At the start of 2020, Laura Fucella hustled around D Squared Java’s shop in Exeter, managing it by day and crafting specialty cakes from the comfort of her own kitchen by night.
She pulled double time trying to get her new business, EatXactly Cakes, off the ground while helping provide for her 2-year-old daughter by serving cups of joe to latte-ordering regulars. When COVID-19 found its way through New Hampshire, these regulars soon became distant memories, and Fucella’s employer was forced to lay her off.
Fucella decided to put all her culinary expertise from the Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts in Boston into the business she started in 2017.
“It was like I finally had a reason to spend more time on (the business),” she said. “I wanted to have more time with my daughter so it was great. I had a reason to be home every day with her. And a chance to not have an excuse of like, ‘Oh, I have to work, so I can’t do a cake.’ So it was definitely like, Nice, this is something I can do more of now.”
Fast-forward a year and a half, and Fucella’s orders skyrocketed to the point where she was turning away five cake orders per week. Now, she’s hard at work getting her new downtown location up and running.
“Concord is the place to be,” Fucella said. “I grew up here, and I can’t wait to get this going. … It’s fun to be able to give something back and still be a part of Concord. Especially this location … there are always events going on in the summer and people walking by.”
While allocating very little time to marketing, she credits her success to working with various vendors and wedding planners — and word of mouth taking care of the rest.
EatXactly’s new location at 5 Eagle Square is being renovated by Fucella and her husband, Ryan — who she calls “the man behind the cakes.” Together, they have torn apart the space and have started to refloor. They are planning to fill the space with repurposed furniture and dishware that they have accumulated in the last six months. “Eclectic and vintage” were the terms used by Fucella when describing how she wants her new shop to look.
She is mostly putting her cake crafting on hold while this process is transpiring but is taking select orders based on her schedule.
With the relocation and renovation came a rebranding. Fucella was adamant that the formerly EatXactly Cakes name did not align with what she would be offering in the new space, so “EatXactly Sweet Cafe” was born.
“I want it to be more than cakes, and we are doing a full array of pastries … bistro-style, sandwiches and quiches,” she said. “It needed to be more than just cakes.”
While there are various other options to get a pastry or cake in Concord, Fucella says that the desserts and environment that will be available at her shop are unrivaled in the area.
“Not only are there things that aren’t made around here, but they are things made completely from scratch,” she said. “Everything you would write down to the fillings … but it’s also going to be a place where you can sit and take a break from the constant craziness of the day. My favorite place I’ve ever been to is Japan, and they really take the time to sit and enjoy what they are eating. I want people to be able to do that here.”
The new menu has not been finalized, but Fucella says that two components of the future display will be her spiced sticky buns and “crackling” cream puffs. “They’ll have cinnamon spice, so it’s got a very Mediterranean flair,” she said about the sticky buns.
Fucella says that owning her own business has always been the goal and that it will give her the freedom she has desired after bouncing around from restaurant to restaurant throughout her 20s. The Concord-area native was born with baking in her blood, as her family used to watch her 4-year-old experiment with their flour and eggs. This soon evolved into an addiction to the show Cake Boss and baking birthday cakes for her friends in high school.
“I would like to experiment, and I always loved baking,” Fucella said. “No one in my family can bake. It was definitely something that, like, I just got into naturally, and I don’t know where the spark came from.”
The surrounding businesses on North Main Street and in Eagle Square have given Fucella a warm welcome, as she says they have lent her a hand with access to bathrooms and a good conversation as she upgrades her space.
While having a ways to go with the renovation and the permit acquisition process following it, Fucella and her husband are targeting May 6 for an invite-only soft open and hope to have their official opening at some point in the following weeks.