By Wendy Nugent, Harvey County Now
NEWTON—Newton resident Emily Ray baked with her grandfather when she was young, and he showed her the passion he had with baking.
“That was our special thing we did together,” she said. “He is one of my biggest inspirations.”
Now, years later, she has her own business—Railer Sweet Shoppe—which she runs out of her home, taking orders online.
On Monday afternoon, she was busy in her kitchen dunking chocolate cake pops into a white chocolate mixture and drizzling them with darker chocolate to make them resemble flowers.
Ray has fond memories of she and her grandfather in the kitchen.
“He would teach me serving sizes and what the ingredients do when they mix together and what happens if you put too much of an ingredient in,” she said. “There was one time we made strawberry shortcake, and we accidentally put two times the amount of salt in the batch, and it turned into a rock. We have a lot of fun baking together.”
Now, Ray is grown and married with a child and works at the YMCA and Bethel College Academy of Performing Arts.
She started her sweet shop in November 2020.
“I have always wanted my own business, and I love to bake,” she said. “I specifically started a bakery so I can soon open a storefront for the town. Newton needs a bakery.”
She sells homemade Oreos, chocolate-covered strawberries, cake pops, cupcakes and hot cocoa bombs. Her most popular items are the hot cocoa bombs.
“I get business through Facebook and online marketing,” she said, adding she takes all pre-orders until she gets a storefront opened up.
The reason she named her business Railer Sweet Shoppe is because, although she’s resided in Newton only a couple of years, she sees how much the town is connected to the railroad.
“I thought this name would be perfect for a small business in Newton, Kan.,” she said.
There are a couple of reasons she likes to make treats.
“I love creating sweets because it relaxes me, and I have a big sweet tooth,” she said. “Who doesn’t like sweets?”
She enjoys creating and mastering all kinds of sweets to have a large variety for customers and to challenge herself.
Orders and more information
To place an order and for more information, visit her website at the-railer-sweet-shoppe.square.site.
According to the website, she does deliveries on Saturdays and can do special requests for birthdays, holidays and other special events.
She also has a Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/railersweetshoppe.
