Following a ‘sweet’ lifelong dream

Rachel Sankey

Staff

August 12, 2024

SHEBOYGAN FALLS – Victoria Mankee said though her love of baking started as a child – she got her start in the kitchen cooking with her grandfather.

“My grandfather was heavily into cooking, so I started cooking with him a little bit,” she said. 

Then, Victoria said her grandmother – an avid baker – swooped in.

“My grandma stole me from him and started teaching me how to bake…,” she laughed. “I was three to four years old when I started (cooking and baking) with them.”

Mankee said it wasn’t long before both of her grandmothers were teaching her how to bake different things. 

“My mom’s mom – my grandma Paulette – made cakes and things like that, and so she taught me the cake side of things,” she said. “My grandma Marilyn, she was the one who made the breads, biscuits, cookies and pies. So I got both sides of the baking world – and the food world in general.”

By the age of eight, Mankee said she decided that one day she was going to open her own bakery. 

“I was heavily influenced by some of the most important people in my life,” she said. “I’ve been running with it since.”

Just last month, Mankee said her dreams of owning her own bakery came true, with the opening of Marilette Pâtisserie (112 Pine St.).

The name, she said, pays homage to both of her grandmothers – a combination of Marilyn and Paulette’s names (Marilette) and the French word for pastry – pâtisserie.

From cottage cakes to storefront bakes

Before opening her storefront, Mankee said she used to be a cottage baker – making custom cakes – her passion and speciality – out of her home for friends and family. 

“That’s what I was doing for a while…,” she said. “It was mostly orders that would come to me. I wasn’t seeking (them) out. I was still working full time for other people.”

A couple of years ago, Mankee said she decided she was going to take a step back from her own baking and focus on working full-time at a local bakery to save money.

Soon after, she said she met her current partner, “and a whole bunch of different life things happened.”

“I moved, and then I got back into (my own baking) again and felt like, ‘okay, maybe I can do this,’” she said.

With a plan to start off small, Mankee said she began looking for food trucks, that way, she said she could keep it by her house.

“I started searching on Facebook Marketplace,” she said. “As I was searching, I saw Elodie (Le Gloahec)’s post about her selling her bakery and how her husband found a new opportunity in Florida,” she said. 

Le Gloahec, Mankee said, owned Excuse my French.

“She was selling (the whole bakery) – basically, whatever was in the space, other than a couple of her big equipment pieces,” she said. “I was over the moon ecstatic – I was like, ‘oh my gosh, this is a huge opportunity.’”

When Mankee reached out, she said she discovered that Le Gloahec was having everyone who expressed interest in the building come check it out – however, “I was still working a full-time job.”

“I had my dad drive from Menominee, Michigan all the way to Sheboygan Falls to tell her I was interested and to check out the bakery and see what he thought,” she said. 

Luckily, Mankee said she was able to get off work in Oshkosh – where she currently resides – to make it to Excuse my French in time to chat with Le Gloahec herself.

“I told her about my passion and how I’ve been doing it my whole life and have been waiting for an opportunity,” she said. “At the end (of the conversation), I offered them what they were asking and then left.”

Within an hour after meeting, Mankee said she heard back from Le Gloahec.

“I got a text message from Elodie that essentially said she and her husband saw a lot of themselves in me and could see (my) passion for baking,” she said. “The big goal for them was that they wanted someone to get in the space who wanted to keep it a bakery, that was starting out.”

Though they “wanted to give someone a good opportunity,” Mankee said it was also important to the Le Gloahecs that the new owners wouldn’t take business away from other small businesses in the area.

“Sheboygan Falls – I absolutely love the community and how they all care for each other,” she said. 

Long story short, Mankee said that is how she “ended up with the space.”

“She was over the moon ecstatic to offer it to me,” she said. “I’m extremely grateful for it because there were a lot of people interested in that space.”

From the time she found out she would be taking over ownership of the storefront, to when Marilette Pâtisserie officially opened, Mankee said everything took about two months. 

Outside of the background paperwork, she said there was also a lot of remodeling to be done – “just giving the place a facelift.”

“It was cool – I had a lot of townspeople come through and say how excited they were to have the building cleaned up and looking better,” she said.

Mankee said she fixed the outside of the building as it “had definitely been weathered down for a long time” and then updated the interior to her liking. 

“It was a mad dash to get open because I was antsy to get baking…,” she said. 

Baked goods galore

With Marilette Pâtisserie, Mankee said it was important to her to “give Sheboygan Falls what they’re used to,” in terms of bakery items.

One such option, she said, is a classic laminated pastry – a croissant.

“I had been making croissants for other bakeries for a long time but never got to make them myself and in my own way,” she said. “Croissants – you can change the processing and folding in many different ways. It’s been fun to nit-pick my processes and figure that out.”

So far, Mankee said the croissants – from regular, to chocolate, to almond to ham and cheese – have been popular. 

Marilette Pâtisserie also offers cookies – such as the classic chocolate chip or a white chocolate raspberry.

“Once in a while, I’ll do cake parfaits… which is essentially cake with my homemade buttercream,” she said. 

A few weeks back, Mankee said she made a s’mores cake parfait, which consisted of a graham cracker buttercream, chocolate ganache and cake layered in a cup.

The baker said she also makes cake squares – “which is literally a square of cake.”

“I plan to do fun stuff – different flavors,” she said. “I love playing with flavors, and I haven’t even touched the surface of what I want to do with that.”

Manke said she would like to start offering focaccia at least once a week as well.

In order to test out and serve as many different flavors as possible, she said she plans to have a fluctuating menu. 

“I plan to do macarons, and I’m hoping to do entremets at some point – which a lot of people have not heard of, it’s essentially a mousse cake,” she said. “They can be so pretty and fun to make… I can’t even think of all the things I’m planning to do.”

Since Marilette Pâtisserie is a one-woman show, Mankee said custom cake orders are on hold for now.

“I will announce on (my social media) platforms when I will start taking cake orders again,” she said. 

Though an online store is in the works, Mankee said for now, customers can either come into the store to purchase their baked goods, direct message her on Facebook to have certain treats set aside or call the store’s phone number.

A sweet response

Since opening in July, Mankee said the responses she’s received from customers have been “just incredible.”

“(I’ve been) shocked with how incredible everyone has been,” she said. “I was definitely slightly worried I was going to come into Elodie’s spot and people were going to be a little upset or not happy I’m there – or maybe not like my pastries.

It’s been the complete opposite.”

Mankee said customers have been supportive and have told “me how excited they are that I’m there.”

“It gives me so much joy for the future of what I’m going to do for the community and what I can give them,” she said. 

Though some people tried to discourage her from becoming a business owner, Mankee said, “I know what I love to do, and I’m going to keep going.”

She said she has her grandmothers to thank.

“This entire dream wouldn’t exist without them,” she said. 

To keep up to date on the baked goods Marilette Pâtisserie offers each week, follow its Facebook page.