It is a testament to the fact that we have so many amazing food places here in Maine that I had not yet made it to the Scratch Baking Company even though they have been around since 2004.  Of course, I had heard of them and knew that they got amazing reviews, but it was only this past month that I finally made my first visit.

My daughter was graciously standing in for my husband during a weekend hike as he was home sick with a cold and not up for it. The thing is my daughter does not like to hike. Not even a little bit. So, in order to convince her to join me I had to resort to the oldest of parenting strategies – bribery. I promised her a good meal if she came with me.

We were headed to Willard Beach and the Spring Point Ledge Lighthouse so it was a perfect opportunity to make a stop into Willard Square and grab some lunch at Scratch Baking Company before our adventure. As we entered the bakery, there was a menu board listing their bread options, and then a counter service at the back with a display of delicious looking deserts in a glass case to the right. While all of these things looked enticing, we headed to the back room to order some lunch first.

We ended up deciding to split a clam chowder and sandwich so we could leave room for dessert. The hardest decision was narrowing down our dessert choice, but we finally settled on a brownie. Unfortunately, there’s no place inside Scratch Baking Company to sit and eat, so we took our food back to the car and then headed to Willard Beach to park where we ate inside our car. If we were doing this trip in any other season, we could have found some great outside dining spots but the cold and snow of winter limited our choices.

It was still fun and the food was delicious. The chowder was flavorful with the right amount of spice. I especially enjoyed the bread on our sandwich which was crusty and so yummy. Our brownie was rich, moist and the perfect end to our meal before we braved the cold for our hike.

This wasn’t an especially long walk as I didn’t want my daughter to get too overwhelmed on her first outing, so we just did a short walk up the beach towards the lighthouse. This walk is entwined with the Southern Maine Community College campus and there was a sidewalk parallel to the beach that we were able to use for much of our walk. It’s always fun to hike the local beaches in the off-season when dogs are usually out in abundance which was the case during this hike.

The Spring Point Ledge Lighthouse is especially fun because you can actually walk across the breakwater and get up close to the lighthouse. It makes for stunning views and I’ve seen some gorgeous pictures on Instagram of the lighthouse during various weather conditions. They’re all stunning. You can also explore the remains of Fort Preble located at the beginning of breakwater. This is a quick, easy walk with lots of interesting things to see.