The Sweet Legacy of Mickey’s Pastry Shop With Third-Generation Bakery Owner Melanie Daniels

Melanie Daniels is the Owner of Mickey’s Pastry Shop, a bakery located in Goldsboro, NC, serving various baked goods, including pies, cakes, cinnamon rolls, muffins, and more. Melanie is America’s first third-generation certified master baker and one of only 250 in the country. Her paternal grandfather Mickey purchased the pastry shop over 75 years ago. She continues his legacy by using the same recipes, including his legendary “long john,” served throughout five Eastern North Carolina counties.

Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:

Melanie Daniels discusses the history of Mickey’s Pastry Shop
Melanie expounds on her experience working as a baker
How to qualify to become a Certified Master Baker
Balancing work and caring for children and aging parents: Melanie’s routine
Tips for navigating a business and adjusting to change

In this episode…

Have you considered becoming a Certified Master Baker? Achieving this designation is a testament to one’s baking skills and prepares them to own and operate a bakery. So what does it take to achieve this distinctive certification?

Master bakers are seasoned baking professionals who can create superior baked goods and run a full-line independent or in-store bakery. They have been educated in culinary arts, sanitation principles, management, and retail sales. However, before you can call yourself a Certified Master Baker, you must acquire the necessary training and work experience to be certified by the Retail Bakers of America, a non-profit trade association. Master baker and bakery owner Melanie Daniels explains that you must also possess at least eight years of verifiable experience in a baking facility before applying for the certification. Once you’ve acquired the necessary education, you must take two tests, including a proctored and practical exam performed before judges.

In this episode of the Celebrity Gourmet Podcast, Odette D’Aniello chats with Melanie Daniels, Owner of Mickey’s Pastry Shop, about her experience as a third-generation bakery owner. Melanie discusses the history of Mickey’s, how to qualify for the master baker certification, and tips for owning and operating a business.

Resources Mentioned in this episode

Sponsor for this episode…

Today’s episode is brought to you by Celebrity Cake Studio, a family-owned and operated cake boutique.

Celebrity Cake Studio has been baking joy into all of their artistically designed cakes and desserts for 21 years.

They are proud to work with a vibrant team of cake designers and bakers that help you celebrate the sweet moments in your lives.

They have received numerous awards, winning Best of Western Washington for many years in a row and various small business accolades.

To learn more about how you can celebrate yourselves or the ones you love, visit www.celebritycakestudio.com or email them at info@celebritycakestudio.com.

Episode Transcript:

Intro 0:03

Welcome to the Celebrity Gourmet Podcast where we feature top bakery and specialty food entrepreneurs from around the world and share stories and tips on how to create a successful life in the baking world.

Odette D’Aniello 0:23

Hi, I’m Odette D’Aniello, the host of Celebrity Gourmet Podcast, where I interview women bakery owners to hear about how they live their creative lives and share their adventures in running a bakery business. I want to encourage you to go back and check out past episodes of my podcast. I’ve interviewed Olga Sagan of Piroshky Piroshky in Seattle, Marlene Geotzler, from Freeport Bakery, Patti Stobaugh of Patticakes, and Megan Wagstaff of Lady Yum. Today, I’m so excited to talk to Melanie Daniels of Mickey’s Pastry Shop of Goldsboro, North Carolina. Melanie is a third-generation master baker. She is one of only 250 master bakers in the country. Mickey’s Pastry has been serving the Goldsboro area for over 76 years. I am so excited to hear her story of growing up in the bakery business and carrying on her grandfather’s and her family’s baking legacy. Today’s episode is brought to you by Celebrity Gourmet Ventures, Celebrity Cake Studio and Dragonfly cakes. We are a family-owned and operated specialty cake bakery in Tacoma. At Celebrity Gourmet, we have been baking joy into all of our artistically designed cakes and desserts for over 25 years. We are proud to work with a vibrant team of cake designers and bakers, who help you celebrate the sweet moments in your lives. To learn more about how you can celebrate yourselves, or the ones you love, check out our website, celebritycakestudio.com and dragonflycakes.com. Or email us at info@celebritycakestudio.com. Before introducing Melanie, I want to give a big shout out and thank you to the RPIA. We belong, Melanie and I, belong to a conglomerate of bakery owners around the country. So Melanie, I want to thank you so much for saying yes to what I’m inviting you to be on my podcast. I’m so excited to talk to you. Being a fellow third generation bakery owner, I am thrilled to hear about your story. So I wanted to start out first of all about how it all started, like how your grandfather started the business. Okay.

