THANK YOU FOR SUPPORTING SHEER AMBROSIA! I AM SO GRATEFUL FOR YOUR BUSINESS, FRIENDSHIP, AND GOODWILL! -Peace, Love, and Baklava Forever, Rita Magalde

In her efforts to take Sheer Ambrosia to the next level, Rita applied for and was accepted into the prestigious Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses program.  This is a rigorous 14-week business education program designed by Babson College, the nation's top-ranked school of entrepreneurship. Alongside other small business owners, she graduated from this intensive program, receiving invaluable one-on-one business advice and acquired essential skills to fuel the growth of her business.

We are almost one month into 2024 and I’ve yet to wish you all a Happy New Year. I’ve been so busy preparing Sheer Ambrosia for the best year yet, I haven't had a chance to check in with you. As usual, Sheer Ambrosia had a stellar holiday season. I baked and baked and packaged and baked some more. From Thanksgiving until everyone started their New Year’s Resolution diet, I was crazy busy making the best baklava I know how, for everyone who ordered. I worked 7 days a week, 15 hour days.   I always go into the holiday season with butterflies in my stomach, worried that I won’t be able to handle the onslaught of business, but with Desi’s help, I was able to get everyone taken care of. For those of you who don’t know Desi, she’s my right-hand woman and one of the hardest workers I know. She and her mother Helene have been with me for 4 years, helping me take care of you, my customer-friends. Helene had to have a pacemaker put in on December 4th, so Desi and I decided that we could handle things ourselves. Thank you Desi for all of your hard work and thank you to all who ordered for Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hanukkah and New Year’s. We at Sheer Ambrosia are so grateful for your continued support.  May we all have an amazing 2024! Happy New Year!

I have not been on social media or anywhere connecting with my baklava people for a while because once the holiday season ended, it was imperative that I pivot my full attention back to the commercial kitchen I’ve been building out since August. Well, really the project was submitted to the City of Salt Lake in June, we received our permit to start building at the end of July, and we were supposed to be in the new space by October 1, just in time for the big rush.   Well, needless to say, that didn’t happen and while I was so disappointed and frustrated, I had to soldier on, keeping my head held high, making the best of it. I’ve always been transparent with you in my newsletters regarding the good, the bad, and the ugly of my entrepreneurship journey, but instead of discussing all that went wrong...this time, I prefer to only focus on what went right:   1)    I now have a new 600 square foot, state of the art kitchen, with a brand new oven that allows me to bake 10 pans of baklava at once, compared to the one pan at-a-time production that I had in my home kitchen. The time I'll save baking now is life-changing! 2)    Bringing strangers to work in my home just was not an option before. Now I can hire, build a team and GROW! 3)   Which leads me to this positive thought…now I can have a little more work life balance! No more baking at all hours of the night, trying to keep up with production! When I’m home, I can rest and recuperate and when I’m at work I can focus on work! 4)   Now I can provide baklava to companies that weren’t comfortable or able to work with Cottage/home kitchens. Having this new commercial kitchen puts Sheer Ambrosia on a whole new playing field.   The sky’s the absolute limit now. I have a beautiful new kitchen to craft my baklava from, a place where I can comfortably work and make my dreams come true with an amazing team of people I plan to build. I’m putting all the build-out negativity behind me now and only thinking of the amazing possibilities before me. Did I learn a few lessons from mistakes I made during the construction process? You betcha and if I can, I'll help others going through the process in the future not to make similar blunders, but I will not and cannot dwell on the past. The past is the past and the future is bright! Desi says we’ll need to put on our sunglasses it’s going to be so bright!   I’ve included a few photos of the new space and if you’re local stay tuned for info on our ribbon cutting party. Thank you all for your support and orders because if not for you, my customer-friends, I wouldn’t have grown enough to need a new space.

