MARBLEHEAD — Lilly Tapper, a 24-year-old Marblehead native, is the owner and baker at Three Hundred Fifty.
Tapper’s business started in high school as a side hustle and she went into it full-time after she graduated from her master’s program in 2023.
“I always knew this is what I wanted to do, it was just a matter of time,” Tapper said. “I’ve had a love of baking since I was little.”
Tapper said she wants her packaging and presentation to stand out from that of other bakers, and tries to present her products in a unique way.
Tapper said she spent months trying to come up with a name, but was not able to think of one.
Her brother asked her what temperature she sets the oven to, and Tapper said 350. Her brother replied, “OK, there you go.”
She said her favorite thing to do in the kitchen is decorate.
“I find it so relaxing to decorate, especially cakes. Doing the piping and writing a custom message makes it really special and it’s definitely what I love to do,” Tapper said. “It’s always different, people have different ideas and different requests for their cakes and that’s great.”
Custom cakes, cakes for farmers’ markets and pop-up market, cake boxes, and mini- and micro-cakes are mostly what Tapper has been baking as of late.
“When I went to Johnson & Wales, every seven days was a different aspect of baking,” Tapper said.
She said she and the other students would have seven days of baking, then seven days of decorating, then seven days of hot and cold desserts, for example.
Tapper received her bachelor’s degree in 2022. She double-majored in baking and pastry arts and food and beverage entrepreneurship. She received her master’s degree in 2023 in business with a concentration in marketing.
Her goals are to open a storefront in the near future and grow her business into a recognizable name. She said she hopes to open storefronts in multiple cities.
Three Hundred Fifty products can be found at the town’s Farmers’ Market on Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. and at Swampscott’s Farmers’ Market on Sundays from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Tapper also offers gluten-free and sugar-free products.
During the weekdays, Tapper holds pop-up markets. Information can be found on her Instagram and Facebook accounts at @bakethreehundredfifty.
