On a recent Friday morning, a glass case displayed sweet decadences such as dainty pastries, cookies and scones alongside savory breakfast sandwiches and puff pastry.

The items, which were selling like hotcakes, were marked for sale at $2 apiece.

Cascade Culinary Institute’s Bakery Kiosk is one aspect of its Retail Baking Operations course, which teaches students the business concepts of building a bakery enterprise, with the opportunity to test their ideas and products in a real-world setting.

Baked items are for sale from 7:30-10 a.m. or until sold out on designated Fridays during the fall, winter and spring terms. And it’s not uncommon for a line to form before the kiosk opens, failing to subside until 9 a.m.

From the archives: Food truck class serves lunch to public on Fridays during spring term

Bake it till you make it

About a dozen items in the case remain the same week over week, while others are students’ specialty items.

A glossy, golden brown challah bread belonged to Moirae Collett, who said her next iteration of challah would be elevated with garlic, herbs and additional strands.

“I’ll probably do a jelly donut challah at some point. Everyone improves in different ways. I always try and do crazier flavors every week, while other people add new things,” she said.

Chef Brian Haulk hopes to instill as much real-world experience in his students as possible, all of whom are second-year students. He is a graduate of CCI who worked as a pastry chef followed by a 22-year career in the military, who said he wishes his education would have gone into greater depth of the sales and ordering aspects of the culinary world.

Similar to his military leadership roles, Haulk takes an experimental approach to instructing, allowing his students to figure out how to run the institute’s Bakery Kiosk through trial and error. Afterward, they talk sales and numbers. Then they take time to reflect on what went well, what didn’t and what could be improved upon.

In the first three week after the Bakery Kiosk opened its doors to the public, it increased its sales week after week, Haulk said. When items don’t sell well, improvements are made to the product or removed from the menu entirely.

“Not only are they running the kiosk, they’re also developing a business plan based on whatever type of passion or type of business that they are thinking about doing, whether it be a small bakery or food truck,” Haulk said.

More Coverage: Academic pathways at COCC awarded $2.5 million federal grant

Happy accidents

Haulk teaches it’s essential to keep food cost down to remain competitive in the marketplace. He challenges his students to upgrade their specialty items by using better ingredients or different processes, without significant added cost.

He shared a recent example of how students learned to add value to a butter muffin, without much additional overhead.

“We started to brown the butter, which gives it a much deeper, richer flavor. It differentiates it,” Haulk said. “Now we can upsell that product because we put more time and effort into it, but our food costs haven’t gone up, so our profit margin goes up instead — which is what they need to know so that they can run a business.”

Sometimes students have a vision of exactly what they want to create, but it doesn’t turn out how they had imagined it. That’s where Haulk comes in and suggests improvements, he said. Slowly, they make adjustments until the end goal is achieved.

Other times, it’s about developing a flexible mindset.

The cannoli croissant on sale last month was not supposed to be a croissant, but a tart. Haulk teaches that if a baked good doesn’t turn out as intended, it’s necessary to remain versatile because a product still has to be delivered to the customer.

That sometimes leads to happy accidents.

“I guarantee the cannoli croissant will probably be one of our top sellers,” Haulk said.

Column: Family history breathes new life into sourdough

Symbiotic student relationships

Anthony Parker, who is earning a dual degree in Culinary Arts and Baking and Pasty Arts, created two of the savory baked breakfast items on the menu last month. The bacon blue cheese pocket he made with sauteed onions, bacon and blue cheese was essentially a blue cheese burger stuffed inside puff pastry, he said.

Following graduation, Parker plans to take his passion for the culinary arts to his high school in Sheridan, Oregon to teach students cooking skills.

He said he’s been surprised by the amount of interaction between students of differing degree plans. Recipes are spontaneously shared in the hallway in between classes, while culinary students and baking students share their creations after class.

“It’s symbiotic, we just feed off each other and everybody’s energy,” Parker said. “We all learn a bit something from each other.”

More information:

In addition to the Bakery Kiosk, the public may engage with and support students at the institute through its pizza program.

Hand-tossed, wood-fired pizza is sold for $10 on the Cascade Culinary Institute’s patio on Thursday and Friday from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. or until sold out. Pizzas will also be sold Nov. 21, Nov. 22, Dec. 5 and Dec. 6 and in conjunction with the class schedule during the spring term.

If You Go:

What: Bakery Kiosk

When: 7:30 a.m.-10 a.m. (or until sold out) on Friday, Nov. 22 and Dec. 6. Kiosk reopens in conjunction with class schedule for winter and spring terms, with the first day of service on Jan. 24.

Where: Cascade Culinary Institute, 2555 NW Campus Village Way, Bend

Cost: $2-3 per baked good

Contact: cascadeculinary.com/bakery-kiosk