Is it Baklava or Bak-LOVE-A? Your Valentine’s Day Gift Re-Imagined Valentine’s Day is upon us and as you know, Sheer Ambrosia makes an excellent gift for your loved ones. Let me say it again…Sheer Ambrosia is not just a Christmas gift everybody…it is perfect for Valentine’s Day too! We’ve brought back our special edition pink and chocolate brown boxes especially crafted for the holiday so place your orders NOW. It comes with a beautiful Valentine’s gift tag where we can hand-write your special message, and a gorgeous birch wood pink rose tied with our brown ribbon. It’s lovely and tasty!   Non-locals, place your orders between now and February 8 and we’ll make sure it arrives in time for you to give it to your Valentine(s). Or have us ship directly to your special people. If you’re local, order anytime and pick up on Valentine’s Day at our new location in Salt Lake City. What flavor should you get…whatever you think your loved one will like (we have 14 flavors), however my favorite for Valentine’s Day is Chocolate Almond. It’s still a box of chocolates, just re-envisioned and BETTER! Visit our Website

The Sky's The Limit! Now that Sheer Ambrosia has its very own new commercial kitchen, it’s time to expand! My goal is to BLANKET the country with my passion for baklava...to SHOWER the world with my delectable goodies, to INTRODUCE the country to my whimsical realm of nuts, spices, honey and the thinnest dough in the world. Baklava are little jewels of sweet energy from an ancient time long before modern cookies, pies, and cakes ever existed. It’s an old world treat and I am determined to bring it back to its distinguished prominence. It deserves to be enjoyed year-round during all special occasions. My baklava is sophisticated, charmingly packaged, and screams to the recipient that they are special. It’s art you can eat and elevates any event. It’s the perfect corporate gift and/or companion gift to flowers. It belongs in the airports across the country and that’s where I’m going next. I’m also reaching out to high-end grocery stores and the local wedding community is starting to catch on too.  I’m so excited about the future of Sheer Ambrosia! Things are about to get more thrilling than they have ever been!   If you have any suggestions on where or how you think I should focus on reintroducing baklava to the world, let me know. If not, no worries, thank you for just being part of this beautiful journey/adventure as my customer-friend.

November 2023 Newsletter

As of today, we are two weeks from Thanksgiving! If you are invited to someone else’s home for the festivities, Sheer Ambrosia makes an excellent hostess gift. If you are hosting the big day yourself, Sheer Ambrosia is always a HUGE hit with guests! You cannot go wrong with any of our flavors but if you want to know what my favorites are for Thanksgiving, here they are: #1 Cranberry Walnut Spice - The tart and sweet combo is an explosion in your mouth! #2 Southern Pecan - If you're looking to up your pecan pie vibes...this is it! #3 Traditional Honey Walnut - Desi just can't stop saying, "It tastes like the holidays!" ***Let me take care of the baking...you just place that order, relax, and ENJOY!*** If you are far away and want to indulge your guests or hosts with this original, sweet indulgence, you MUST get your orders in by Friday, November 17 so that I can have them in the mail by Saturday, November 18. PLACE YOUR ORDER NOW

OUR 2024 CALENDAR IS HERE!

As you all know, creating a beautiful baklava calendar has been a yearly passion of mine since 2020. It was during the slow months of the pandemic that I needed a creative outlet and I settled on making a gorgeous calendar for my Baklava of the Month customers. I wanted to give them a calendar (a value add) to go with their subscription so that they would know what flavor they were going to receive every month. I hired a photographer and we worked together as best we could. I remember she had two little ones and wanted to make sure she kept them safe so on shoot days, I would drop off the baklava she was photographing on her front porch and she would retrieve it after I left. We talked over the phone and together with my vision and her expertise we made something special. I was so proud of that calendar the first year, I decided to give everyone a copy regardless of whether they were Baklava of the Month customers or not. It became my gift to you! The following years I kept with the idea of matching each month with the Baklava Club’s flavor of the month, but for 2024 I decided to move in a different direction. The theme for 2024’s Sheer Ambrosia calendar is La Dolce Vita (The Sweet Life) – Weddings, Parties, and other Special Occasions. The idea was to showcase, not just my passion for baklava, but my new friend Rosemary Fanti’s passion too. She is an artist/painter and I felt I’d share the spotlight with her this time since she also can add a huge value to your weddings, parties or events.   I received my shipment of calendars last week. I will start putting them in with your orders starting NOW! So place your baklava orders and enjoy my joint venture with Rosemary.

