Natasha Brownfield has been responsible for some of the best baked goods I’ve eaten in Perth.

There were those legendary Saturday morning pastries – that pork and apple sausage roll! – that she turned out during her time in the Wines of While kitchen. She was also heavily involved in developing the weekend viennoiserie at Hunter Bread (enjoying a still-warm pain au chocolat with its smudgy crayons of molten chocolate is one of my favourite weekend pleasures), while memories of her golden, shatteringly flaky croissants – as seen at pop-ups at Kafka and Picabar among other places – continue to live rent-free in my head.

Impressively, Brownfield established her reputation as a gifted flour whisperer while shuffling between kitchens, often using domestic ovens and non-specialist baking equipment to work her magic. What, one wonders, could she be capable of if she had her own dedicated bakery? The imminent opening of Teeter will help answer this tantalising question.

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Although Teeter officially opens this month, Brownfield and the space – a former gelato production facility in East Perth – have history. While the space lay dormant at night, Brownfield would come in and bake, knocking out pastries and artfully decorated cakes for events as well as a loyal made-to-order customer base. Now that the ice-cream makers have moved out, the real fun begins.

“Now that I’ve got access to a kitchen that I can be in whenever I want, I no longer have to be working around someone else’s hours and can do anything,” says Brownfield. “There aren’t any parameters. I want Teeter to be quite fluid and just want to attract people that are enjoying the things that I’ve made.”

Brownfield’s professional baking career started in high school where, once a week, she’d do work experience at legendary Northbridge pasticceria, Corica Pastries. In the decade since leaving school, she’s honed her craft in bakeries throughout Perth (former ports of call include Miller & Baker and North Street Store), Melbourne (Ovens Street, Tivoli) and New Zealand where, by her own admission, Brownfield “ate a lot of cake.”

A key chapter of the Brownfield baking story, however, is a stint at Esperance’s Bread Local alongside inspiring self-taught baker Tiffany Brown. After establishing Bread Local in 2015, Brown has built the business into a successful wholesale operation as well as a wildly popular Friday afternoon pop-up where, for a few hours each week, Esperance locals swamp Bread Local HQ for supersized sausage rolls, custard tarts and other baked treats.

“She [Brown] was like, what are you doing Tash? You’ve just gotta do it and go for it,” says Brownfield. “I had the best time down there. I came back and started looking at second-hand equipment online. That was a good push.”

So, the million-dollar question: what’s going to be on offer at Teeter? While Brownfield is keeping an open mind as to Teeter’s direction, cakes will form the crux of Teeter’s business model initially, with customers able to pre-order cakes through the Teeter website for pick-up Wednesday to Saturday. At any one time, customers can order from six cakes, with the opening range including a yuzu and olive oil chiffon; a carrot sponge cake welded together with pineapple jam; a well-burnished Basque cheesecake; plus a gateau Basque, a summery seasonal tart that makes the most of the Manjimup cherry season.

Saturdays, however, are when things are set to get spicy, with Brownfield opening the shop up to the public and filling the cabinet – a beautiful custom-made piece from Perth- and Adelaide-based furniture makers Remington Matters – with all manner of temptation: think croissants, viennoiserie, seasonal sweet and savoury danishes and vegetarian pie. Quiche and cake by-the-slice are also on the agenda, while batch and cold brew coffee from Twin Peaks will be offered. While takeaway will be the name of the game – despite Teeter’s semi-industrial location, HBF Park and other pockets of greenery are nearby – a handful of stools and milk crates will be available for guests to sit on outside the white-walled space. Bonus: the sight of folks perched on plastic crates smashing pastries will help bakery enthusiasts pick out Teeter on those Saturday morning croissant runs.

Teeter, (145A Claisebrook Road, Perth), is due to open Saturday February 11 and will trade Wednesday to Saturday.

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