Baked With Love: Plum resident sells her goods in Monroeville

When it comes to creative business names, Plum resident Nickole Love Nader chose a good one for hers:

Baked With Love.

And with her shop in Monroeville, Nader hopes to make baking her full-time occupation.

She has been doing so for much of her life, starting as a cake decorator with a Dairy Queen in Oakmont that since has become a Walgreens.

“They needed a cake decorator,” she said. “My mom had an old baking book. I taught myself to make a rose and got the job.”

In fact, she is entirely self-taught, and she also worked at the Pittsburgh-area staple Oakmont Bakery prior to earning her bachelor’s degree in business from Robert Morris University. In addition to running Baked With Love, she also continues her job as an analyst at PNC Bank, a combination that often results in 14- to 16-hour workdays.

Despite getting a physical location for her bakery fairly recently, she has been selling her baked goods for quite a while, from her house and at community events such as farmers’ markets.

Nader’s most popular items are her lady locks, thumbprints and cupcakes, and for customers with dietary considerations, she sells gluten- and dairy-free products. Her favorite treats to make are “specialty cakes, making people happy,” she said. “I like seeing the kids smile when their get their cake.”

A major emphasis at Baked With Love is not letting goods go stale.

“If somebody comes in and there’s not a lot in the case, it’s because we try to keep things as fresh as possible, so there may not be a lot out,” she said, as some items still are in the oven. “I don’t freeze anything. A lot of times, we have to cut off orders because we don’t have enough time to make everything fresh.”

The bakery is located off William Penn Highway alongside Jaden’s Catering and is open every day except for Tuesday. Baked With Love is a partnership with Jaden’s in making the catering company’s desserts, something Nader has been doing for four years.