“I’ve wanted to own a bakery ever since I was a little girl,” said owner Nazli Kayayeva.
Kayayeva was born in Russia, but moved to the United States in 2005 when she was 7 years old. She moved to the Dayton region three years ago after living in Colorado.
Credit: Natalie Jones
Credit: Natalie Jones
She most recently worked as a preschool teacher at her daughter’s daycare, but baking has always been something that makes her happy.
Kayayeva learned how to bake from her cousin and watching YouTube tutorials before studying culinary arts at Pickens Technical College in Colorado. She has always had a knack for trying different recipes and being able to change it to make it better.
Her passion for baking started in seventh grade after changing schools.
Credit: Natalie Jones
Credit: Natalie Jones
“I was lonely and I was bullied a lot,” Kayayeva said. “Baking had become my therapy. It had become my savior. I just baked. I would just come home from school and just bake.”
Change in ownership
In April, she heard the bakery at 7204 Taylorsville Road was for sale because the former owner was moving.
It wasn’t until she spoke with the realtor at Huber Heights Floral that she started thinking the bakery could become her new reality.
“The one thing that sold it for me — the owner is willing to train whoever takes over," Kayayeva said.
Credit: Natalie Jones
Credit: Natalie Jones
She trained with the former owner for three weeks.
“There’s more to come to Sweet Home Bakery. There will be a lot more recipes,” Kayayeva said. “I just took the last three weeks to basically learn and perfect the recipes I know the customers already love.”
What to expect
Prior to taking over ownership, Sweet Home Bakery was a Turkish bakery.
“I brought in the American influence with my cookies, cinnamon rolls and cheesecake,” Kayayeva said. “We have a lot of European desserts like the honey cake. We have all our mini cakes that are Turkish and Russian-inspired desserts.”
Credit: Natalie Jones
Credit: Natalie Jones
A favorite cookie is the Biscoff — a chocolate chip cookie base that uses Lotus Biscoff cookies instead of chocolate chips and is filled with cookie butter.
Kayayeva’s favorite item is the raspberry cheesecake, which is made Turkish-style without the crust.
The bakery’s icing is not the typical buttercream icing that most people expect. It’s not as sweet, but Kayayeva said that’s what her customers love.
Credit: Natalie Jones
Credit: Natalie Jones
A unique item offered at the bakery: “chocolate potatoes.”
“It’s essentially a cake pop, but we put way more icing than cake, so it’s super creamy,” Kayayeva said. “It’s rolled in cake crumbs and then we put little white whipped cream dots to make it look like a potato.”
Another must-try item is the “puff cheesecake” — cream puff balls mixed with no bake cheesecake mix. Customers can choose a Dubai chocolate or raspberry version.
Credit: Natalie Jones
Credit: Natalie Jones
Sweet Home Bakery also offers a variety of cold drinks and Turkish teas.
Community support
Kayayeva is appreciative of the community support she has received since posting on social media about the change in ownership.
“I just hope everybody is open minded and gives me a try because I do have the same recipes as before, but there’s also going to be a lot of new things and a lot of fun things coming along,” Kayayeva said.
She is planning to offer baklava, cup desserts and much more.
Sweet Home Bakery provides baked goods to several stores in the region including Huber Mart and Ahiska Market in Huber Heights and Beans-n-Cream in Cedarville.
MORE DETAILS
The bakery is open 7 a.m.-6 p.m. daily with a grand opening scheduled Aug. 23.
For questions, call 937-672-3652 or email sweethomebakery25@gmail.com. More information and updates are available on the bakery’s Facebook, Instagram (@nazlissweethomebakery), Snapchat (@nazlikayayeva) or TikTok (@sweethomebakery25) pages.
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