Z Bakery in downtown Fort Mill a family affair

Z Bakery started with $100 and a little bit of boredom and is now a quaint confectionery brick and mortar on Confederate Street – mixed with a whole lot of love and family.

The business, which opened last spring in downtown Fort Mill, is now a full-service bakery offering breakfast and lunch, as well as pastries, cupcakes and custom cake orders. The bakery is run by six family members, three full-time and three part-time.

Owner Trina Zimmerman has lived in Fort Mill for two decades and said she believes that keeping the business in the family is essential to longevity.

“As family, we have so much invested in it and so much riding on this,” she said.

On an average weekend, Zimmerman and her team create 10 to 12 custom cakes and 250 cupcakes, cake pops and cookies. Customers generally want to pick up their custom cakes on Saturdays.

“That takes you having to work 48 hours straight,” Zimmerman said, pointing to a door in the ranch-style home turned restaurant.

“We have mattresses in the closet to take an hour nap,” she said.

Out of necessity in her new role as a small business owner, Zimmerman is also the bakery’s accountant, marketer and janitor. The store is closed on Sundays and Mondays, but Zimmerman works every day of the week.

“I wear a lot of hats,” she said.

Zimmerman practiced as a nurse for 16 years before health issues forced her to step away. She faced the loss of her income and the death of her father around the same time.

“It was a turning point in my life,” Zimmerman said.

Her mother, Hilda Poole, had baked cakes for family and friends and for their church’s fundraising auction for years.

“Some of them would go for as much as three, four hundred dollars,” Zimmerman said.

One fall day in 2012, Zimmerman was bored and decided to jump in and help.

While she says she had never iced a cake before then, Zimmerman found baking enjoyable. Even better, she had a knack for it, and to this day has never taken a class.

Soon, mother and daughter were consistently booking orders three to four months out. They outgrew their home kitchen and added a two-room commercial kitchen to Poole’s home.

After a few years, the kitchen was again becoming crowded. The business needed room to grow and customers wanted the option to purchase items on a whim.

A location on Confederate Street became available and she went to check it out. Zimmerman knew she had found the right place when she walked across the threshold.

“It felt like home,” she said.

In the weeks before the grand opening, Zimmerman said strangers came in to donate tables, chairs, mirrors, paintings, chandeliers and more.

“The community just stepped in,” she said.

September was a particularly hard month for business, though Zimmerman isn’t sure exactly why. She took to social media to share the financial hardships the business was facing and the response was great. In the days following the Facebook post, many customers thanked Zimmerman for the reminder and expressed their belief in the bakery and desire to see it succeed.

“If you want a local business to stay, you have to support it,” Zimmerman said. “The community has rallied around us.”

Zimmerman said she can’t help but want to replicate the generosity shown to her through her business. She has taken so many cupcakes to the town of Fort Mill administration building that employees have graciously asked her to stop due to their growing waistlines. Her sweet treats have found their way to homeless shelters in the area, and the Fort Mill fire and police departments are also frequent recipients.

Several times, Zimmerman has posted to Facebook that anyone in need of a free meal can stop by – and the offer always stands.

“I don’t think people who live in this community realize how loving and compassionate this community is,” Zimmerman said. “But we’ve witnessed it firsthand.”

This story was originally published November 23, 2015 at 8:48 AM with the headline "Z Bakery in downtown Fort Mill a family affair."