A Helderberg mom and daughter share a passion for creativity through baking, turning their sugar cookie decorating hobby into a profitable business that has locals raving about the beautiful sweet treats which taste equally as good as they look.
The Covid-19 pandemic lockdowns inspired Rita and Jireh Steyn to take the leap of faith and venture into entrepreneurship with the establishment of Royal Dutchess Sweet Creations, a family-owned business operated from the kitchen of their Somerset West home.
This past Easter these leaders in the decorated cookie business blew out one candle on their birthday cake in celebration of the first year of success.
“Due to lockdown we were forced to explore all avenues for an extra income,” Rita related, “and it also allowed us time to experiment with recipes until we found one we liked. When we started off we made our own cookie cutters, sprinkles and used an old beaten-up mixer as we didn’t have a large budget at all. Everything we know has been self-taught. We tried to save wherever possible while still producing an excellent quality of goods, all this while sticking to all the strict Covid hygiene protocols. It has always been important to us not only to make beautiful cookies, but they also had to be scrumptious.
“Slowly, but surely our friends and family started asking us to bake for them, and they then spread the word to others who also started contacting us for cookies.”
Rita further shared that after customers encouraged them to approach local outlets they were busier than ever. Therefore they got two avid helpers, Megan Rudman and Mariaan Jansen, on-board as stocks were selling out constantly and orders kept streaming in.
The pair are an essential part of the team who, in addition to Rita and Jireh, are at work in the kitchen. Each adds their own set of skills and expertise in the baking, decorating and packaging of the cookies.
“We are very proud of the fact that we’ve been selling out for the past couple of big occasions, and continue to delight everyone with our enjoyable goodies on offer at the lowest possible price without jeopardising the quality,” said Rita.
Royal Dutchess Sweet Creations specialises in royal icing cookies for any occasions including birthdays, weddings, stork teas, baby showers, celebrations such as graduations, Easter and Christmas, and corporate events, as well as gifts. Furthermore, their DIY cookie kits are a hit throughout the year.
“We’ve had quite a lot of enquiries from our customers for DIY kits for both kids and adults, so we decided to add them to our list of products,” related Rita. “We offer them in small and large sizes, and they are a fun and yummy activity for all.”
She recommended the kits especially for parents with little ones or anyone wanting to host a party, has a date night with a unique spin and looking for a fun and yummy activity.
Depending on the size of the kit, they all contain a set number of cookies, ready-made icing in piping bags, fancy sprinkles, decorative sweets, instructions and suggestions, as well as a “snack cookie” that has been pre-decorated by the experts.
“We have been lucky and blessed enough to never have had to convince anyone to purchase our cookies as they have all been selling mainly due to word of mouth thanks to our awesome customers! But if we had to, we would definitely use our unique flavour of cookies and icing as well as our quality ingredients and care as selling points.”
Rita explained that only the best ingredients such as real butter and organic eggs are used for their sweet creations. This plus love, care and time taken on each individual cookie to ensure they are unique. “We are not interested in mass production or rushed cookies. We pride ourselves in our high standards and quality of our products,” she added.
When asked what their business goals are, Rita said: “We would like to continue empowering women and making a difference in the community not just by creating job opportunities in future but also teaching new skills to our future employees. It is also important to us to help our community and donate where we see the need throughout the year, and the more we continue to grow the bigger of a change we can make in the long term.”
For more information, visit the Royal Dutchess Sweet Creations Facebook page or WhatsApp 081 736 8756.
