‘It began with a dream and a cupcake’

Almost two million cupcakes. That’s where Tracy Dueck’s count stood back in 2016, when the Langley Advance Times dropped in to mark ten years of Tracycakes. She had 30 staff by then. Ten more years have gone by since, so do the math at your own risk.

Tracy opened her first location in Fort Langley in September 2006, the paper reported. A White Rock shop followed. She moved in and out of Fort Langley village, then settled in Langley’s historic Murrayville neighbourhood in 2013, with a second cafe on Montrose Avenue in Abbotsford.

Her own website sums up where it came from. “A lifelong host, Tracy always had the gift of entertaining.” Or, as the homepage puts it, “It began with a dream and a cupcake.”

Scones, Devonshire cream and a very full cupcake case

The big draw is the Signature High Tea. You get savoury finger sandwiches and fresh-baked scones with home-made jam and Devonshire cream. Then come the babycakes and dainties. You can sit down for it or take it to go.

The cupcake case runs to more than 60 varieties of cupcakes, babycakes and specialty cakes, “made from scratch, with love and butter, every day,” according to the bakery. There’s a lunch menu as well, with paninis, sandwiches, wraps, homemade soups and salads.

Wedding cakes and catering are part of the business too, if you’d like the cupcakes to come to you.

A book about the lake

In 2023 Tracy published a book. Reflections from the Lake collects stories and recipes from her family’s cabin at Canim Lake, which belonged to her parents-in-law. She first went there at 17.

“To be honest, I didn’t think much of it back then, but the more I visited, the more it became not just a family vacation spot; it was my haven,” she told the Langley Advance Times. After the cabin was sold, she wrote down more than 30 years of family memories. The book is sold on Amazon.ca.

These days she lives in Abbotsford with her husband, Ray. The bakery’s website says the two of them like adventuring with their golden retriever, Reverend, and spending time with the grandkids.

Twenty years at the Five Corners

The Murrayville cafe sits at Five Corners, where 216 Street, 48 Avenue and Old Yale Road meet. The Langley Advance Times has described the roundabout as ringed by historically significant buildings, and Tracycakes is in one of them. Porter’s is in another of those old buildings, and historic Murrayville Hall sits beside it on 48 Avenue.

Tracycakes marked its 20th anniversary in 2026. “Thank you for 20 incredible years!” the bakery wrote on its anniversary page.

Photos: Tracycakes Bakery Cafe.