CROWN HEIGHTS — It may be small but Lady Charles Desserts, a petite punch of color in an otherwise grey block of Rogers Avenue between President and Carroll Streets, is impossible to miss.
Owner Karen Charles' pink-painted bakery offers spectacular dessert designs ranging from frosted portraits of Bob Marley to cakes in the shape of bottles of Johnnie Walker Black to tiered wedding cakes blooming with ornate sugar flowers — all of it made by hand.
"Everything is made from scratch — the cakes, the cookies, the frostings," said Charles, who opened her cafe at 241 Rogers Ave. this summer and who credits her Trinidadian upbringing with sweetening her culinary flair.
"In my culture, we do everything by hand."
In addition to the charismatic cakes and fancy frosting, the cafe also dishes up homemade breakfast biscuits every morning, as well as Charles' signature Trinidadian spiced rum cake and a rainbow of specialty cupcakes.
Every month, she teaches pint-sized bakers to decorate cupcakes for themselves.
"I come from a family of bakers," Charles explained. "When my sons had birthdays I baked them cakes, because it's hard to get a good quality cake."
Soon, the registered nurse found herself filling increasingly outlandish requests from her coworkers at Brooklyn Hospital.
"One of my coworkers [tried it] and that's how it started," Charles said. Other people started asking me, can you make a car? Can you make a shoe?"
This spring, she finally decided to open her own cafe, and fell in love with the tiny spot on Rogers Avenue.
"This neighborhood has really welcomed me," Charles said. "People pop in, even if they're not buying anything."
And the bakery may soon have some welcome company on the block, where Lady Charles is one of just a handful of businesses.
"There's a bridal salon coming in next door," Charles said with a grin. "Wedding cake, bridal dresses — it's a perfect fit."
