Oakland's Bake Sum puts heart into flavorful lineup of handcrafted pastries

OAKLAND, Calif. -- The word "sum" translated directly into Cantonese Chinese means heart, and Bake Sum adds little touches of the heart into its menu of handcrafted pastries.

"We take a lot of French techniques like laminated doughs and infuse our own nostalgic and favorite childhood flavors into these pastries," said Joyce Tang, the founder of Bake Sum.

With flavorful croissants, cruffins, buns, and more ranging from sweet to savory, Tang and the Bake Sum team create pastries that represent their personalities and backgrounds.

"A lot of us are first generation Asian American and Pacific Islander American," said Ari Daoheuang, Bake Sum's director of retail operations. "The influence of heritage deeply drives what we do and how we do it."

Tang added, "Our pastry selection is truly pulling across a lot of Asia for our flavors and the inspirations and the stories that we share with our pastries."

Bake Sum's ever-expanding menu of fan favorites includes the Strawberry-Matcha Croissant, Loco Moco Danish, Okonomiyaki Danish, and more. Each pastry is made from scratch through an extensive dough lamination process.

"The Okonomiyaki is on our danish dough," described Tang. "It's our take on the Japanese pancake that was popularized during World War 2, this is one of our best-selling pastries."

Tang added, "The Loco Moco Danish is a sous vide egg with beef and gravy, and it's our take on the Hawaiian breakfast-snack. And we nest it in a bed of croissant dough."

Bake Sum welcomes all into a safe space to taste new, nostalgic creations and ask questions.

"When people leave Bake Sum, I'm hoping that they're going to leave with a full belly and a full heart and a really exciting experience and opportunity to try pastries they've never tried and to hear stories that they haven't heard before too," said Tang.

For more information, visit here and follow Bake Sum on Instagram.