Sweet Stuff For The Holidays

Chocolates, cakes, cookies, candy, ice cream - the Christmas season is not complete without these items. Aside from the usual fruits, ham and lechon, sweets are definitely a must during the Yuletide season. And because people just cannot resist enjoying a bite or two of these tempting delights, sweets have become great gift ideas during Christmas.

Although there are a lot of commercial brands of goodies in the market, nothing beats homemade goodies as gifts for this season of giving. Aside from being assured that the sweets are fresh, homemade goodies add a little personal touch when given as gifts.

This is what Sweet Stuff is all about – homemade goodness by budding pastry chef Jill Uy.

Twenty-eight-year-old Jill, a Law Management graduate, started Sweet Stuff two years ago. “As it is now, it was just a family thing when I started Sweet Stuff. The members of my family would help me whenever I would bake something. I tweaked original recipes until these became my own,” she recalled.

Without a marketing arm to promote her products – cakes, brownies, cookies, bars and ice cream rolls – Sweet Stuff gained following by word of mouth. People who have tasted the goodies would recommend these to their friends. The recommendations came to a point where Jill would get orders for people who bring her baked goodies as pasalubong for their friends and family from other parts of the country.

Although the growing popularity of her baked goodies was already an achievement, Jill still longed to have formal baking and culinary training. This dream only became a reality last year when she was accepted into a 9-month course at the Institute of Culinary Education, formerly known as Peter Kump’s New York.

Now armed with formal training in baking, Jill still prefers to keep Sweet Stuff a home-based, family business. Keeping the business that way, she said, is better to maintain her products’ affordability.

This Christmas, Jill hopes to spread good cheer with her baked goodies – fruitcake cookies, spiced oatmeal cookies, fudgy brownies, walnut brownies, ginger snaps, lace cookies and her very popular ice cream rolls.

For orders, give her a ring at 253-2299 or 09173210700.