Few desserts rival the zesty delight of Caitlin Hubner’s key lime pie. Tangy, creamy, and perfectly balanced—not too sweet—her lemony creations possess all the qualities needed to turn a simple pie into an Instagrammable sensation. But behind the ‘90s-inspired acid green smiley face that defines her business lies a story of grit and determination: Caitlin—or Cait, to her friends and customers—is a true hustler.

Born and raised just outside the city in a family where food was revered and mastered, Caitlin’s passion for playing in the kitchen was ingrained in her genes long before she came around to making it part of her livelihood. From a young age, she felt empowered by the stove—the kitchen was her safe place. “I really wanted to go to culinary school when I was a teenager,” she recounts from the comfort of her living room, clutching a bottle of sparkling water, “But the food options back then weren’t what they are now, the path was very linear. You’d go to culinary school and the most exotic thing you could do was to go be a chef at a restaurant in like... the Bahamas.” So with little to no alternative creative avenue to follow and a thick glass ceiling hindering aspiring chefs from innovating, Caitlin opted for a hospitality course.

Her passion for cooking still running deep, she began working in restaurants while studying and gained experience across various positions at the front of the house, eventually running the establishment as a manager. But as the hectic pace and tense atmosphere of the food industry often do, Caitlin found herself stuck in a vicious revolving door—on one side, there was burnout; on the other, her visceral love for this game. “It was like a toxic relationship, you know,” she explains, “I would move away from it and miss it so much, so I’d come back. During my time away, I would nanny, and I thought maybe I could support the restaurant business by becoming this really engaged patron. But whenever I would visit a place that was super buzzing and vibrant, I felt the need to be part of that energy,” she continues. It was during this period that Caitlin realized it was time to fully commit to her dream. In her late 20s, she enrolled in culinary school—disclaimer: not for pastries—and began fantasizing about what her options could be. Initially, she dove head-first into one of the most chaotic (and iconic) places you could pick: the infamous Lower East Side staple Mission Chinese Food. However, as a full-time cook in their kitchen, it didn’t take long for the ambitious new grad to realize she did not need that type of drama and seclusion in her life. As a new wave of unconventional projects began storming New York’s food culture, she seized the moment to start her first business: a gourmet soup service called Sourpernatural.

The traction and success gained by this innovative model inspired Caitlin to continue expanding, developing tasty recipes, and participating in catered events with friends—all while keeping a full-time job as a personal assistant. “It was so creatively satisfying,” she states, pulling a piece of paper from her dog Charlie’s mouth. The flexibility afforded by this itinerant framework allowed Caitlin to build a connection with her customers and experiment with food in various ways, including a recurrent dinner series, until the pandemic hit.

Photo by Nonsense Projects

On a dull morning, a few months into the lockdown, her phone pinged. It was an email about a flight to Florida she had booked several months prior and completely forgot about. “I was never a baker, I don’t even really eat dessert, besides...uhm...ice cream,” claims the business-savvy chef turned pastry wizard, “and I don’t know, that email triggered a weird chain reaction that set off a craving for key lime pie.”

With businesses still closed and widespread scarcity of the southern delicacy in NYC, Caitlin rolled up her sleeves, pulled out her kitchen utensils, and set off on a quest to satisfy her own sweet tooth. It took a while to perfect the ratio of ingredients that define her signature lemony pie—a salty crust, an extra zingy filling—but once she got the concept down and the word got out, her new project immediately blew up.

“I quickly took a picture of my pie and posted it on Instagram, like haha! I made key lime pie, who wants some?! And my DMs started flooding,” she recounts with a smile on her face. Just like that, Caitlin found herself baking thousands of pies overnight and in between work breaks to satisfy the demand.

As avid consumers of her product, it’s hard to believe that Cait’s Key Lime was, until recently, run out of the kitchen of an ordinary Brooklyn brownstone basement apartment. It’s even harder to believe that these pies are prepared in between meetings, before going to sleep, or while her son naps—yes, on top of having a full-time job, Caitlin is also a mother, a single one at that.

The taste and consistency of her desserts are impeccable; the crust is friable enough to melt in your mouth yet it does not crumble in your hands, and the cream on top is perfectly light and fluffy. To say her operation is impressive would be an understatement because, you guessed it, it’s a one-woman show. Matter of fact, the only help Caitlin asks for is shelf space in her friends’ fridges when hers is overwhelmed with orders. Her ability to keep it all together begs the question: How many hours are in Caitlin’s day?

“I love when people message me on Instagram asking, ‘Do you guys…?’ and I just look at the dog, Charlie, and my son, Romeo, and think, ‘Who’s we?’” she laughs.

As a former party girl—a wild one, she admits—Caitlin is currently in her prolific era. Optimizing her time, something she sees as invaluable, is a must. After all, as a mother, full-time employee, and a successful business owner, she has no choice; it’s either float or sink. Staying focused is a mental pacifier as well; keeping busy and on top of her goals helps with maintaining a healthy mind. “Of course,” she says candidly during our conversation, “I am learning how to give myself a break and to ask for help when I need it.”

Without a shade of doubt, Caitlin is a go-getter. She’s quick on her feet, exceptionally resilient, and a force of nature. If multitasking was a sport, she’d be a gold medalist. Hearing her speak about her business is inspiring, not only because she can carry the weight of such an enterprise on her back but also because her creative mind extends far beyond the kitchen countertop. After dropping a mug embellished with her logo, the versatile entrepreneur fantasizes about extending her merch range by adding some handy items like an insulated lunch box that can fit a pie, wine, and whatever treat you may fancy.

“I want the name and the design to be recognizable and international,” she claims confidently yet quite humbly, given that her franchise is already an East Coast classic. Her highly sought-after pies are, in fact, now available on the menu of all of Nas’ Sweet Chick locations across the city, have popped up at Infatuation’s Eeeeeats Con, and turned into bagel spread for Philly’s coolest bagel shop, Kismet—of course, they constantly sell out. As she expands and grows in popularity, getting your hands on Cait’s Key Lime is getting increasingly harder. To manage the demand, Caitlin has implemented a new batching system and restricted made-to-order requests. Her online shop opens for a limited period until supplies last, and if you miss out, you’ll have to wait for the next roundup, which is usually announced on Instagram and her website. She’s the Supreme (in its heyday) of desserts. Scarcity is, however, not a strategy she wants to follow. “My goal was always to have it, in New York, readily accessible to everyone who wants it without planning, you know, and I think that’s really why I’m focusing on growing the wholesale and things like that,” says the chef-entrepreneur.

A few months back, Cait’s Key Lime teamed up with Philadelphia-based ice cream parlor 1900 to make her own soft-serve, showing that collaboration and cross-pollination can be applied to any industry and proving that long gone are the days when culinary school only offered one straight path. The business is barely four years old, but it’s already rewritten the rules of dessert-making.

So what’s next for the ambitious mom-entrepreneur? Maybe a world tour. “My friends Missy and Gabe own a restaurant in London, and they have asked me to do a pop-up there ever since I started,” she concedes, “But if I am going, I am not just gonna go to London! I will do a little Euro tour!” she laughs. After all, her tagline is indeed WORLD FAMOUS™ Cait’s Key Lime.

You can order one (or more!) of her insanely delicious pies on instagram or her website.