UPDATE ON OUR NEW COMMERCIAL BAKING SPACE   The build out of my new commercial kitchen is still going. The goal was to be in by October 1st. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen and I was so bummed about it, but I’m reminded to keep my head up with a few of my favorite life lessons: 1) As much as I think I am in control, sometimes I’m not and I have to surrender to whatever obstacles are thrown my way, deal with them, and move on. 2) At the end of the day, I am responsible for everything that happens, I am not a victim. Moving in later is not the end of the world. 3) Patience is a virtue. 4) I can't do this alone...I need my friends and family! I love you Nette, Mom, Desi and Michael Jones!   I’ll keep you posted. In the meantime, enjoy this photo of the outside signage and graphics of our new space! WELCOME EVERY BLOOMING THING TO THE SHEER AMBROSIA FAMILY   This past Saturday, I had the pleasure of handing out samples at Every Blooming Thing’s Holiday Open House. Every Blooming Thing is one of Salt Lake City’s premier Floral and Gift Shops. They placed an order for Sheer Ambrosia baklava gift boxes and asked me if I’d like to hand out samples. Of course I jumped at the opportunity to meet their family of clients and mingle with their people. It was a fun day and I was able to meet their caterer and hopefully start working with her too. It was a beautiful, productive, and fun day of meeting kind people and the fact that everyone LOVED our baklava was a HUGE BONUS! Last Saturday's Holiday Open House at Every Blooming Thing I appreciate you all more than you will ever know! Love, Peace, and Baklava Forever, Rita - The Baklava Queen (Or So I've Been Told) Visit our Website

The new commercial kitchen is coming along great. My general contractor, Jaime Mencia is working hard to get everything done right and in a timely manner. He’s crossing his ‘T’s and dotting his ‘I’s and watching my money. The project is very expensive but I have faith that venturing out into a commercial space will bring in more revenue by allowing me to hire more help and bring in more clients that wouldn’t work with a home-based company. Sheer Ambrosia will be much better off because of this move. We are still looking at an October move-in time. drywall, mudding, and taping are all done. Plumbing and electrical are almost finished. The ceiling and floor treatments happen next and then I will start painting myself by the end of week.   Painting is one job that doesn’t require a special license, so I will be hanging up the apron for a few days to put on my painting clothes. I’ll paint the majority of the space my teal color, but you better believe I’m going to incorporate my signature stripes into a few of the walls. We’re going to have a small will-call area so that’s where I’ll have my fun. I picked up a new chandelier from Amazon for the entrance, and special ceiling tiles from Wayfair for the entrance as well. The ceiling will mimic the silver seal that comes on every Sheer Ambrosia box. Basically, when you walk in, it will feel like you’re walking into one of Sheer Ambrosia’s boxes. I’m so excited! Stay tuned for opening date and ribbon cutting. Our New Address Will Be: 1749 South State Street, Ste.102 Salt Lake City, UT 84115 Most Recent Pics of Space Map Of Where We Will Be Located

