Emma Ostmann was already hooked on the art of baking when most kids were just learning how to make boxed brownies. 

She was 10 years old, sitting at her grandma’s table, when her dad leaned over her shoulder as she watched a YouTube tutorial by cake artist Yolanda Gampp, who Emma says makes “hyper realistic, beautiful” cakes. 

“He said, ‘You know what? I think you could do that,’ and I was like, ‘You know what? I think I could,’” Emma recalls. “So I took her online summer camp for baking and they sent me the pans, spatulas and recipe books. That’s just kind of how I started and I fell in love with it. It became my favorite thing to do and I just never stopped.”

By high school, she had started her own business: The Tiny Baker.

“When I was about 13, I started with just small orders for friends and family,” she says. “I used to put up flyers around the school and take orders for Valentine’s Day and stuff like that. Then I moved on to some of the luxury homes in Clermont and took bigger orders for them.”

Some orders were for mini cupcakes, but the name of her business has nothing to do with the size of her baked goods. It’s actually about her.  

“I’m only 5 feet tall. I’ve always been the smallest in my class and very petite. I was bullied a lot for being small,” Emma says. “So I took that name as a way to find confidence in myself and who I was as a person. Being small doesn’t mean I don’t have a big personality or abilities.”

From High School to Pastry School

After high school, Emma decided to continue with her baking. She enrolled in the pastry program at Lake Technical College in Eustis, where she and other students received the opportunity to work with local chefs.  

At one point, Lake Tech was invited to participate at the Taste of Lake, a local event where attendees sample items from different restaurants and shops. Mount Dora Chef Gabriel Maisonet accompanied the students and Emma says she really enjoyed showcasing her skills and her cupcakes to the people in attendance. 

That enjoyment helped Emma stay the course during the six months she juggled schoolwork and a job as a cake decorator at a Disney Springs bakery.

“I was waking up at 3am to get to work by 5am, then I drove an hour and a half to school and stayed until 10:30pm,” she says. “I didn’t get home until after 11pm, then had to wake up at 3am to do it all over again.” 

The schedule was brutal, but the discipline paid off. After graduating, Emma was hired at KKO Chocolate Shop in downtown Mount Dora, where she still works under Chef Gabriel.

“Oh, I love it,” she says. “Chef Gabriel and his whole family really make working there so wonderful. Him and his wife run everything and I love every second that I’m there.” 

“He’s really taken me on as kind of a mentee, and I’ve learned so much—not just about chocolate, but about business, life and discipline; just everything you need to know about the pastry world and he’s so kind and generous.”

Emma, with a playful tone in her voice, adds: “He’s not one of those Gordon Ramsay style chefs.”

The Science of Sweetness

For Emma, baking is more than mixing flour and sugar; its like science you can eat. 

“Right now, I work at the chocolate shop and I’m really enjoying it. I love creating the bonbons and candy bars and the process of tempering chocolate is really enjoyable for me,” Emma says. “I love the scientific reasoning behind all of my baking, you know, like the reasons why cakes rise and fall, why cookies spread and cocoa butter crystal formation.”

That love of experimentation showed during her pastry school finals, when she developed a Japanese-French fusion bakery concept. “I made cherry blossom bonbons and matcha cream puffs,” she says. “The cherry blossom flavor was so sweet, almost like honey berry floral. That’s something I’d love to incorporate into my own shop one day.”

Family Ties and Flavor Experiments

At home in Clermont, Emma’s family members often have special requests for their favorite baked goods. Especially her dad.

“He loves eclairs. He used to buy those frozen ones from Costco and I was like, ‘Don’t you dare buy those again,’” Emma says. “So now I make and freeze the plain shells and whenever he wants eclairs, I take some out and fill them with pastry cream and ganache. They taste way better!”

Her eclairs are just one of many delectable goodies The Tiny Baker produces. Emma has learned to create intricately decorated sugar cookies and has developed a long list of unique flavor mashups like lavender lemonade brownies and strawberry lemonade cake.

“I really like bold flavors but I also like to bring some familiarity,” she says.

One of her favorite cakes to make — especially in the fall — is pumpkin spice latte cake soaked in maple simple syrup, layered with espresso buttercream and topped with Swiss meringue buttercream. 

“I really look forward to being able to develop more as my creativity evolves,” Emma says. 

Hard Work, Big Dreams

Emma’s just 22, but she already has a plan for her future.

“My goal is to have my own shop,” she says. “I want to be able to bring that fine dining feel to traditional cakes, cookies and cupcakes and create my own brand.”

She clearly knows what she wants. When asked what her favorite piece of advice is, she says,  “Don’t let other people define you.”

“You’ll always find people who try to bring you down,” she continues. “But you also find the ones who will stand behind you no matter what. Focus on those people. Don’t ever settle, don’t give up because something gets hard. If you find something you truly love, there’s nothing that should get in your way.”

Emma says her love for baking is what makes her job so rewarding. And she sees herself doing it for a long, long time.

“I’ve had a very complicated relationship with food throughout my whole life. I’m very picky so being able to create food I like has been kind of difficult at times,” Emma says. “What’s really rewarding though, is being able to make things for other people and see the joy on their faces when they taste them.”

“Seeing a product you made and put so much effort into disappear because people love it is the main force behind being a baker or chef. That’s truly the biggest compliment and there’s no better feeling.”  

Pumpkin cake

Maple simple syrup

Espresso buttercream

Swiss meringue buttercream

Photos: Nicole Hamel