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City Native Turns Baking Passion Into Career

Jaycee Moore

Jaycee Moore still remembers the days her mom hosted baking parties. Her mom’s friends would gather to discuss recipes and cooking utensils — part of Pampered Chef, like Tupperware parties, but for those interested in all things cooking.

“My mom has always been really big into baking and cooking,” said Moore, a Jamestown native. “Since I was young, I knew how to read a recipe and knew how to weigh things and measure ingredients no problem.”

Moore is now making a career out of her own passion for baking. A grand opening ceremony is taking place today for her new business, Sweets, Pastry & Fudge, located at the Chautauqua Mall. The bakery, according to Moore, will offer freshly made cream puffs, eclairs, cheesecake, cookies and — of course — several flavors of fudge.

About three years ago, Moore woke up determined to make a strawberry scone she could call her own. The results turned out “phenomenal” and created the spark needed to turn a hobby into a career.

“It was just this idea,” she said of opening a business. “This is what I love to do — this is what I’m good at.”

Moore said she taught herself how to write a business plan; she read “a lot, a lot, a lot on what I needed to do” and was in the planning phase for about a year that included research on the industry.

“I really dove in with the business portion of it,” said Moore, who’s currently working on getting her associate’s degree in baking and pastry arts from the Auguste Escoffier School of Culinary Arts. “It’s not just me in the kitchen and baking. There’s a lot more to it.”

Moore said it’s important her creations be “authentic.” Some of her pastries and sweets come from recipes she created or learned on her own. Others are classics from culinary school, meaning she didn’t have to tinker with the recipe too much.

“At school they really equipped us with successful recipes and they’d say, ‘You can do this and this and this with them,'” she said. “Like with cheesecakes, and I took the recipe and just tweaked it a little and that was that.”

The Jamestown native expects to be putting in a lot of hours in the bakery once it officially opens. As the only employee at the moment, it may be a little hectic, but as she notes, “It’s my own hectic. I can get through it.”

A grand opening ceremony will take place today at 11 a.m. The event will include a 50/50, free samples and a chance to win a baked goods basket.

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