This Alexandria-Based Bakery is Built on Love & Powered by Friendship

As an Alexandrian with a sweet tooth, I often spend my days combing my city’s streets for treats that would make never-ending family gatherings a little more bearable. And when I’m not window shopping on the sidewalk, I’m window shopping on social media. In my Instagram scrolling escapades, I came across an online bakery called TSB, aka Triple S Bakes. Intrigued by the heaps of delicious-looking cookies and frosted cake displayed on the bakery’s Instagram account, I reached out to lead baker Sara Sayed Samra, who welcomed me into her digital kitchen.

“TSB stands for Triple S Bakes, and Triple S is basically just me, Sara Sayed Samra. I’m the founder and chef,” Samra tells SceneEats. “I graduated from architectural engineering in 2020 and, frankly, never thought that one day I’d be shifting the course of my career so drastically. But, actually, when you think about it, baking is simply an odd-shaped combination of science and art - so it was a perfect fit.”

The odd shapes in question include gigantic cookies, covered in Kinder chocolate or otherwise, as well as flamboyant multi-layer cakes in whatever theme you request, and edible breakable chocolate hearts.

“I’ve loved being in the kitchen since I was a kid. The first thing I ever learned was how to make a sandwich for my dad’s breakfast. I just felt like that was a part of showing him I loved him,” Samra shares. “Before long, I started learning actual cooking from my mom, and my love and passion for cooking and baking grew. I always had this image in my head of owning a cute little cupcake shop.”

From school all the way to university, Samra experimented in the kitchen, testing out countless recipes as her (hungry) friends and family cheered in the background. “Cooking and baking have always been my love language, and they soon became a form of therapy, too.” When she started baking cookies for her friends at university, she soon got trapped in a loop. “They were amazed. I accidentally raised cookie addicts, and then I had to bake them cookies every week, besides cooking them dinner when we worked on our group projects.” This never seemed to upset Samra, though, for her baking swelled with the power of her own love.

Her baking is, at the end of the day, a celebration - which is why TSB parties extra hard at every occasion. Last Valentine’s Day, the bakery went all out with giant Tic-Tac-Toe cookies, chocolate boxes in the shape of hearts, embossed sugar cookies and heart-shaped giant cookies topped with a heartfelt declaration of love.

“Like any fresh grad, I decided I needed to take a break after graduating and postpone applying to jobs for a couple of months. While I tried to muster up the energy to apply for a 9-to-5 job in architecture, my friends were spamming me everywhere, begging for more of my cookies,” Samra says. “I was, of course, happy to feed them, but then they planted a seed: ‘Sara, you’ve been making us cookies and food for five years - it’s enough. Just start your own online bakery and we can order them whenever we’re craving them.’”

After 10 months of planning - Samra insists that she is not slow, just a perfectionist - TSB was launched. With her friends as judges, Samra sampled cookie after cookie after cake, keeping her friends as her own quality control committee. Even the bakery’s name was friend-inspired. “I honestly had no idea what to call the bakery until I remembered what a friend of mine used to call me at school - Triple S!”

Since then, Triple S flourished - not only as an online bakery, but as an event catering service as well - simply shoot them a message on Instagram and they’ll come to serve your event. The bakery’s cookies can also be found at coveted Alexandria breakfast spot and coffee district Zed & Co. Maybe the bakery will expand to Cairo next?

“Triple S always makes sure she bakes products using only the highest quality ingredients,” Samra says. “I’m a sweet tooth, and I know that the only thing that would make someone wait for an online order they placed, rather than go buy any dessert from anywhere on the street, is if it tastes absolutely incomparable to anything else. That’s what I try to deliver to each and every customer: a high-quality dessert, baked with love and passion, and packed with ultimate care.”