Most pastry-shop chefs who write a cookbook go on to do so after they’ve been up and running their business for a while. For Fanny Lam, it was the other way around.

The brains and culinary talent behind the Oh Sweet Day! blog released her first cookbook, Oh Sweet Day! The Celebration Cookbook in the fall of 2018. Now, she’s whipping up beautiful goodies in her own bakery just off Commercial Drive (1706 East 1st Avenue).

The self-taught baker was born and raised in Hong Kong and moved to Vancouver in 2008. She starting blogging about baking. Her hobby led to huge popularity on social media and the launch of a home bakery business.

Lam ventured out to sell her goods at local farmers markets. On Italian Day on the Drive this past summer, she was on-site with her signature mini cheesecakes. Response was crazily positive: she sold more than 800 of the fluffy little treats in a single day. That was when she and her husband decided to open the bricks-and-mortar space (which was previously home to a cupcake shop) even sooner than they had planned.

At Oh Sweet Day!, Lam makes 10 different flavours of her mini cheesecakes ($6 each) daily (except Tuesdays, when it’s closed). She spent months developing the recipe and is so proud of it, she’s willing to go so far as to say they’re the best in town. The two most popular flavours are lemon and espresso.

Lam also creates large cheesecakes, custom cakes, shortbread-cheesecake sandwiches, and all sorts of cookies, with holiday cookie gift boxes being especially popular. Starting at $28, the gift boxes include types like shortbread (like Earl Grey, dried cranberry and pistachio, lavender lemon, dark chocolate, matcha and more) as well as chewy ginger spiced cookies, snow balls (walnut and pecan butter balls), and others.

French chocolate silk pie, pumpkin chiffon tart, strawberry cream pie, mocha cupcakes, toasted marshmallow cupcakes, mango mousse coconut cake… Lam’s repertoire of desserts is luscious and rich.