SweetSisters Bakery Conjures Confectionery Delights For Opening Weekend

Chocolate-caramel apples, homemade cinnamon buns, gourmet cupcakes, and hand decorated custom cakes are just a few of the mouthwatering treats you will find in the display cases at Tiverton's latest temptation, SweetSisters.

The bakery, which is owned by best friends - pseudo sisters, if you will - Amy Paull and Deirdre Mazzeo, opens this weekend.

Paull, a Tiverton High School graduate and local mother of three, studied culinary arts at Johnson & Wales University. She graduated in 2008 and began working at SouthCoast Educational Collaborative in Seekonk, where she met Mazzeo in the kitchen at the vocational school.

Mazzeo attended Our Lady of Fatima High School in Warren before she earned a degree in psychology from St. Joseph's College in Maine.

Their friendship grew fast and although neither woman was experienced with professional baking, the pair began to experiment and fill orders for friends, families and eventually local festivals and fairs. Working together, the budding pastry chefs found they could conjure up a number of confectionery delights and soon they were getting more requests than they could keep up with.

"Deirdre is primarily the cake," said Paull, busy preparing treats for this weekend in the kitchen of SweetSisters, 14 A Stafford Road, on Thursday afternoon. "She is an exquisite cake artist, and with no training. She is all self taught and she is incredible. We make good team, we've got that relationship but we've got that friendship and we've got the groove. She is cakes and cupcakes and I love doing the cinnamon rolls and muffins, but we do crisscross, so we both have that flexibility."

The 'sisters' behind the baked goods are surprised and excited by the success they saw by just baking at home - juggling full time jobs and families. Over the last four years, Paull said the business became so backlogged with orders for parties, weddings and artisan fairs that they had to start turning down orders.

Now the SweetSisters are looking forward to utilizing their fully outfitted baking studio and launching the retail side of their business.

"I think this biggest challenge will be [baking] quantity, but now this is my full-time job and I'm not trying to manage it on top of work full time, kids, and with my one oven," said Paull. "But I think we will be okay because now we have more than one oven and more room for storage. Everything I need is here."

Paull and Mazzeo, who say on their website that they love to play with their food, will be constantly changing up the menu and fiddling with flavors - like their Shirley Temple cupcake creation for their debut weekend.

Opening weekend is this Friday through Sunday, March 1-3.

SweetSisters hours of operation are Wednesday through Saturday from 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Sundays from 7:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.

SweetSisters can be reached by phone at 401-816-0860 or check their website at sweetsistersri.com