Pop-up bakery will be set up in Monongahela
By TAYLOR BROWN
tbrown@yourmvi.com
Mon Valley residents will be in for a sweet treat later this month when a weekend-long pop-up bakery opens at St. Andrew the Apostle Parish Park in Monongahela.
Business Manager Joe Caruso said the pop-up bakeries happened almost unintentionally last fall thanks to two Monongahela bakers, Patty Forsyth and Germaine Sickles, who are parishioners of the church.
Last fall, in the midst of the pandemic, the two women volunteered to make apple dumplings using Sickles’ recipe to help the church persevere while parishioners could not congregate.
“They were enormous and so delicious,” Caruso said. “We sold them for $5 apiece and sold out. It was such a success and was really able to help our church.”
During the dumpling sale, the women’s treats raised nearly $5,000.
“That is a lot of dumplings,” Caruso said. “We felt really bad that we had to start turning people away, but they were truly that good.”
Sickles gained a reputation for her baked treats as the owner of Robbie’s Creme Delight on Route 51 for nearly 40 years. She has resurrected that talent to serve up tasty desserts to local residents while raising money for her church with help in the kitchen from Forsyth.
“She (Sickle) has a reputation,” Caruso said. “A legacy really. Yes, it was an ice cream shop, but she made a lot of other things, dumplings, cakes. And people don’t really bake that way anymore. It is kind of like a lost art and people just seem to flock to it.”
Sickle said she has been making dumplings and other treats for decades.
“Baking is something I have always been drawn to,” she said. “At the shop they once bought dumplings to sell, but they just weren’t any good, so I started making my own. It’s about the right apple, the right amount of sugar, cinnamon. Everything has to be just right.”
The second pop-up bakery, which will take place the weekend of April 23-24, will feature Forsyth’s cinnamon rolls.
“This is Patty’s recipe, but she doesn’t want any of the credit,” Sickles said. “She is in charge this time.”
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