Today we’d like to introduce you to Hannah Fedorowicz
Hi Hannah, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Baking rippled through my home as I grew up. In 1954 my Gran opened a bakery in a little town called Sutton-in-Ashfield, England. She encouraged Mum to go to culinary school and when she graduated in 1966 Gran gave her full reign in the bakery and Mum did many experimental bakes, introducing several new pastries, cakes, and soufflés to the costumers. It was a family business, with my Grandad running the front of house, whilst my Gran and Mum in the back baking.
The bakery continued to be so successful, but like many good things, it came to an end. Gran decided to sell the business, but she continued to bake at home and make cakes for family and friends.
Mum and Gran taught me and my sisters how to bake. I was often in the kitchen licking the beaters or watching Mum pour the cake mixture into the tins and as I grew up, baking was just something we did most days..
In my late teens, early twenties I fell in love with cake decorating and when I got engaged I decided to make my own wedding cake, which was my first cake that I made in America. This is where I learnt that American ingredients are very different to those in the UK. Through the years of experimenting with different ingredients and relearning new techniques and through many failures I finally began to produce some good bakes that my family and friends enjoyed and it was through their encouragement that I opened my home-based business, Sweet Amelia’s Bakery Art.
Much like my Gran, I couldn’t run this business without the support of my family.
I have learnt that in this line of work you need a lot of support from people, whether it be from your spouse, or other family members, or friends and even customers, those people are key in whether you will succeed or not. I have made many mistakes but if it wasn’t for my family around me encouraging me and helping me, I think I would have given up along time ago.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Baking was certainly not a smooth road. I endured so many struggles especially since I was so used to baking in England and was not used to the climate in Florida. Humidity threw a curve ball for all my go to recipes. I had no idea that the flour in the US would be so different and produce different textures and flavours in my cakes. What worked one day didn’t work another depending on the humidity index.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about Sweet Amelia’s Bakery Art?
I love to make bespoke cakes and cookies.
Each order is unique and designed specifically for the customer’s event.
Even though I have adapted my recipes to the US, I still like to bring in some British flavours. Whether it is simply a Victoria Sponge cake or the unique Hummingbird cake, each cake is prepared from scratch using the finest ingredients.
Iced cookies are iced with the very familiar Royal Icing but the cookie flavours range from the simple Vanilla Cookie to the more flavourful Norwegian Spice flavour, my favourite Christmas cookie. For spring I love the English Spice flavour but my all time favourite has to be Orange and Cardamom.
What’s next?
I would love to get my online orders up and running for special holidays such as Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Easter etc. A lot goes into preparing the website and I also want to be careful not to take on too many orders since, as of now, I am the soul baker and decorator.
I would love to open a shop but that is just dream for now.
Pricing:
- $60-72/dozen iced cookies (custom designed)
- $90 6” Buttercream Cake
- $110 6” Fondant Cake
- $170 10” Buttercream Cake
- $210 10” Fondant Cake
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.sweetameliasbakeryart.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sweetameliasbakeryart
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sweetameliasbakeryart
Image Credits
JackFedFilms