Wedding Bells Are Ringing At Sheer Ambrosia Three Tier Baklava Wedding Cake Small Cake just for the Bride and Groom I’ve had a fun time incorporating several weddings into this summer’s activities…and they all got me thinking…1) I love to see people in love. I believe in the family and marriage. 2) I enjoy working with happy people, and 3) happy people make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside). Why not promote baklava for weddings…not just Greek weddings, ALL weddings! In fact, of the five weddings I worked with this summer, only two of them were for Greek families. I want to be part of all-things weddings…the excitement of the big day, making food look beautiful, seeing people dress up, and celebrating what makes the world go round…LOVE! After all, Sheer Ambrosia baklava is so sophisticated and beautiful…it seems like a no-brainer.   This past Wednesday, September 6, I invited an old friend, Alex Bingham (the stylist who helped me design my 2022 calendar photos) and her photographer friend, Jason West over to my house to create magic. And I’m telling you magic it was! Alex is not a woman of many words but she is so crazy talented. I had never met Jason before, but I trusted Alex’s judgement and got to know him pretty fast. He has been a photographer for 40 years…and buddy…the two of them together was something to watch. I talked the WHOLE TIME…they couldn’t shut me up…in fact, I kind of regretted it towards the end. I just talked and talked and asked questions upon question about their lives and how they came to do what they do. I talked about current events, music, I think it was excited talk, nervous talk, just talking to fill in the silence. They got to my house about 9:15am and didn’t leave til around 6:00pm. I made us lunch so we could take a break but keep the dreamlike photos going. It was a fun day and I’m so eager to really start working in the wedding industry. Here are a few pics of the enchanted day I enjoyed with Alex and Jason. If you ever need an amazing photographer with loads of experience and/or a stylist to help showcase your products, please reach out to me and I’ll pass on their contact information.   Baklava Bar Wedding Favors Peek At The Wedding Page On Our Website

Me and Desi right before the market started. Ogden Farmers Market: A Huge Success What a busy summer it’s been. I cannot believe the warm weather is almost over. It seems like I just blinked and it was May 27th, our first Saturday at the market. What a whirlwind it was! I met so many cool new customer friends (that’s what I call you all…my customers who are also my friends). There was Rose and Marc who I have so much in common with, there was Carola, Brysen, Mitch from New York, one guy from Tennessee whose name I cannot recall right now and then there was Kathleen. She is a long-time customer before I ever made it to the Ogden farmers market, but she came almost every Saturday to say hello and pick up her special order she put in the week prior. She’s a super special lady and I’m just grateful I got to finally meet her in person. There were so many people who came and supported Sheer Ambrosia. I am just over the moon appreciative I had a chance to get to know so many new friends and spread the word about Sheer Ambrosia and earn extra money for my new commercial kitchen.   I am also so thankful to Helene and Desi, my helpers whom I’ve introduced you to in the past. They hung in there with me almost every weekend. Of course, they took some time off for river rafting (that’s a big thing here in Utah) and Desi took a trip with her family to Florida, but they were my faithful, loyal helpers through the whole summer. Helene took the train down to Draper every Friday to help me get ready for Saturdays and Desi rolled herself out of bed Saturday mornings without fail by 7:00am to help me until 1:30pm. They are just the best and I would have not been able to have a successful summer without them. I’m thrilled to have introduced Sheer Ambrosia to so many awesome new customer friends in Ogden. I won’t miss getting up at 3:00am to package and get everything ready to go by 6:00am, but I will miss watching the sun rise above the Wasatch Mountains on my drive north on I-15. Sunrise on my way to the market.

Welcome To Summer!

July 2023 Newsletter | Volume 3 Issue 7

AN UNLIKELY FRIENDSHIP

Yes...There ARE Still Good/Kind People In This World

More than three years ago, in June of 2020 when Sheer Ambrosia was interviewed for the first time on National Public Radio‘s show Marketplace, that same day, I received a telephone call from a gentleman in California named Steve Crandall. He had heard my story on Marketplace and was so touched, he wanted to place an order. Steve was older and didn’t want to order online from my website, he wanted to place it over the telephone with me. I was swamped that day with orders, but there was something about this man that made me stop, take a breath and have a real meaningful conversation. It was such a refreshing talk that day. We discussed politics, religion, current affairs, the ways of the world…all the stuff polite people aren’t supposed to talk about with strangers. We ended up conversing for a couple of hours and Steve and I became instant but unlikely friends who spoke often. When something crazy happened in the world, I would call him or vice versa.

