Pastry pro: Hayley, 11, is a Mequon source for babka, cakes and more | Wisconsin Jewish Chronicle

Pastry pro: Hayley, 11, is a Mequon source for babka, cakes and more 

 

To be clear, mom is not making the cakes. 

Hayley, 11, is the kitchen crackerjack, with mom as an occasional assistant 

You’d know this to be true if you only chatted with the recent elementary school graduate for sixty seconds. Is she 11 or 40? 

“A lot people say she has an old soul,” said the aforementioned assistant, Beth Rapaport. Dad is Jeff Rapaport and Hayley’s brothers are Evan, 8 and Sam, 5. 

A pandemic is on and Hayley’s much-loved Steve & Shari Sadek Family Camp Interlaken JCC in Eagle River is not holding in-person camp this summer. What’s a Mequon mom to do? Hayley was already taking orders from friends and family, but this decidedly unscheduled summer was a chance to go pro. Mom got Hayley a spot at the Thiensville Farmers Market at Village Park, where this Congregation Emanu-El B’ne Jeshurun student has been selling out each Tuesday.   

‘I took mental notes’ 

“I started when I was really, really little,” Hayley said.  

Hayley started watching kids’ championship baking shows at around age 6. At some point, she thought to herself, “Maybe I can start baking like them.”  

When she turned 9, she realized she was getting really good at it, she said. 

“I watched a lot of videos. I saw a lot of people on TV,” she recalled. “I took mental notes: This is how you need to hold the frosting bag; this is how I crumb coat a cake.” 

People visiting the house would try her baking, then started asking for more and offering to pay. “I was like, if people want to give me money let’s make it a business,” Hayley said. 

“I was decorating cakes, making sugar cookies and all that fun stuff. And that’s how Sconnie Cakes was born! 

Sconnie stands for where you live, in the state of ‘Sconsin. 

A family friend asked for a babka. “We made it for her, and we had other people try it, and they were like, this is really good, can you make some for me?’” 

Now, they’re on the menu, along with cookies, cupcakes and pies. 

Hayley’s favorite item to make is a cake – you can make so many different things with them, she said. One day, it can be a unicorn cake, the next a rainbow cake.  

Dreams for the future? When she’s older she wants a place to bake outside the home and she wants to get better. 

“She’s amazing inside and out,” said Amanda Berg of Cedarburg, a family friend and customer. “She’s the nicest, sweetest kid who has the coolest talent ever.”  

Sconnie Cakes is not kosher. Ten percent of all proceeds go to Make-A-Wish Wisconsin. Visit JewishChronicle.org to get in touch with Sconnie Cakes. 

Amanda Berg of Cedarburg is a family friend and customer. Berg bought some baked goods from Hayley Rapaport, with her mother, Beth Rapaport, also at the booth, at Thiensville Farmers Market at Village Park on July 14.