Shorewood Siblings Launch Ube-Focused Bakery

Miles (left) and Zelda Quimpo of Ube MKE. Photo courtesy of the Quimpo family.

Ube, a violet-hued staple of Filipino cuisine, is gaining popularity in the local food scene, showing up in everything from craft lattes to scoops of ice cream.

In Shorewood, two preteens are spearheading their own purple reign.

Miles and Zelda Quimpo, ages 12 and almost 10, launched Ube MKE earlier this year. The cottage bakery offers ube crinkle cookies, muffins and brownies for pickup and has a busy schedule of summer pop-ups ahead.

The brother-sister duo has always enjoyed ube, which was ubiquitous in their Southern California hometown but harder to come by after they relocated to the Milwaukee suburb last summer.

“When we moved here, we were missing a lot of the Filipino culture and food,” said the siblings’ dad, Mike. “So I started baking with ube a lot more.”

“There was no other ube stuff here, except for drinks,” Miles added. “We decided that maybe we should sell something ube.”

Miles, like his dad, brings a love of baking to the venture. He handles more than 50% of the prep, though the whole family plays a role. “Dad always does the muffins,” he said.

Zelda heads up social media and branding for the business, creating fliers and editing videos to share with Ube MKE’s growing audience. “I just like making things,” said the aspiring graphic artist, who is working to master Canva and other design tools to complement her drawing talents.

In addition to their core menu of brownies, cookies and muffins, the Quimpos experiment with rotating specials such as banana bread, mochi butter cake and marshmallows. “We’d love to be able to do it at once and crank up the production, but we’re limited with space,” Mike said.

Ube, the Quimpos’ signature ingredient, is a yam variety native to the Philippines. Its flavor is commonly described as nutty and lightly sweet, with notes of vanilla and white chocolate.

“What makes it cool, I think, is the color,” Miles said. “Without any dyes, the inside is really purple.”

The yams are typically boiled, mashed and cooked with butter, sugar and milk to make ube halaya, a jam that is then mixed into batters and other desserts. The bakery remains centered on ube for now, but may eventually expand to other Filipino flavors, including pandan or kamansi, Mike said.

The siblings’ parents expressed gratitude for the community’s warm welcome. “It’s been kind of an overwhelming response,” Mike said. “We’re trying to make sure that we don’t get burned out, because we want to keep it fun for the kids. It’s gratifying to have that response, but also for them to learn entrepreneurship and what it takes to run a business. We can’t wait to see where we go from here.”

Customers can find Ube MKE vending every other Sunday at Shorewood Farmers Market, with weekly appearances set to begin in July. Preorders are available online. The bakery will also pop up at Uptown Get Down on June 25 and the ticketed Milwaukee Dumpling Fest on June 28.

Details on future pop-ups are shared via Ube MKE’s social media and website. Fans can also sign up for weekly newsletters from the siblings’ mom, Hazel.

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