksgiving menu. “But we want it to still be something that you find really comfortable and familiar.”