About Us

Then Branch was born one February, and the trip just wasn't in the cards. So Caitlin decided she'd bake the pie instead.

The first one failed. The second was worse. But she kept at it until she worked out a recipe that wasn't just as good as the one in Florida - it was better.

She started asking farmers markets if we could sell. All but one said yes. So we showed up at the King George, Virginia market with a cooler, a folding table, a tent, picture frames pulled off our own walls, and a bed sheet for a tablecloth. Two flavors - key lime and a new strawberry lemon - and eight pies.

We sold out. And at every market after that.

Two Kids, Raised in Flour

When we needed a commercial kitchen to start wholesaling, a restaurant owner in Fredericksburg named Shawn was more than generous with his. Branch tagged along and we set up a plywood pen that he could play in while we baked. By 2020 we'd found our first storefront bakery in Vienna, Maryland. We opened the same week the world shut down, so we adapted the only way we knew how: we opened the front window and sold pies through it. Sadie grew up in that Vienna shop. (She once met the Deputy Secretary of Defense there. It was wild.) And regulars will tell you the kids' signature move over the years: sneaking slices for themselves.. straight out of the display case. By 2022, Berlin had already won us over. The town felt like the right place to open our second location, and the farmers market had made us feel at home from the very beginning.  The bakery has taught Branch and Sadie lessons no classroom could: how to talk to anyone, and that work done with your hands can make a real difference in people's lives - not just fill a shopping bag. That last part is exactly why we started Lil' Bakers Culinary - hands-on baking for kids. Real skills, real treats, real confidence. Because every kid deserves to find out what their hands can do. Mandala Pies has changed over the years, and so has our family. Some chapters have closed, and new ones have begun. The bones of this place - community, real ingredients - were built by Caitlin. The bakery we run today, from the day-to-day-operation and the recipes we bake, is what I've built in the years since. Keeping Mandala Pies alive was never a question. The only question was how to grow it. Plan A was to grow the business and challenge myself. Plan B was to make Plan A work. The real reason? My kids. Somebody asked me recently to finish a few sentences. Without overthinking, this is how it went: ~ Mandala Pies taught me... to trust myself again. There's more to this than baking pies and cookies - it's about community, a place to come together, for my family and for yours. ~ My kids taught me... to be present. The small things really do matter. ~ Community taught me... we're all in this together. That's the whole thing, really. A good pie pulls people to a table, puts the phones down, and lets you focus on the people you love. Thanks for being at the table with us. - Mikey