Steve was also one of my most devoted customers. He would look for opportunities to support my business. Once he had to have his entire plumbing system in his home redone and he bought baklava for all of the workers. He would buy baklava for himself, his neighbors and friends during the Christian holidays and also during some Persian holidays because back in the 1970s he and his wife lived in Iran and he still had Iranian friends he wanted to dote on. He was incredibly generous with those in his circle. He insisted that I keep his credit card on file so that he could order baklava at a whim, for whomever and not have to drag out the card. One time I received a pair of snuggly socks in the mail, and I was perplexed as to why someone would send me a pair of socks until I read the card which was from Steve and he said that my baklava was so good, it knocked his socks off! What a cool guy!! He single-handedly kept my moral up! He was always laughing. He was always in a good mood. He loved telling jokes and when I would banter back with him, he would always laugh at my jokes. He once told me that he adored me!

My father died back in 2016 and I miss him dearly. In 2020, Steve showed up to warm my dad's place in my heart…best substitute dad a girl could ever wish for. Steve would email me articles that he thought were important for me to read. While I was making baklava for hours on end, he would call and we would talk about everything. He told me about his childhood and his Ukrainian ancestry. He told me the story of how both of his parents’ families made their way to the United States from the Ukraine via Brazil and Canada. He has a brother that lives in New York who plays the bass. I can still hear his wife Sue’s voice in the background as we talked. She knew about me and didn’t mind her husband having a friendship with the baklava girl.

I might have the timeline a little off, but I want to say four or five months ago I called to check up on him, a usual weekly/biweekly call and he was in the hospital. He had fallen and broken his hip. He was in the hospital for a long time, and then he ended up going to, not one, but two different convalescent homes to help him recover. He was flat on his back for months, but that didn't stop him from still laughing, and joking every time we talked. What a positive and joyful spirit! He purchased a baklava cake for the nursing staff at the hospital, and he purchased baklava for the staff at the rehabilitation home where he was recovering. He was constantly thinking of how he could support me and how he could show gratitude to the people that were helping him regain his health.

Two weeks ago I called to check on him and he told me that the MRSA bacteria had gotten into his hip and he was going to have to have another surgery to re-open the wound to clean out the infection. I was more worried about that than he was, although I did detect a small sense of sadness in his voice when he was telling me about it…something I had never heard. He had made so many strides, and had even taken a trip back to the East Coast to celebrate his wife's birthday with family and friends after he came home from the hospital. We were both shocked and surprised that he was back in there and going to have to redo all of the rehabilitation. Not last Thursday, but the Thursday before, he had that surgery to deal with the MRSA bacteria infection and unfortunately he died this past Monday, July 3rd.

Steve Crandall was by far the best customer friend I have ever had in my 14.5 years in business. When I received a text message from his daughter a few hours after his death from his phone, my heart broke.

I never met Steve in person and I didn’t know what he looked like until last Monday when Lydia (his daughter) texted me a photo of him. But his voice is etched in my mind and his contagious giggle I will never forget. Steve was a man of the world, a global citizen who had empathy and compassion for people. He was passionate about current events and he loved to make people laugh. He had so many friends. He was 80 years old but he still loved to learn. On New Year’s Eve he told me that he was using his retirement as his time to study up on all the things he ever wanted that he didn’t have time to research during his busy career as an attorney. He had two children, a son and a daughter and a lovely wife named Sue. Steve Crandall, thank you for your friendship. May you rest in peace my dear friend. I am grateful to have gotten the absolute pleasure to know you. I hope to see you again one day.

Peace, Love, and Baklava Forever,

Rita Magalde

P.S. Steve, we talked about you coming to my ribbon cutting when I open my commercial kitchen in a few months. You said that you were going to come. Now I know for sure that you’ll be there.

Sheer Ambrosia Makes Its Debut At The Ogden's Farmers Market

As many of you know, I have wanted to go to Greece for a very long time and I was planning my trip for this summer. However, earlier in the year, I decided that I really wanted to do all I could to take my business to the next level…more about that later. I knew that if I were to do that, I would need to make as much money as humanly possible and I would need to spread the word, near and far that Sheer Ambrosia is here and we’ve got some amazing baklava!

I decided to forgo my plans to travel this summer and every Saturday head one hour north to the Farmers Market in Ogden, Utah. It’s a HUGE market and I was told by a new friend who’s been selling there for the past few years that I could make excellent money there with my baklava.

