The Sweetest Thing
Castro Valley pastry chef Elmeisha Fahrner shows her impressive range of skills—from conchas to cream puffs—in bespoke desserts almost too pretty to eat
Elmeisha Fahrner, pastry chef and owner of Paper Rock Fork, tops of her gluten free chocolate hazelnut tart. Photographed by Aubrie Pick, styled by Jillian Knox.
"What's the worst that could happen?"
That's so not a question for 2020. But almost a decade ago, when Elmeisha Fahrner was considering a stint in culinary school, it was the only question worth asking. And now, as Fahrner ramps up her Castro Valley home-based custom bakeshop Paper Rock Fork, it's the question she keeps coming back to. Because truly—when it comes to flour, butter, and sugar—what's the worst that could happen?
These layered brownies have become a signature of Elmeisha’s, and a must-have treat she has shipped to clients across the country. She says “It's a simple brownie dressed in chocolate and white chocolate ganache. Then finished with candied nuts.”
Photographed by Aubrie Pick, styled by Jillian Knox.
Fahrner was living in El Paso, using her degree in computer science in an IT position at the local community college and spending too much time complaining about her job. Her husband was the one who first suggested she follow her passion for cooking instead. "He always said, 'You're very happy when you're in the kitchen, why don't you go to culinary school?'" she says. "And I just fell in love with the whole pastry idea."
One of Elmeisha’s seasonal specials is this triple-layer orange cranberry cake with buttercream frosting and sugared fresh cranberries.
Photographed by Aubrie Pick, styled by Jillian Knox.
She rocked culinary school with a 3.8 GPA, learning how to balance the books, run the front of house, make perfect French sauces and even tie that little towel around your arm just so to keep from spilling water on diners. Her focus in pastry led to a foundational education in life's important skills: making laminated French pastries and colorful Mexican breads, beautiful layer cakes, sauces and creams and fillings and mousses and more. While continuing her IT job at night, Fahrner took a job in the mornings working the dessert station in an El Paso health food restaurant, where she learned how to make vegan and raw desserts as delectable as their rich, dairy-filled counterparts. She excelled, too, at coming up with savory dishes—something she was parlaying into becoming the head chef there. But then she got pregnant.
Elmeisha Fahrner, photographed by Aubrie Pick, styled by Jillian Knox.
Motherhood didn't derail Fahrner as much as focus her intentions on what she really wanted to do: Make desserts to bring people joy. She parted ways with the restaurant and went out on her own, opening Paper Rock Fork as a farmers market stall, where she'd make tarts, pies, cake jars, truffles, cookies, even loaves of bread for a short period—all while still working IT at the community college and parenting her young son. After her husband got a job offer in California, she finally left IT behind, but Paper Rock Fork's success as a vendor was left behind as well.
Elmeisha’s fruit tarts are works of art and change with the seasons. For this late-fall version, it’s loaded with the last of the season’s stone fruits, as well as figs, pomegranate seeds and even a handful of perfectly tart golden berries.
Photographed by Aubrie Pick, styled by Jillian Knox.
Though she's been busy in the Bay Area—first creating darling little cakes for Kara's Cupcakes and now with a job in Safeway's bakery department—Paper Rock Fork has been on the backburner, a passionate side hustle that allows her to make custom celebratory cakes and other decadent desserts for loyal clients in the few hours between other responsibilities. Scroll through her Instagram @PaperRockFork and you'll get an idea of the scope of Fahrner's talent: vegan tarts crowned in a rainbow of fresh fruit, modern layer cakes in flavor combos like coffee caramel or chocolate raspberry, sprinkle-topped cakepops, truffles rolled in crushed nuts, even some fine chocolate chip cookies. The talented baker takes great pride in recreating any themed cake you may find on Pinterest, and though she doesn't care for cakes covered in fondant—they don't taste as good!—she's happy to create adorable fondant toppers for special birthday or wedding cakes.
It should come as no surprise that Elmeisha can make a mean cookie. Here her classic oatmeal version gets a dunking.
Photographed by Aubrie Pick, styled by Jillian Knox.
Despite a global pandemic that's forcing her to also homeschool her now six-year-old, Fahrner is ready to go all in on Paper Rock Fork to see it blossom into the kind of business she's always wanted—hopefully, in her own brick-and-mortar storefront down the road, so she can hire folks as eager to learn as she's always been, but who similarly may have been overlooked. "Taking the leap, for me, is the hardest part," she says. "But [baking] is my joy. I'd rather have my son see me happy but fail than miserable and successful. I have to take a chance on this. What's the worst that could happen?"