By Cathy Miller

A beloved family recipe brings so much joy. Remember Mema’s banana pudding. Or Grandma’s cannoli. Now there’s Bam’s Carrot Cake, a sweet delight with a family history, served up in a mason jar.

In Port Murray, there’s a powerhouse of an impresario – a baker, a seamstress, a tailor – with a broad smile, a quick wit, and a calvalcade of stories! Her name is Paula McKinnis and herein are a few morsels about her mother’s famous Carrot Cake.

The McKinnis family moved from Newark to Port Murray in 1965. Carolyn McKinnis often made her cake for church dinners, baking it in a huge pan to feed many mouths. It wasn’t long before her cake acquired a sizable fan base.

She eventually bequeathed her recipe to Paula, but it never tasted the same as when her mom made it. Years ago, when she returned home to care for her mom and dad, Paula made the cake with her mother. Sitting around the table enjoying that cake, she and her brother Tyrone realized it was their mother’s touch that made the recipe so spectacular.

The idea of selling the cake came from making it for a fundraiser where it was a big hit, with countless requests for more.

After research, experimentation, and testing, Paula decided to move forward and sell the cakes, assembling them in eight-ounce mason jars festooned with orange polka dot ribbons. Her friends (a.k.a. guinea pigs) loved the packaging and gobbled up the cake! They shipped well, too.

Stepping out of her home kitchen and into the world of commerce, Paula works from a licensed and inspected kitchen in Hellertown, where she does all her baking.

Over the summer, she began offering samples of Bam’s Carrot Cake at Donaldson Farms’ Friday Nights on the Farm dinner in Mansfield Township. They went over so well, the little jars packed with thick layers of carrot cake and cream cheese frosting are now being sold in the Farm Market. In Washington, they can be purchased at Von Thun Farms. Paula bakes small loaves for Country Fresh Farms in Asbury. She also sells at Farmers’ Markets in Hellertown and Bethlehem.

Home-made, from scratch, Bam’s Carrot Cake is a fitting tribute to Paula’s mother Carolyn. BamBam was the name Paula’s late son Denero gave his grandmother (his grandfather was PopPop). With each cake, Paula is honoring both her mother and her son.

Carolyn laughed when Paula told her she planned to sell her cake. She liked her Carrot Cake in the mason jar, the orange ribbon with white polka dots tied around the jar holding a little wooden spoon. She knew her image (a line drawing by Paula) would appear on the label. She also knew that Paula had taken the liberty of adding a tiny bit of sour cream to the cream cheese filling, to temper the sweetness and make it easier to spread.

As Bam’s Carrot Cake has grown in popularity, through word-of-mouth and endless samples, Paula has received requests for other flavors. For now, she opts to stay true to her carrot cake roots.

Paula shared, “Every time I make this cake I see my mother.” With the spirit of her mother watching over her, the carrot cake Paula bakes is as perfect a replica of her mom’s cake as possible, without her mom actually doing the measuring, stirring and baking. Paula said, “It’s the most rewarding experience.” Bam’s Carrot Cake is a truly divine dessert!

Baking is near and dear to Paula’s heart, but sewing is her passion. She’s an accomplished seamstress and tailor with a beautiful, well-stocked sewing studio in her basement.

Years ago her father Earl wanted to buy a particular dress for his wife, but couldn’t afford it. He decided to make it himself. At that moment, he became a self-taught tailor. “He made all our clothes, all mom’s party dresses, all our church dresses,” she reminisced.

Her sewing and tailoring expertise came from her father, although Paula always had an eye and a feel for a fine fabric. She loves men’s fabrics and actually considers herself something of a “fabric snob” adding, “I really don’t like polyester.”

She explained, “My dad taught me how to sew when I was about 12. He always said ‘Don’t let people walk up and ask you if you made something because of how it looks, let them ask you because they know you sew.’ Which means, don’t let it look shabby.”  When her dad was no longer able to sew, Paula started sewing for her mom.

She made “tons of masks” during the pandemic – including donating to hospitals – incorporating the nose wire with a piece of sponge to make it more comfortable and a wider, softer elastic for the ear loops. She even accepted special orders, from glittery and glitzy to matching lacy white masks for an office of women. She enjoyed creating special masks, with sparkles, sequins, butterflies and fish for all the little girls in the neighborhood.

She’s sewn several wedding gowns, custom designed and custom fitted, all with an eye for detail. She’s done dresses for the bridal party as well as wedding veils and headdresses. Unsurprisingly, she admitted, “I like the challenge.”

Not restricted to wedding apparel, she fashions prom dresses, party dresses, office wear, slacks, jackets, and men’s attire as well.

“When a client requests something,” Paula explained, “it’s one of a kind, custom designed and they know I’ll never duplicate it. What gives me joy is when the person walks down the aisle and they look good and feel good.”

Paula plans to have two separate lines of apparel: pMichele by Paula M will be women’s wear; dTynell (in honor of her son) will be a menswear label with custom shirts and slacks. She also designs children’s wear – her granddaughter Alana-Rose, 12, just loves her fluffy dresses!

Learning from her grandmother, Alana-Rose eagerly assists with cake making, packaging, and selling. After expressing an early interest in design, Paula wants to teach her to sketch her visions in her own book of pre-printed figures called a Fashion Croquis. She’s also preparing to teach the youngster how to sew – at the tender age of 12 – the same age as Paula when her dad taught her to sew.

SIDEBAR: Tasty Tidbits About Paula

Paula’s first job was as a waitress at a restaurant tin Hackettstown.

Her father not only taught Paula how to sew, but also how to maintain a car, how to drive a stick shift, and how to change a tire.

Pre-Covid, Paula was a Lyft driver, a customer favorite, who enjoyed the experience to no end.

She’s an avid doll collector with several beautiful porcelain dolls and an impressive array of Barbies, including dolls from two limited editions by Byron Lars, a black fashion designer – the African-themed “Treasures of Africa” (2001–2005) and the hat-themed “Chapeaux Collection” (2006–2008).

After forays into a few different institutions of higher education, she returned to school in her 40s, earning her BS in Organizational Management.

Paula’s business card features a glass wing butterfly with transparent wings. Like the butterfly emerging from a chrysalis, she felt a connection because of the huge changes in her life – her divorce in 1993, and the deaths of her son Denero in 2003, her father Earl in 2014, and her mother Carolyn in 2015 – acknowledging, “Everything that happens to you in your life prepares you for the next thing coming.”

Does she ever relax? With so many plans and an eye towards “the next thing coming,” Paula McKinnis mused, “I have no time for an idle mind.”

Inquiries:
Bam’s Carrot Cake
email: sweet@bamscarrotcake.com
phone: 908-798-8089

pMichele Custom Designs, Tailoring & Alterations
email: pMicheleclothes@gmail.com
phone: 858-405-8937