Burnt Bakery of Woodbridge, Conn. will be celebrating its first birthday Friday, Nov. 14.

With a new spin on the word burnt, owner Rebecca Colburn’s philosophy is baking well-done, and while most question why she would name her bakery Burnt, she explained that’s what makes her philosophy so important in that it is the main feature of her bakery and even framed on the wall.

“A bakery named Burnt? Yes. Why? Because Burnt isn’t just a name that makes people scratch their heads, it stands for a new-again philosophy of baking that requires a bit of confidence to stand behind,” said Colburn. “It means fresh ingredients, from-scratch preparation, and a slightly skewed sense of humor. Being a customer of Burnt means that you’re OK with predictability, because you can be sure it’s always going to be delicious, always everyone’s favorite, and you’re always going to want to come back for more, and, they’re never actually burnt. I mean, if I was really concerned about burning baked goods, I certainly wouldn’t name my bakery Burnt.”

However, despite their best efforts over the past year, Colburn explained business is not as busy as it could be. “We have tried different marketing strategies,” said Colburn, who further explained that the difficulty of getting people into the bakery can be attributed to the store being hidden off of Rt. 63 and set back on 214 Amity Rd. in Woodbridge, Conn.
Colburn grew up locally in Conn. and has always wanted to open her own bakery.

“After working for other businesses in the food industry for 12 years, I finally decided it was time to open my own place so I could give the community a different spin on the traditional baked goods,” said Colburn.

Their celebration of being open officially for one year will feature specials and raffles throughout the day. From 10 a.m. until 12 p.m. will be BYOGO Cookies, from 1 p.m. until 3 p.m. the special will be buy two Cake Pops, get one free, and from 4 p.m. until 6 p.m. will be “BDay Happy Hour” which will feature $2 bar specials including cookie bars, brownie bars and blondies.

A baked goods basket and Cake Pops will be raffled off and guests are asked to bring a “present” to be donated to Toys for Tots, which the bakery is sponsoring.

Over the past year, in addition to building their bakery business, they have helped and donated to numerous organizations in the community, including Valley Goes Pink, where Burnt sells pink cupcakes every Saturday at their bakery and the money made is donated; Woodbridge Youth Center’s end of the year party in Dec., “Bethwood Bash;” and the Kennedy Center, where they sponsored a special needs girl and brought her into the bakery to work with the staff and help cut fruits and mix cookie batter, for example.

“It’s [this past year] has been exciting, a little overwhelming, but a great experience overall,” said Colburn.

Their menu features cakes, pies, cupcakes, truffle pops, keylime and lemon bars, Cake Pops, S’more bars, brownies, cream puffs, breakfast pastries and loaves, and cookies, with Kitchen Sink cookies and Cannibal cookies being Burnt’s two specialty cookies.

Burnt is open Tuesdays and Wednesdays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Thursdays and Fridays 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Saturdays and Sundays 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., but closed on Mondays. They can be reached at 203-387-7000 or at www.burntbakery.com and https://www.facebook.com/Burntbaking or by email at [email protected].