Our History

The Front Porch Bake Shop, LLC, NEPA's only open-air bake shop, was created by Susan Thackara in the fall of 2020, and offers delicious and sweet treats for all ages, typically with options for those with dietary restrictions. The shop is open Saturday mornings, with expanded hours on and around holidays.

Susan is a full-time high school teacher and mother of two young children. She and her husband, Dave, do the baking—cupcakes, cookies, scones, and much more.  Opening a craft bake shop had been Susan's dream for many years, initially envisioning it as a post-teaching profession. With some unexpected time on hand during a recent global pandemic, Susan learned all about licensing and inspections, zoning and accounting, (and of course, experimented with new recipes and ideas) and The Front Porch Bake Shop was created.

Susan initially developed a love of baking from her grandmother, progressing to more formal training in and after her teenage years. More recently, Susan leaned on her teaching skills to show Dave the fundamentals of baking. Each week, Susan focuses on the creation of cupcakes, cakes, brownies and specials, and the shop also features Dave's Signature Double Chocolate Chip Sea Salt Cookies, scone of the month.

The Front Porch Bake Shop features weekly and seasonal cupcake flavors, strives to have at least one gluten-free option for sale, and encourages pre-ordering as popular flavors have a tendency to sell out.

The Front Porch Bake Shop creates amazing custom orders, with larger and more specialized items needing 2-3 weeks of advanced planning. (Again…2 bakers, 2 non-baking full time jobs, 2 small children, only 24 hours in a day…).

The shop is licensed and insured and follows all suggested Covid-19 protocols and procedures.