Somebody in Sarasota Is Dipping Kiwis in Candy Glass

"You thought you were gonna have a regular Saturday?"

That's the first line on the preorder page at Fruits and Flour, and honestly, I did. I had plans. Then I saw the candied kiwi.

The kiwi, explained

Fruits and Flour is a cottage bakery working out of Sarasota and North Port, started in 2024. The menu lists Candied Kiwi from $6: a golden kiwi "dipped in crunchy candy." The about page goes further and calls them "glass-crunched."

Other bakeries say fresh. This one says glass. It is the correct word. The candied apples come in "ruby-red glass shine or bold blueberry blue," and the candied grapes, from $8, are "jewel-bright, glistening, impossibly fun." The whole fruit side of the order page reads like a jewelry counter that happens to be edible. I want all of it. I want a little box with a velvet lining.

The Saturday drop

Every Saturday there's a rotating special. This week it's the fall lineup, per the preorder page:

• Cinnamon rolls from $6, marked best seller, with a homemade vanilla-bean glaze
• Sweet potato pie from $20
• Sweet potato bundt from $6 with a brown butter spiced glaze
• Pumpkin bundt from $6 with a cream cheese spiced glaze

The preorder page says orders run Monday through Friday until 4 p.m. for Saturday pickup, and once the week's batch is spoken for, it's gone. Today is Friday. If you're cutting it close, call (941) 504-9794 instead of trusting your own sense of time.

You pick Sarasota or North Port at checkout, and the pickup address and instructions arrive in your receipt email. Local delivery runs $4.99 within 10 miles of either spot. Nothing is pre-made, according to the homepage, and your order goes into production when you place it.

The person behind the shell

The baker is Shaniqua, who runs @fruitsandflour on TikTok. Her bio mentions a self-serve bakery cart in North Port on Saturdays, and this Sept. 18 clip sums up the whole system in its caption: "Scan → add → checkout."

@fruitsandflour

Watch it on TikTok if the player doesn't load.

The about page says it all began as "a single loaf baked for a Sunday brunch" and grew "one neighbor at a time." It also says "hospitality is a form of worship," which is a lot to live up to, and the menu makes a real attempt: the people who usually get one sad option get a vegan carrot cake, a vegan spice cake and a gluten-free butter vanilla cake, each from $3.

Can't wait for Saturday?

Their pop-up schedule has them at the 10th annual Big Mama's Collard Green Fest at Robert L. Taylor in Newtown on Saturday, Oct. 17, noon to 6, with hot cinnamon rolls, candied grapes and banana pudding. Admission is free. Go for the greens, stay for the fruit that crunches.

It's a cottage food operation, and the site's footer says it plainly: everything is made in a home kitchen not inspected by the Department of Agriculture. Questions about allergies or custom orders go through the contact page. For more home bakers, see Barefoot Barista's beach-named loaves.

— Marina