Senior Thomas Barber knows exactly where everything in senior Serena Chew’s kitchen is — except, apparently, her trash can.

It’s late on a Wednesday night when he pulls two blocks of cream cheese out of the Chews’ fridge. He unwraps them, dumping the cheese in a bowl of powdered sugar, and the wrappers straight in the sink beside him.

Chew looks at him, and raises her eyebrows. He shrugs.

She puts the wrappers in the trash as Barber continues to mix the frosting for their red velvet cheesecake. It’s a birthday cake for a friend’s father; the first full cake order they have made as SugarMonster Bakery.

The bakery is a two-person collaboration operating out of the Chew family kitchen. The idea for the business came from Chew early in the summer of 2012. In the previous year, she and Barber had spent the majority of their time together baking, and for Chew, who was trying to determine her summer plans, the idea made perfect sense.

“She came to me and was like, ‘Thomas, we should just start a business! That’s what I can do,'” Barber said.

The two had joked about being on a “Teen Edition” of the TV show “Cupcake Wars,” but hadn’t considered baking for more than just fun. Chew drew inspiration from her older brother, class of 2008 alumnus Mark Chew, who had started a Korean sandwich catering business with friends when he was in high school.

“So I knew it was possible,” Chew said. “I took his basic idea and he gave me a lot of pointers and that’s just how we got started.”

Chew and Barber researched their selling options, including flea markets, but because of the stringent legal requirements — being FDA approved, having a certified kitchen — decided to cater instead. Their first customers came from Chew’s church after she began bringing samples and order forms, and now, to keep the business small, they only accept orders from friends, friends of friends and acquaintances.

Over the summer, they hunted down, tested, and personalized their favorite dessert recipes, the first of which was macarons. They experimented with different flavors — including pistachio, green tea and coffee — but say their first attempt was an utter failure. They spent over five hours making four batches of about 30 cookies each, and ended up throwing them all away.

“It made me want to cry! They were the worst things I ever made in my life. The thing about macarons is [that] they’re very temperamental,” Chew said. “If you overmix, they’ll get super flat and crack. If you undermix they’re super puffy … there are just so many factors.”

Stacks of customized recipes and a few months later, the two narrowed down their specialties to cheesecakes and those fated macarons. They also spent time collaborating with family friend and class of 2011 alumnus Alex Chiu. A Communication Design student at Washington University in St. Louis, Chiu came up with the small green, pastry eating, monster with a cupcake hat that now serves as the face of the bakery. With business cards featuring the new logo, Chew and Barber finalized their financials with Chew’s father, Glen Chew, who with Serena’s mother, Karen Chew, had funded many of SugarMonster’s early experiments, thinking that it was just a small summer project.

By August, the two were ready to debut the SugarMonster Bakery to their friends in the form of a tea party at Chew’s house.

They produced four cheesecakes of two different flavors, nearly 200 macarons of various flavors, 80 pumpkin spice cupcakes, and 60 blueberry scones. They served up their finished products to about 35 guests, who were each charged a small entrance fee to break even the costs of the raw ingredients. Barber and Chew say that guests were most surprised that they were able to mass-produce such a large amount of food, but were impressed enough with the results that the two received several orders.

One order of blueberry scones came from their mutual friend senior Trisha Mitra’s mom, but at a time when Chew was out of town. Barber ended up completing the order, tall as it was, by himself in her kitchen. Seeing Barber in their kitchen at all hours of the day has now become routine for Chew’s parents, who say heís almost a part of the family.

According to Karen Chew, Barber will frequently come over in the evenings with a bag of groceries — flour, eggs, special ingredients for their chosen recipe — and she’ll leave them alone to go about their business.

“[Sometimes he’ll be here until 2 a.m.] and they’re baking and watching TV and talking. And I’ll say to them, ‘Mrs. Chew’s going to bed! I’m tired! Clean up the dishes and good night!'” Karen said. “I think [the experience is] very cathartic for both of them — and they work well together. They complement each other — and they’re open to each other’s ideas and suggestions.”

That is what both Serena and Barber agree is the best part of their working relationship: that there is one at all.

They are sitting at the table there now, after three hours of work on their red velvet cheesecake. Barber has finished the frosting — and managed not to litter the sink any further — and readying white chocolate chips as Chew frosts the cake.