Of course, I wanted to make my debut in style, professionalism is an absolute must for Sheer Ambrosia, so I hired the best tent maker in Utah, Lee Brasher from Wasatch Prints. Lee’s son Josh and I sat down together and designed a beautiful tent with all the extras and the rest is history!

My team and I have been at it for 7 weeks now and it’s been GREAT for business! We are getting the word out and making wonderful sales. The first weekend, there were over 20,000 people in attendance and we ran out of samples. Since then, we have been preparing and handing out 960 samples every Saturday. This past weekend we SOLD OUT completely for the second time! The summer market goes until the second Saturday in September for a total of 16 weeks. I’m so happy that I decided to do this. Greece has been on my bucket list for a long time, it can wait one more year.

Latest Review: Jolene L. Has A Lot To Say About Sheer Ambrosia

5 STAR REVIEW *****

This past Saturday, I was driving home from the Farmers Market and I received a phone call from a gal wanting to know if I had any baklava for sale. I did, so I told her to meet me at my house in about an hour. We had a wonderful conversation and I gave her the baklava she wanted, expertly wrapped. The next day, Sunday, she sent me a link to this Yelp Review...

I was on the hunt for GOOD baklava. Having tried a few different places in Utah, my search was over when I found Sheer Ambrosia!

According to Yelp's list of "Best Baklava" in SLC, this place is on the list and truly is number ONE!

Don't let the address or hours fool you, just call. Rita is quick to respond 🙂

While her website encourages you to order online and she ships these delicious treats worldwide, it is VERY possible to pick up a fresh batch the same day, just call. You might even find her at the Ogden Farmers Market on Saturdays.

Her traditional honey walnut baklava is out of this world delicious! From the first bite, you know it was baked fresh because the layers of crisp phyllo make a pleasant "crunch" sound when you sink your teeth into it.

With your second bite, you immediately taste REAL honey. With your third bite, you feel the chopped walnuts and that texture is authentic. With your fourth bite, you'll finish with delicate notes of lemon, cinnamon, cloves, and vanilla. Perfection!

But I did have to eat four delicious pieces to write this accurate description 😉

From her website, I learned that in her childhood, Rita grew up with fresh apples and berries which her grandma and mom both baked into pies. It's with that same love of fresh fruit that Rita creates incredible fruit and nut combinations into her fresh, made to order baklava.

With peach season in Utah, best believe we will be ordering that from Rita next!

I am honored to support this minority owned business for three main reasons:

1. Rita's baklava is perfect in taste and texture!

2. Rita's customer service is fast, friendly, and enjoyable!

3. Rita's journey, to get where she is today is so profound. AND she's an encouragement to others experiencing tough learning lessons in life.

A true blessing to have met Rita and tasted her delicious baklava!!

--Jolene L. YELP REVIEW

Sheer Ambrosia is Moving Into a Commercial Space!

After the dust settled and Christmas was a wrap, I had to have an honest conversation with myself…if I want to grow my business once and for all, I’m going to have to stop playing small. If I really want to double my revenue (at least) and grow Sheer Ambrosia’s reach, I’m going to have to stop being afraid. I am going to have to take more calculated risks. Up until this point in my life I can’t say I have never been afraid to take risks, but I can say I’ve never allowed that fear to stop me. Post-Covid however, I must say I have changed a little. For the past few years, I’ve been playing the wait and see game, working comfortably from home. Well, being complacent is not going to help me achieve my dreams…it’s time for me to face my future with a positive spirit. My kids are older and living on their own now, I have no reason not to move towards my goal to share my baklava with the world.

I’m tired of going to networking events and seeing the look in people’s eyes after they ask me where my bakery is located and when I say my home, they look at me as if I have a hobby and I’m pretending to be an entrepreneur.  And Lord knows I’m equally exhausted with not being able to take FULL advantage of opportunities because some players in the industry will not work with home-based bakeries. The time has come!

