equipment in operation, each of them measuring and weighing ingredients precisely to ensure product consistency. We made a brief stop to watch employees packaging Salted Caramel Brownie bites in clear plastic containers, and then moved to the production line where several employees were making blackberry and blueberry crostatas. Flat pastry rounds with scalloped edges were placed under a machine from which an employee dispensed equal amounts of berry mixture directly into the middles of the dough. The pastries then moved along via conveyor belt where other employees expertly folded the edges toward the middles, leaving small openings on the top. The crostatas are made in three different fruit flavors, and are packaged, frozen, and shipped to stores where they are available as “ready-to-bake” purchases. At our next stop, we observed a huge container of prepared chocolate cake batter and watched as another employee operated a machine that filled eight-inch cake pans with equal amounts of batter before moving them down a conveyor where other employees placed them on baking trays. Trays of cupcakes were filled a dozen at a time with just the pull of a lever, and we also saw giant sheets of chocolate brownies being placed into a cutting machine which cut an entire sheet into equal portions at once. In the finishing room, we observed baked carrot cakes being expertly hand frosted and finished with delicious cream cheese frosting and garnish. Each process appeared to be very efficient and the employees seemed to work together very well, taking pride in the quality of their work. 32 MARKETPLACECONTRACOSTA.COM AUGUST 2017 During the tour, Frankie also pointed out the huge ovens that sit near the center of the bakery, and the store rooms where huge lots of premixed ingredients had been manually combined, bagged, and weighed to make the overall production process more efficient. We also saw the refrigeration units, and finally, the large dishwashing rooms where all of the baking pans and utensils are washed and sterilized. The entire bakery production and dishwashing areas were neat, clean, and well-organized, and the employees were friendly and welcoming and seemed to be enjoying their work. Before ending the tour, Frankie gave me and my guest free samples in the form of 8-inch finished carrot cakes and containers of salted caramel brownies. What a treat! Rubicon Bakers makes so many wonderful products that it would be hard to list them all. Some of the core branded Rubicon items include Mom’s Chocolate Cake and Carrot Cake; a wide variety of cupcakes, including their bestselling Chocolate Cream; and an assortment of muffins, including Fruit and Bran, Blueberry and Greek Yogurt, and Chocolate Streusel, just to name a few. Certain flavors of cakes and cupcakes are sold to retailers as “blanks”, meaning that they are ready to be iced/frosted by the stores to which they are shipped. Retail ready cakes and cupcakes are already iced and filled, and each item is finished by hand by a Rubicon employee. Rubicon Bakers uses only high quality, all-natural ingredients, and never uses artificial flavors or colors, preservatives, high fructose corn syrup or hydrogenated fats. All items are made completely from scratch with handfinished touches. Rubicon’s baked goods can be found in a variety of retail stores in select geographical locations across the nation, with a higher concentration in the west and northwestern United States. Locally, their products are found in many Whole Foods stores, as well as in well-known supermarkets such as Lunardi’s, Safeway, and Mollie Stones. They also sell to many independent Hand frosting carrot cakes RESTAURANT REVIEW 154 South 23rd Street, Richmond | (510) 779-3010 | rubiconbakers.com
Contra Costa Marketplace - Aug 2017
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