Co-owners Morgan Laite and Maggie Thoemke opened Black Cat Bakery in north Moorhead last week, and have had trouble keeping the cases full as business has been swift. (Photo/ Dan Haglund. )

Dan Haglund

What was intended as a soft opening for Black Cat Bakery in north Moorhead last week turned into long days of frenzied baking just to keep products in the display cases for co-owners Maggie Thoemke and Morgan Laite.
Located at 1500 11th St. N. (the former Brother’s Keeper location, right across from the Holiday gas station), Black Cat Bakery, “Made from Scratch, Baked With Love” was a concept created in the first year of the pandemic.
The business now has a brick-and-mortar location, and goodies have been flying off the shelves.
The two owners met when Thoemke was managing Laite at a previous job, and they quickly realized they had some things in common. They both like to bake, both had black cats, like the same music, and both are alums of Minnesota State Moorhead. Their 18-year age gap doesn’t appear to make much difference.
“We were born to be best friends,” Laite said.
The two have also needed a full-time employee to help with all the work, and Mason Ewen has been learning the trade throughout the year.
Thoemke said the building has had a “for lease” sign up for quite a while, but the owner wanted to rent the kitchen just part-time. Thoemke said that wasn’t going to work, as she would need the kitchen full-time. After two months, the owner contacted her back and asked if she was still interested in the space. And the rest fell into place.
In the ramp-up to the bakery opening, Laite said she was working full-time at Sylvan Learning Center and part-time for Black Cat. But in preparation for the soft opening, Laite said they’ve been putting in 14 to 15 hours a day.
“It’s a lot of work to open it,” she said.
Thoemke said as far as bakery items available at Black Cat, “we have whatever we can get out.”
She noted that the holiday season has come with numerous seasonal orders for goodies. “We are mass producing, every day, all day. We are not even able to keep our case full right now.”
Thoemke said the bakery offers a lineup of cookies, muffins, cinnamon and caramel rolls, multiple flavors of artisan and sandwich breads,
Cranberry wild rice is one unique bread the bakery showcases, and she says is the most popular so far. She was working on her fourth double batch of that recipe in just the first week.
Thoemke said the business fills a need Moorhead has had for a while, as all the bakeries within the metro are on the west side of the river.
“Just this week alone shows how desperately Moorhead needed it,” Thoemke said. “We’ve sold out pretty much every single day this week.” She referred to the pace as “panic baking.”
Ewen said he was working at the Farmers Market at the Hjemkomst Center and the Butcher Block in Dilworth before the coming on full-time at the bakery.
Ewen credits Thoemke with teaching him how to make various goodies for the bakery while job shadowing her all summer. Thoemke says her baking knowledge is all self-taught.
The first iteration of the business began in October 2020 during the pandemic.
“I spent a lot of time baking for my family,” Thoemke said. “And it was pretty much family only, but this business kind of happened by accident out of my home during Covid. It was just one of those things that I didn’t expect to go as well as it did. And then we ended up here three years later, so I think we’re doing OK.”
Black Cat also offers a 10 percent “Hero Discount” for active military, veterans, first responders, teachers and healthcare workers.
Any questions or comments can be sent to Theblackcatbakers@gmail.com.