We started looking for a commercial location in April. My trusted friend and realtor, Heidi Anderson, ended up finding it close to downtown Salt Lake, and the architectural plans are in with the City of Salt Lake now waiting for approval. The shop will be 95% commercial kitchen with a small space for will-call. We will have plenty of space to make our magic and grow our influence! I am so excited! I will keep you all in the loop with updates and pictures. Thank you for helping me (with your orders and support) make all of this possible. The future is BRIGHT for Sheer Ambrosia!

EASTER SPECIALS

12-Piece Box Traditional Honey Walnut Individual Pieces Click HERE To Order! Baklava Cake Traditional Honey Walnut Baklava Cake (Feeds up to 40) Click HERE To Order!

Are You A Guest At Someone Else's Easter Table? Sheer Ambrosia makes the BEST Host/Hostess Gift!

Sheer Ambrosia's baklava is proudly made by hand by Rita Magalde, our owner/baker. She's been making baklava for over 34 years! She insists on no less than 45 layers of buttered fillo and only the highest quality nuts, spices and other ingredients. Her wish is that you will enjoy your baklava and taste all the LOVE she injects in every bite. Happy Easter! Check Out Our Google Reviews Here!

People are always so interested in how a Black woman from North Carolina started a Greek inspired baklava bakery in Utah and up until now, I tell the story of having worked for a Greek family in high school and college, never really explaining the deeper reasons WHY I started Sheer Ambrosia.   It’s a part of my story that I think is significant to tell and I am finally ready to share it. I want people (customers, friends, and employees alike) to know and understand from where and why this business REALLY blossomed. I want everyone to know how valuable this business is to me and I’m not just talking about financial value. I want to provide a blueprint to others going through a difficult time…highlighting one way to redirect their heartache, anxiety, and anger. I want to be an example, an inspiration to other newly single people on what to do with all those heavy feelings post…insert whatever misfortune happened to them. Instead of allowing the catastrophic event to forever define you negatively, turn your hobbies or passions into a fruitful and positive “project” or in my case, a business.   I went from wanting to end my life after my husband left our marriage, to taking that inconsolable energy and applying it to building a business, my business, Sheer Ambrosia. I think you should know that journey.   Baklava saved my life and I can’t think of a better day to explain how that unfolded, than on National Baklava Day!   Happy National Baklava Day Everyone! 14 years ago last month, I founded Sheer Ambrosia and embarked on a path that changed the course of my life for the better. Thank you all for being part of my journey! Enjoy my story.

