BakeMark's Bakin N Rockin - April 2012 - 6

Petite Sweets Make it a “Honey Moon” to Remember for Tempe Bakery
One of the sweetest developments in the Valley of the Sun, otherwise known as the Phoenix marketplace, can be found at Honey Moon Sweets Bakery, an innovative retail/wholesale bakery owned by Tim and Joan O’Connor. Petite sweets are “huge for us right now,” points out Tim O’Connor, naming cake pops, mini fresh fruit tarts, and mini pastry towers (that come in delectable flavors ranging from espresso mousse to tres leches) as key examples of this increasingly popular trend in their dessert business. Honey Moon Sweets Bakery looks to reach the $1.8 million mark in annual sales this year, he adds, meaning they are almost back to where the bakery was in 2007 prior to the recession. About five years ago, Honey Moon Sweets Bakery moved into a modern 8,000-square-foot facility that included an attractively designed dessert bar for retail sales. Their intent was to boost retail’s contribution from about 10-15% of total sales to 40% or more. “Now we’ve reached the 20-25% threshold, and retail sales are growing again,” O’Connor says, adding that the recession took a particularly big bite out of their retail business two years ago. “Our model depended on retail sales as an additional revenue stream.” Fortunately, working closely with BakeMark, their bakery supplier, helped them ease the pain of the recession. “We’ve had a long, ongoing relationship with BakeMark,” O’Connor says. “We started with them on day one. They’re always there for us with products, service and other support, which allows us to maintain consistent high quality. We never want to sacrifice the quality of our products.” Honey Moon Sweets Bakery’s award-winning fresh gourmet cakes and fine pastries have been featured on the menus of more than 100 of Arizona’s top restaurants, resorts and specialty food stores. “When we moved here in 1990, there seemed to be a need for a high-end wholesale bakery in town,” says O’Connor, who owns the bakery with his wife Joan. “We found a niche. We are positioned to the point now that we supply all the local hotels that don’t have their own pastry chefs and even some that do.” Before the “honeymoon,” owners and bakers Tim and Joan O’Connor met while studying at the Culinary Institute of America in New York in 1983. Since then, the culinary duo have been partners in both love and food. They’ve done everything from catering expansive film productions in Manhattan to owning and operating their own Italian restaurant in Massachusetts. Cheesecakes, pies, tarts and petite sweets come in a wide range of flavors, including apple caramel, lemon curd, key lime, and tiramisu. Cake pops are the latest craze and, of course, Honey Moon Sweet Bakery has them. Cake pops are great for a unique wedding cake alternative, baby shower, birthday or even portion control, and each yummy cake pop sells for $2. Within the cake showroom, guests can order and customize gourmet cakes for weddings and special occasions. Beautiful and delicious, each cake from Honey Moon Sweets Bakery is proudly made from scratch using only the finest ingredients. Customers can choose from a wide selection of fillings, toppings and icings, and then top it with clusters of chocolate curls, vibrant arrangements of fresh fruit, or a theme of their own design.

BakeMark's Bakin N Rockin - April 2012

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