People who struggle with mental health and anxiety often find solace with cooking and baking. For Courtney Audette of Coniston, baking is the magic elixir.
Audette is the owner and culinary expert for One More Bite Bakery in Coniston.
Audette did a chef training program at Cambrian College in high school and was enrolled in the culinary program there. The plans were delayed when she took a year off to learn to deal with her anxiety.
Sadly, a year later the much-loved and sought-after program was shelved by the college.
“It was bad timing all around until the pandemic brought out that love and inspiration in me,” Audette said.
“The rules changed in Ontario during the pandemic for at-home baking businesses. Everyone was stuck at home. I was bored and started baking for friends and family, and then the demand grew,” she said.
It has now evolved into an actual business when she passed the initial health unit inspection last fall.
Audette specializes in themed celebration cakes and cutesy cake pops. She has also picked up the odd wedding cake order, too, but personalized, themed birthday cakes are her favourites.
“Cake pops have become very popular in recent years. It is a great option for hosts who want to send the sugar home,” she said.
Audette knows all about the sugar rush raising two boys, aged five and six.
There’s another dessert that has taken her heart and filled it with so much joy. The much-loved French pastry with its two colourful shelled and buttercream filling, the macaron.
“There is something satisfying about seeing the colourful finished product. Making them puts me in my zen zone. The smoothing of each piece. Finding perfectly matched tops and bottoms. Admiring full trays of them is just gorgeous,” Audette said.
“I love macarons so much that I added a macaron Christmas ornament to my tree this year.”
Each colourful batch is finished with sprinkles, gold dust or crushed candy canes.
Audette said the macaron is a very versatile treat for customers that is becoming more and more popular among Sudbury customers.
That said, she added there is a large local demand for pretty macarons and almost any other baked product.
She generally services the Coniston, Wahnapitae, New Sudbury and Minnow Lake regions, though customers as far as Elliot Lake have made contact.
She’s involved in a baker’s group chat and often recommends other businesses and bookings to others if she is already booked up with sugary and buttery needs of Sudburians.
“Bakers are connecting, sharing ideas and sending businesses each other’s way which makes for great teamwork.”
Courtney’s One Bite Bakery can be found on Facebook and Instagram at One More Bite Bakery.
Anastasia Rioux is a writer in Greater Sudbury. Let’s Eat! is made possible by our Community Leaders Program.