For the past two holiday seasons, I have had the fortune of having Helene Simpson and Desi Hayda come and help me navigate the massive amount of orders and successfully take excellent care of all of my customers. Desi has since become my full time bookkeeper and Helene is starting to help me more and more around the bakery. I thought it would be a neat idea to introduce them to you because, the plan is for them to take on more permanent roles as Sheer Ambrosia looks to expand our operations post holiday season. I met the mother/daughter duo several years ago, through a cousin of theirs, whose children went to the same school as my kiddos. Our friendship grew over the course of the years because they are both very down to earth, kind, and humble. A couple of years ago, in conversation, they found out how busy my business was getting and they offered to help me over the holidays. I am very picky about anyone helping me in the kitchen, but instinctively, I knew they would be an asset. Helene is the mother of 4 beautiful children and grandmother to eight. She is a native Utahn and she loves her family, her garden, cooking/baking, camping, and going to the casinos every once in a while. On Sunday mornings she hosts her brothers and sisters at her house and they have a grand time having their coffee and breakfast treats while they catch up from the week. Helene was a single mom for a lot of years and worked really hard to take care of her kids. She worked 12-hour shifts and never complained. Her attitude as a single lady has been exactly what I strive for. Even though she didn’t have a life partner for a long time, she never let that stop her from living a full life and being the architect of exactly what she wanted to build for herself. Partner or no partner, Helene loves life and lives it! She has hobbies and she gets out there and enjoys them. One of the first times she invited me to her home, she took me out back to her very impressive garden and showed me all of her vegetables, her compost, and all the other wonderful things she was growing out there. She definitely has a green thumb even though we basically live in a desert. She’s 70 years old and loves Post Malone and Imagine Dragons. She can joke and have fun while working hard in the kitchen. Helene doesn’t know this, but she is a real inspiration to me. Helene’s got me by 20 years, but you’d never know it. She has the energy of a 30 year old. I don’t know what I would have done without Helene these last couple of years. So much goes into making baklava. For example, the Cranberry Walnut Spice that everyone loves so much…well, someone has to wash and dry all of those cranberries and for the past two years, it’s been Helene. Thank you Helene for all the hard work you do for Sheer Ambrosia. Then there’s Desirae! We call her Desi for short! Fun fact…Desi is Helene’s oldest child and the mother of Helene’s youngest grandchild. Desi is meticulous and super smart. She’s so helpful, a voice of reason, and someone that I can bounce ideas off of. She’s a wife and as stated earlier, the mother of one lucky 7 year old and two older step-children. Desi is devoted to her family but also makes time for herself too. She has always been an athlete and still plays women’s soccer and softball. Desi has her own bookkeeping company but isn’t afraid to jump in and help with whatever, never worrying about getting her hands dirty. One thing I really love about Desi is she asks for direction, but once she knows what I need, she gets the job done. If she needs to ask more questions, she’s not afraid to ask, but once she understands her assignment, she runs with it. Desi is a self-starter, humble, and takes the initiative. I am so excited to have her in Sheer Ambrosia’s corner. Together with her mom, Desi and Helene are a force! There you have it…the second and third members of my baklava team. We’ve got you covered this Thanksgiving & Christmas season and beyond, so place your orders with the confidence in knowing that I have surrounded myself with not just competent helpers, but with friends that love me and Sheer Ambrosia and are committed to seeing the company grow.

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Sheer Ambrosia Debuts Two New Flavors

Sheer Ambrosia is beyond excited to debut our two new flavors. Drum roll please…Cherry Chocolate Almond and Caramel Cashew Crunch! They will replace this year’s July and August Baklava of the Month flavors, Blackberry Walnut and Peach Cobbler Walnut. You can still order Blackberry and Peach, but if you are a Baklava of the Month recipient, you will now get the two new flavors for those months. Blackberry and Peach are both very juicy fruits and have a much higher water content than apples and pears, for example. While most customers love the extra juice in those flavors, I did have a couple of customers give me some feedback on them tasting good but being too soggy upon arrival. July and August are especially hot months as well, so I think it better to not ship higher water content fruit baklava's during those months. Here’s a little bit about each new flavor: Cherry Chocolate Almond is one of Sheer Ambrosia’s latest creations. We start this recipe off with the tried and true deliciousness of our current chocolate almond delight but add more decadence by including a burst of tart by mixing in the intense flavor of dried cherries. The concentrated zest of the cherries is the perfect compliment to the already chocolate almond top seller. Each piece is hand decorated with an almond, a chocolate morsel, and a dried cherry on top of the 45 layers of hand-buttered fillo sheets drenched in our signature honey syrup recipe. Our new Caramel Cashew Crunch was described in our test kitchen as tasting like “Christmas morning.” The subtle tastes of the roasted cashews mixed with the warm, deep rustic flavor of real caramels are blended together to make the perfect treat. It’s unique and modern but still carries the vestiges of old world baklava.

Place Your Orders For Thanksgiving As Soon As Possible We are expecting a whirlwind of a Thanksgiving season this year. We already have lots of orders placed with the request to hold for Thanksgiving. I thought this would be an excellent opportunity to encourage you all to go ahead and reserve your baklava or baklava cake NOW for Thanksgiving. The baklava cakes have been pretty popular and take a bit of extra time to prepare so if you have your eye on one of those please order it now so we can make plans & preparations to take care of everyone. We ship the baklava cakes to you in metal pans (which you can keep and reuse) to protect the cake from damage, so we need to make sure we order enough of those pans to take care of everyone. Watch Baklava Cake Video If you purchase a baklava cake, click on the above video to see how to remove cake from pan & present it on your holiday table.