‘Like Grandma’s kitchen.’ Centre County baker sees success on local farmers market scene

Over the last three years, Terri Spahr has built Sweet Temptations by Terri from a baking hobby into a growing business. Prodded by her friends in the food industry, she hesitantly explored the possibilities of selling her sweet treats in State College, but now you can find her at farmers markets throughout the area, with possibilities for more in the works.

“When I was coming up with my business plan, I really wanted to open up to the State College market, because that’s where most of the people I know live and I saw a need for it, but I didn’t have the financial backing for a storefront, so I chose to do farmers markets instead,” Spahr said.

The decision proved to be “wildly successful.”

“I have a pretty solid client base at the markets and just through word of mouth,” she said, adding that Facebook has also been key to expanding her business.

She currently attends the Boalsburg Farmers Market at the Boalsburg Fire Company and in the summertime can be found at the North Atherton Farmers Market. Her products can also be found on two online markets, statecollegemarket.com and Centre Markets.

“I got my love of baking from my grandmother, who’s the one who trained me. I have no professional training as far as sweets go,” Spahr said. “It was quite a scary moment — that’s why I balked when my friends were pushing me to start my own business. Finally, I just said, ‘I think I can,’ and it’s just expanded so much since then.”

She said her many connections in the local food service industry made the process easier.

It’s her grandmother’s training, though, that makes Spahr’s product line stand out. Spahr specializes in scratch-made comfort food and family traditions.

“I use real butter, heavy cream, all the things that are bad for you,” she said. “It’s like Grandma’s kitchen. That’s what I always liken it to, because that’s the style I was taught and how I was taught to bake. Not everything looks supremely perfect — the eye is the best seller, so I try to make it as pretty as possible, but not everything is completely perfect. It’s rustic, down-home — what you get when you go to Grandma’s house.”

On any given day, you might spot her farmers market booth filled with mini pies (“It’s easy to make a pie — anyone can do that — but sometimes if you make a whole pie, you’ll sit and eat a whole pie,” she said, laughing), cookies, cupcakes or seasonal items, like the king cakes she made for Fat Tuesday.

“The king cake recipe I used was from a customer of mine and a lot of people were saying, ‘Oh my gosh, this reminds of Louisiana’ or ‘back home in Alabama’,” Spahr said. It’s something she loves to do — taking a customer’s family recipe and serving them up a taste from the past.

“A lot of my customers come to me with some of their traditions and say, ‘I’d really like you to try my grandma’s recipe. I’ve had it for years and I can’t seem to get it right.’ And that’s really special about my business, that I have the flexibility to be able to do that, and then to see their smiles on their faces when they say, ‘Oh my gosh, this brings back so many memories’,” Spahr said.

Over the last year, Spahr was worried about the impact that the pandemic might have on her business, but has actually seen growth.

“People ... were doing a lot more shopping locally and attending farmers markets a lot more, and they wanted sweets. When people are stressed out, they want sweets. So they gave my products a try and now I have some lifelong customers,” she said.

Spahr also saw a change in customers’ tastes over the pandemic; whereas cherry pies were her previous bestseller, over the last year, her homemade lemon bars have become so popular she said she can’t keep them in stock.

In the coming months, Spahr is looking to possibly expand Sweet Temptations by Terri and she hinted at a few yet-to-be-solidified opportunities. She’s also expanding her product line, with savory items like breads and meals-to-go. The latter options will still follow her comfort food, down-home style, and include offerings like mac ’n cheese, lasagna and casseroles, and sneak peeks of some of these options are currently available for purchase on statecollegemarket.com.

For more information on Sweet Temptations by Terri, visit www.facebook.com/sweettemptationsbyterri.

This story was originally published February 28, 2021 at 7:00 AM.