Melanie Daniels 3:04

All right. Well, thank you, dad for inviting me. It’s a pleasure to be here and tell our story from over here on the East Coast. My grandfather, Mickey McClenney started the bakery in 1946. When he returned from World War Two. Prior to leaving for the war, of course, he he was the oldest of four children. He dropped out of school in the eighth grade to feed the family. This was you know, during the Depression, the dad was not at home. The mom was the homemaker and he had three younger siblings that he needed that he felt he needed to provide for. So when he when Mickey dropped out of school, he went to work for a local candy maker. And you know, began his skills. He continued to work so we had no he had nothing more than an eighth than an eighth grade education. He was drafted. He went into the into the Army Air Force and went into the war as a pastry cook. And he sailed on a boat overseas multiple times back and forth. And that’s where he you know, he fed many, many people. When he came home back to Goldsboro, which was his hometown, he came back and put his name on the local existing bakery. And therefore, Mickey’s pastry shop began in January of 1946. Like all of us, he started out with with not much, used to borrowed equipment. Certainly not a lot of hands to get it done. You know, he was in back baking, you got to help her. He might have had one if not two. Ladies. upfront and I certainly remember those ladies in my childhood. I feel like they they were and I know they worked with him forever. And so we were in located in downtown Goldsboro, next to City Hall. We relocated there for 56 years, we had 1700 square feet, if that. And we were just your local town bakery. Of course, you know, when he went into business, he had a sugar ration so he could bash sugar legally, and use it. You know, for productive purposes, in supporting the community and providing the community with daily. We have always been open six days a week from day one. We never work on Sunday, we’re closed at night. We’re always closed two weeks out of the year, the week of July 4, and the week between Christmas and New Year’s. And that’s that’s how we started and we have continued that work schedule. I’m Mickey’s firm belief was to always treat everyone the same. Everyone that walks in the front door, you’re going to treat them the same. And we have always upheld that as our number one responsibility as the town bakery. Of course back in the, you know, 40s 50s 60s not everyone could shop everywhere. We were one of two businesses in the southeast, where everyone was welcome in our front door. We have an awful lot of customers that have been shopping with us for generations. Yes. We and, and, and a little, you know, we have a lot of people that come in and remember those days. I mean, they are, they’re still alive. And they do come in. They’re very loyal weekly customers. My granddad named a,a treat for their neighborhood that they grow up in. And it’s called Washington pie. And it is truly the leftovers from each day. We mix them together, we put them on a piece of patio and a sheet pan, we sell them in squares. And it comes out different every day. A little bit of thin icing on them. But these people remember that and it’s called Washington pie. It’s named for the local neighborhood from where these people came from. Just you know, a section of town, you know, no one back then had a car so everybody walked you might have riden a bike if you were lucky. So a lot of foot traffic those days. Well, those individuals that grew up in little Washington, the neighborhood have not forgotten us and how good my granddad and my dad treated them. You know, they were allowed to come through the front door certainly without being judged. No one ever shopped at the back door. That was that was not that wasn’t allowed. Everybody comes in the front door to this day, we still treat everyone the same. And that’s one of our biggest pats on the back, I should say. Fast forward a few years. My dad Jerry Ray joined the business in 1969. He married my mom, Carol, who was Nikki’s only child. My mom did not want to come into the business, she became a school teacher. So my dad married into the business and joined the bakery after his two year stint as the presidential Honor Guard Station in Arlington, in the Division of the army. So he came back in August of 69. And why the rest of us didn’t know anything about the bakery. So we’ve all learned through trial and error. My dad Jerry enhanced and grew the wholesale part of our bakery. Currently, we serve as 95 grocery stores and convenience stores throughout eastern North Carolina. With snack cakes, long johns cupcakes, cookies, pies, cheese stars. We send those items out daily. So my dad started that in the 80s. And we have grown the wholesale business until now of course. I came back to the bakery, sorted by default. And I came back in 1996. I graduated from Guilford College and thought I wanted to be a school teacher and I did teach elementary school. And actually this time of year during my one and only year of teaching In school, my granddad Mickey got sick. My mom was an only child said, you know, come home for a little while. Well, I came home, and I realized how dire the situation was. So I knew that I needed to be back. My family. I certainly finished my year of teaching. I do miss it. But I enjoy teaching here in the bakery, just a different different level of teaching. So I came back in 96. And worked with, I had five years, I worked with my granddad Mickey and my dad. So under one roof for five years, we had three, soon to be three certified master bakers. My dad and I completed the certification. Her earned his certification in 2002, I earned mine in 2003. And of course, my grandfather, Mickey was grandfathered into the program because of his into the certification program because of his years or decades of experience. So we are very fortunate to have three plaques hanging on our wall here in the bakery for everyone to see.

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