Amazin Glazin Pastry aims to sweeten life in downtown Cherry Valley
By Kevin Haas
Rock River Current
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CHERRY VALLEY — A bakery that specializes in creative dessert mashups is adding more to love at My Cafe Amore.
Amazin Glazin Pastry celebrated its grand opening on Friday in space shared with My Cafe Amore at 125 E. State St., suite E, of The Bricks in the village’s quaint downtown.
The businesses are a fitting pair, with My Cafe Amore’s dessert-like drinks with sweet toppings and Amazin Glazin’s array of brownies, cookies, scones, cakes, cinnamon rolls and other treats.
“We take things and kind of mash them up and put our spin on them,” said Patti Woody, who owns Amazin Glazin and runs the pastry shop with her son, Nate. “We’re kind of not a regular bakery. We like to have fun and have fun with our food. … Nothing’s out of the realm that we can’t make.”
Take for example the bakery’s scones. They’ve already experimented with 20 different varieties since Amazin Glazin started with a soft opening in mid-November. That includes a gluten free cherry cheesecake scone — Woody says, “imagine a biscuit and a cherry cheesecake got married and had a baby” — as well as a cinnamon raisin chai scone, Tuscan pesto scone that blends four types of cheeses and a dill pickle ranch scone.
“You can slice it in half and put a burger in between and it was wonderful,” Woody said of the dill pickle creation.
The shop also likes to get creative with its cinnamon rolls, such as the birthday cake variety that’s topped with Funfetti cake mix and a Golden Oreo. Or its cookies and cream cinnamon roll with white chocolate chips, cookie crumbs and white chocolate on top.
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Woody, who is a registered nurse with OrthoIllinois, started getting serious about baking during the pandemic, when she earned her degree online from Auguste Escoffier School of Culinary Arts. She wanted to learn the craft because she’s gluten free and often struggled to find a gluten free bakery.
“Everywhere I go I can’t eat any of the yummy stuff that everybody else gets,” she said. “So I was like, OK, fine, I’m just going to make my own.”
Now, each Wednesday she bakes gluten free options.
Before joining with My Cafe Amore, Woody got her cottage food license and started selling at pop-up vendor markets around the area. It was at one of those markets where she met Morgan Bell, owner of My Cafe Amore. Bell knew customers had a craving for baked goods at her creative coffee shop, and she invited Woody join her in the space.
“It has elevated the business in general,” Bell said. “Food is the one thing that everybody has in common. It’s that one thing where everybody gathers. It’s community. It’s what coffee is to me. It’s where everybody gathers together and enjoys something and talks about that, especially the craft that it takes. I think it’s finding that central point of just bringing more people together under one roof.”
About | Amazin Glazin Pastry
Where: 125 E. State St., suite E. Cherry Valley (with My Cafe Amore)
Hours: 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Wednesday-Friday; 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Saturday; 11 a.m to 3 p.m. Sunday; closed Monday
On the web: amazinglazinpastry.com
On Instagram: @amazin_glazin_pastry
On Facebook: Go HERE
Contact: 779-513-1209; Amazinglazinpastry@gmail.com
This article is by Kevin Haas. Email him at khaas@rockrivercurrent.com or follow him on X at @KevinMHaas or Instagram @thekevinhaas and Threads @thekevinhaas
