Proprietor of new Belmont baking company just can't shake her family's love affair with the kitchen

BELMONT — Debbie Cousineau grew up in a catering family. "On your 13th birthday, you got a cake. The next day you got your butt in the kitchen."

With many siblings working in the family business, Cousineau had to find her niche, which turned out to be baking. As adulthood approached, though, she turned toward the world of marketing, where she worked at a desk and didn't go home with flour in her hair. But the world of baking wasn't through with her.

Cousineau, through no fault of her own, started a baking company AbracaDebra's at the end of 2011. Originally working out of her Manchester home, she recently moved into the basement of the Osborne's Agway gift shop building in Winnisquam, which had previously been the home of a catering company. Despite her near lack of marketing or business planning, she finds herself baking like a mad woman, pulling all-night shifts and wondering how she was going to keep up with the growing demand.

A year ago, though, Cousineau wasn't working at all, having left work to be a full-time mom. The only baking she did was for her family — and if there were leftover cookies or an extra pie, she'd give them to her daughter's bus driver. That proved to be her undoing — the bus driver, a kind woman, cajoled Cousineau into baking several pies for her Thanksgiving gathering. Her pies were powerful advertising, and by the next major holiday several more people wanted to buy her products. "I was so busy the week before Christmas I didn't sleep for three days," she said.

The orders continued to flow in, this time for Super Bowl parties. With the interest growing, and her daughter old enough for her to go back to work, she figured, "It's time to go big or go home — word of mouth was just spreading." The bakery market saturated in Manchester, she decided to look elsewhere to located her business, and one of her biggest fans put her in touch with the Osborne family, which operates Agway stores in Concord and Hooksett, was preparing to open a new store in the Winnisquam area of Belmont, and had a fully-furnished kitchen they were looking to rent.

Along with a kitchen full of industrial-grade equipment, the lease deal also came with three big customers. Cousineau bakes pies, muffins and cupcakes to be sold at all three of the Osborne's Agway stores. She will also add items such as cookies, brownies, whoopie pies and sticky buns. AbracaDebra's will also take custom orders, and Cousineau said she's willing to take a crack at whatever a customer desires. "A lot of this is researching old family recipes, which is a lot of fun."

When possible, she plans to use locally-sourced products, such as eggs, apples and maple syrup. "I'm looking for other local suppliers," she said. She's done a vegan cake already, and added that she can do gluten-free items for customers who wish.

Explaining her sudden success, she thinks her business is one that has benefited from the sluggish economy. People are restraining from costly indulgences but still want a little sweetness in their lives. "There aren't buying the expensive homes, the expensive cars, but they treat themselves to a $3 cupcake."

Cousineau originally planned to renovate the kitchen and open it to the public as a retail shop, but decided that current demand is all that she can handle for now. After all, she wasn't even intending to start a business, it was the business that found her. The demand appeared as if by magic, as the business name implies.

For more information, visit www.abracadebranh.com.

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Debbie Cousineau didn't plan to start her own baking business, demand for her products grew like a word-of-mouth wildfire. She now operates AbracaDebra's out of the basement of a building in the Osborne's Agway in Winnisquam. (Laconia Daily Sun photo/Adam Drapcho)