Sweethearts Confectionery

General information

Welcome to Sweethearts Confectionery!!
~ Our story…
We are a Cupcakery, Cake & Candy Shoppe owned by my husband, Aaron, and myself that is fully licensed and inspected by the PA Dept. of Agriculture. Our 1,300 sq. ft. brick and mortar shoppe is proudly located in the historic downtown of Huntingdon, PA. After 3 months of remodeling and tons of painting, our fuchsia pink door opened to the public on October 8, 2012. What a sight it was to see our first customers patiently waiting for us to unlock our door. I can be found daily running the shoppe which allows me to be hands on with everything. And I love it!! But when needed you may find my sister, Emily, or my mother-in-law, Sue, here lending me a helping hand.

We are mostly known for our cupcakes that are made using simple, fresh ingredients to create a wide variety of scratch baked, gourmet cupcakes. With flavors ranging from good ole' classics, like the Vanilla cupcakes that you enjoyed as a kid, to some not so classic flavors, like our decadent S'mores cupcake; we're sure that your 'favorite' flavor will change every time you stop by and try something new.

It didn’t take long after opening for our customers to start asking if we made birthday and wedding cakes. So, we threw it into overdrive, went shopping and stocked up on everything we needed to create custom cakes. And boy has it paid off. We continue to learn new techniques and the orders keep rolling in. It’s pretty great being able to offer custom cakes that are scratch baked specifically for each order and so much more special than a store bought pre-made frozen cake. There’s something to be said for seeing the joy in the eyes of a child when they see their birthday cake or the feeling you get when reading a message from a bride after creating the cake of their dreams. It’s those little things that make the days brighter.

But if you need something else to help satisfy your sweet tooth we have that covered. Walking into the shoppe you’ll remember what it felt like to be a kid in a candy store. With over 100 varieties of nostalgic candies you’ll be taken back in time to your childhood. As you take in each candy jar brimming full of brightly colored candy a memory will slowly, but surely resurface... sharing your bag of grape fishies with your little sissy or sucking on a Smarties double lollie lollipop while you watched your brothers play Little League baseball at the community field. Seeing the reactions and hearing 'Oh I remember those!!' from our customers always brings a smile to our faces as we feel exactly the same way. And our little shoppe evokes those same memories for us every day just by walking through the doors.

Oh but we’re not done yet. Sweethearts understands that one of life's sweetest pleasures is a simple box of chocolates. Whether you desire a pound of Chocolate Dipped Potato Chips (yeah, that's right... Chocolate Dipped Potato Chips!!) or an assortment with all your favorites, it truly doesn't make a difference to the joy that you feel when picking up a piece. With over 60 varieties of Asher's Chocolates (The Official Chocolate of Everyday Life) milk, dark and white chocolates filling our candy cases and shelves it makes it even easier to build that perfect box to satisfy your sweet tooth.

~ How we came to be…
Like a lot of small business ventures ours starts out with a childhood dream. This dream was that of a little girl. Ever since I can remember I have had a love of food. I don’t just mean the part of eating. I mean being in the kitchen cooking and baking - making dinner or trying out that new dessert recipe that I found. Now I’ll be completely honest here, I also look forward to the reward of enjoying the finished product - that tray of fresh baked cookies still warm out of the oven or the pan of baked macaroni and cheese with the cheese still hot and bubbly. I mean really, is there anything better in life?! It’s so relaxing and comforting being in the kitchen, getting lost in the task at hand. Instead of story books as a child I would read cookbooks. I remember the day my Mom came to me and said she was going through old cookbooks and noticed that they had been written in. She knew it wasn’t her handwriting and then realized it was mine. Yep, planning my future as a young child. I used to spend hours dreaming about the little bake shoppe that I would have when I grew up. Planning what the menu was going to be, designing what the shoppe would look like. I had it all figured out. I loved it!!

My love for being in the kitchen grew so much over the years that I decided to attend the Culinary Arts program at the Huntingdon County Career & Technology Center (aka the Vo-Tech, to me). I was lucky enough to have the best instructor with a wealth of knowledge that she was only too happy to share. Through her guidance I learned the same things that were being taught at the top Culinary Arts colleges and all while I was still in high school. My passion for baking and cake decorating continued to grow so that’s where we shifted our focus. Through lots of patience, hard work and practice, I enrolled in several baking competitions earning numerous gold and silver medals.

Now fast forward a few years through high school graduation… I’m living in my first apartment working my first job when I meet the man that I know I’m going to marry one day. We are hanging out getting to know each other and I tell Aaron about my dreams of one day having my own little bake shoppe. Little did I know but he tucked that little tidbit aside in his memory. Fast forward 11 years and one of Aaron’s storefront rental spaces comes open. He asks me what we should do with it keeping in mind what I told him so many years ago. I answered with a candy shoppe. I mean that’s what the space had been for the past 40 years, so why change it. Now enter my sister, Emily. The business planning is in full swing. One night while watching Cupcake Wars she says “You should turn it into a cupcakery and candy shoppe.” And just like that Sweethearts Confectionery was born and now every day I get to live my dream, slightly altered a bit, but still everything that I always hoped for.

~ The perfect shoppe name…
Picking a business name is hard!! I knew I wanted it to be something special, something that was an important part of my life. Aaron and I weren’t married yet and I knew we would be soon so I didn’t want to use my last name. Enter again my sister, Emily. We threw ideas back and forth for days, if not weeks. Then she called one day and claimed to have the perfect name – Sweethearts!! She was right. It was perfect!! Really, you say?? What’s so perfect and special about that?? Well I was always a daddy’s girl and I know that I inherited my love of being in the kitchen from my Dad. Those times are some of my favorite memories. My Dad always had a nickname for myself and Emily, his little sweethearts. And there it is - what name could possibly be more special and perfect than that?!

~ Why should you shop at Sweethearts?
We’ve all seen the reasons why you should shop small - small businesses help the local economy or they support organizations through donations. Yeah, yeah. But more importantly you are helping to support someone’s dream. Opening a small business is a big risk with a lot of hard work and long hours. The owner typically is in charge of everything from marketing to purchasing and receiving as well as stocking the shelves with their product. But they do it because it’s something they love and enjoy. When you go into a small business you are more often than not interacting with the owner which means superb customer service because they want to make sure you’re happy, hoping you’ll tell friends and family about your experience and come back. This hands on approach is what’s most important to us at Sweethearts, being involved with every customer whether in person or on the phone.

As we continue to strive to do our best, we hope that you stop by to see us.

Have a 'sweet' day!!
Jana