The Mad Batter, a fun and tasty addition to downtown Jasper

If The Mad Batter becomes a place where people bring their friends to hang out, peruse the internet on free WiFi, and of course, buy some baked goodies then Catherine Bramlett will call it a success.

“If people just come in, get on the internet and relax and maybe get a piece of pie, that would be great,” Catherine said. “I don’t think there are a lot of places you can do that around here. It’s one reason we will be open late on Friday and Saturday nights.”

The new addition to the Jasper downtown will provide coffee and baked items like cupcakes, cookies, and pies by the slice as well as coffee to walk in customers, but the beautifully and creatively decorated cakes she creates are her specialty.

“I fell in love with cake decorating after taking a class a VUJC in 2010,” Bramlett said. “It is what I do for fun. Like, today, I have a cake that needs a tiara on top of it. When we are done working today, I am really looking forward to creating this cake.”

After she found her proclivity for baking, Catherine, a 2009 graduate of Jasper High School, attended the well-known cooking school Sullivan University in Louisville where she completed her degree in baking and pastry arts with cum laude honors.

After working in a bakery in Louisville, she returned to Dubois County and assisted in opening the Old School Bakery in Huntingburg. She left and continued baking for other businesses until her mom prompted her to open her own bakery in Jasper.

Finally, the bakery will open on Saturday.

She had been baking cakes at her parents home and as her success grew, the need to expand and meet her customers face-to-face became apparent. Her parents, Mark and Michele, have helped her through the process of opening the new business. In fact, Michele has partnered with her daughter; Catherine bakes and operates the business while Michele is the accountant and bookkeeper.

Her father jokes that he has been the free labor and construction through the process of opening the shop.

Just opening the doors on Saturday has been a feat for the group. The building was most recently the home of Fun Time Costumes and Party. After the business closed, the building was vacant except for a brief music instrument business. After deciding on the location, Catherine and her family have had to overcome some design issues like the new stoves not fitting through any of the door frames so the contractors added a special wide door in the back to bring in the oven.

The floors were stripped down to painted concrete so to increase the aesthetics, Catherine and her volunteers painted the floor white and added tile throughout the display area and into the newly-created kitchen.

She and her family have utilized local furniture auctions to furnish the shop. Now, bright and stylish Kimball manufactured furniture mix well with the Alice in Wonderland-themed decorations. Auctions also came in handy when her family found an industrial double-oven after the Black Buggy restaurant closed its doors over a year ago.

The demand for Catherine’s cakes has grown as people have learned of her talent in creating uniquely decorated cakes. “I liked art in high school, but I could never figure out what I was good at,” she explained. “When I started doing cakes, I was like ‘this is really neat. I can do this.'”

The creative process combined with the soft construction materials she has to use lead to some challenging situations. “I made this cake with a tree and the leaves weren’t turning out and I couldn’t get the trees to stand up,” she remembers. “But, you have to think creatively to make it work.”

She ended up creating some vines to help hold the tree in place. All edible of course.

Catherine can’t taste the cakes she makes though, she has a sensitivity to gluten — the binding agent that holds baked items together. So, she offers gluten-free items like a Nutella No-bake and gluten-free cupcakes as well. “I had a customer order cupcakes and she remembered she had some friends that were gluten-free,” she explained. “She was thrilled that I could make gluten-free cupcakes for her.”

In the future, Catherine wants to provide fresh-baked breads also. “I have a beautiful proofer back there waiting to make bread with,” she said.

As her designs have been seen on Facebook and her friends have learned of her skills, the calls for cakes have continued to increase. “I love when someone sees the cake I made for them and they tell me they love it,” she said.

Located at 708 Main Street, The Mad Batter’s hours will be 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday and 7 a.m. to 7 or 8 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays. The bakery will be closed on Sundays and Mondays.

Catherine will take orders on the business Facebook page or by phone at 812-639-9012.

Catherine opens her new business Saturday morning at 10 a.m. followed by a ribbon cutting. Door prizes from local business will also be given away.