Ube Galore: Running a Family-Owned, Filipino Food Truck with Marley’s Treats
Our YUM YAMS Ube Festival is right around the corner. At YUM YAMS, you’ll find an incredible lineup of Bay Area bakers and artisans, and we want to put a special spotlight on one of them.
Coined by Off The Grid as “the Bay Area’s go-to source for everything ube,” Marley’s Treats has gained immense popularity over the last decade, with features from Yelp and The Filipino Channel’s Adobo Nation. The local business has also expanded to going mobile with their food truck, Marley’s Streats. You may even recognize the iridescent purple truck from last spring’s YUM YAMS event. Now, hear directly from co-owner Gemma, as we chat about the bakery’s beginnings, the significance of ube, and her favorite items off the menu.
Where did the concept for Marley’s Treats originate from?
Our [eldest] daughter Marley —Jordyn Marley, actually. She was born [in] April 2010. I found myself at home just baking after I had her. I wasn’t working. And that’s where it began, where I started baking, playing around with different recipes. And then from there, it took off after social media posts.
Gemma’s family photo, 2020.
What role does your family—and/or heritage—play in running your small business?
I know with our culture we tend to look at everything as, “It takes a village.” My parents especially, they help out a lot in making sure the kids are watched from time to time. If we have catering [or] anything where we can’t take the kids with us, they are helping a lot. And as far as special events, my sisters come in to help too. A lot of our family members come and assist us in any way possible to get us through whatever it is that we’re doing at the time.
Why ube? What about ube desserts do you think brings people together?
I mean, we’re Filipino. We grew up eating ube everything. I remember my Lola preparing bread with even just ube halaya. And I think now, ube’s such a big thing. For one, its color. Two, it’s such a unique taste that is different. It’s good; it’s not super sweet where people will stray away from it. [With] people who don’t know what ube is, we’re just trying to get them familiar with the flavor.
Flan Ube Cheesecake (Mini)
Ube Flandesal
Ube Milkshake
What would you consider to be the ube treat that started it all for your business?
Well, we started with the ube cupcake [around] 2012. [In] 2016, we actually had a location in Oakland, and we started doing ube lattes and ube twinkies (child says, “twinkie!”). But coming here to this location, I think what really took off was the flan ube cheesecakes. And now, currently, I would say our ube flandesal, the flan ube cheesecakes, and the ube milkshakes are really what brings people here or to our truck.
Marley’s Treats Oakland location, circa 2016.
You now have a whole portfolio of ube creations. Do you have any favorites? Do any of your ube menu items come with a special story?
Yeah, our flan ube cheesecake actually! We started testing it at our Oakland location back in 2016. [With the] cheesecake [part], I love cheesecake so I was like, “We have to do ube cheesecakes!” And then the flan, it’s actually a family recipe of my fiancé Neil’s. And the flan ube cheesecake put together is a combination of the two.
This wouldn’t be your first YUM YAMS. What keeps you coming back to this festival as a vendor, and why should people attend?
I can’t even remember which number YUM YAMS this is. We make it a point to be at every single one because we want to make sure everybody understands what ube is, knows what ube is, and understands where it comes from in our culture. And that’s, of course, why we keep coming back. And we try to bring new items to each event so it’s not all the same thing. You know, it keeps the creativity going so that we are able to make new items and new things that we could introduce.
What can YUM YAMS attendees expect or look forward to from Marley’s Treats this time around?
So this YUM YAMS, we do have a couple items that we do want to introduce this time around. I don’t wanna say what yet, but we definitely want to bring something a little different this time so we are working on a couple things. And we hope that you guys enjoy it!
What impact are you looking to make with the community?
When I first started, I didn’t have so much of a mentor to know what to do in a sense of how to start the business, how to keep growing, how to keep achieving goal after goal. So anytime we meet somebody new, we always want to try to help out in any way possible. I know how hard it was to start in the beginning. So we do want to continue to help others achieve certain goals as far as growing their business within the community. We also want to do a lot to support different events, and [support] organizations—especially Filipino organizations—or participate in fundraisers, or participate in donations. We try to support by even just reaching out, sharing, reposting different things to get people aware of any community events.
Want to try some innovative ube fusion sweets from Marley’s Treats? Get your tickets to YUM YAMS now!