By DIANE GASPER-O’BRIEN
Special to Hays Post
GORHAM — Freda Henrickson would be one proud grandmother if she was alive today.
One of the Ellis woman’s two granddaughters is carrying on her baking legacy – in a big way.
Amadee Staab has turned an old tin shed at her rural family home just outside Gorham into a local bakery that serves customers from near and far.
Amadee and her family hosted a standing-room only open house for the new venture earlier this month. But Indulge Sweet Treats & Catering, which features a lot of her late grandmother’s recipes, actually has been in business for several years.
She started a part-time baking enterprise as a hobby several years ago along with a fellow teaching buddy at Holy Family Elementary School in Hays.
After 18 years in the classroom, Amadee decided to switch gears. She and her husband, Jayme Staab, had planned to purchase a building in Gorham for her bakery, but when that fell through, Jayme suggested remodeling the shed.
Amadee’s dad, Dale Befort, is a long-time construction professional. So he and Jayme – with help from the Staabs’ oldest son, Brantlee – gutted the building, re-sided it, and fashioned the inside into a baker’s dream.
Instead of a catch-all shed, there are shelves of baking supplies, two refrigerators, a freezer, steel tables and an oven. The Staabs were able to purchase a lot of their equipment, including appliances and cookie racks, from a bakery in Hays when it went out of business.
“Everything just worked out so well,” Amadee said. “What a blessing.”
Amadee fell in love with baking as a young girl while working alongside her grandmother in her kitchen. She continued her baking interests as a 4-H’er while growing up in Victoria, then started perfecting the art of decorating as an adult while making goodies for family and friends and fellow teachers.
“It’s a good stress relief to be in the kitchen,” Amadee said. “It got to where I had so many people asking for cookies and cakes all the time, and I enjoy it so much that I decided to expand a little.”
Word-of-mouth advertising kept Amadee busy baking in the evenings and on weekends, and she named her hobby “Amadee’s Convections and Cakes.”
As her children grew older and began to get more involved in school activities, Amadee started toying with the idea of baking as a full-time gig.
After talking it over with Kayla North, Amadee’s childhood 4-H friend and teaching partner at Holy Family, they both decided to pursue their dream. Amadee calls Kayla a homemade pie magician, and they plan to eventually turn Indulge Sweet Treats & Catering into a full-time business for both of them.
Amadee now bakes all week long. She will designate a delivery location in Hays, or customers can pick them up in person at her bakery at 17745 Homer Terrace, Gorham. Orders can be made on Indulge’s Facebook page or by calling her at 785-259-3432.
Two of Amadee’s favorites are her grandmother’s sugar cookies and a delicacy called a hemetschwenger.
For the hemetschwenger – a Mennonite apple turnover – she rolls out a flaky dough, places apples and cinnamon inside, then fold it like an envelope. After baking, she rolls the turnovers in cinnamon and sugar. Presto, she has a hemetschwenger.
But that’s just one of her customer’s favorites.
In addition to the usual array of cakes and cookies, she also bakes a batch of tasty cinnamon rolls and makes bierocks, too – using her grandmother’s recipes, of course.
A self-taught cake and cookie decorator, Amadee said will try just about anything a customer asks for.
She has decorated sports-themed cookies and designed all kinds of shapes, including a baby bottle. She even made one cake look like a tree stump. Another looked like a huge cheeseburger, complete with all the fixings and a sandwich.
“I watched a lot of cooking shows over the years,” Amadee said, explaining her successful art of decorating.
She is looking forward to all the big events such as First Communion, bridal and baby showers, graduations, etc., as well as every holiday.
“I’m so looking forward to having more time to bake at Christmas,” she said. “Christmas is my favorite holiday.”
Not surprisingly, she added, “Christmas was my grandmother’s favorite holiday.”
She also is looking forward to trying even more recipes old and new, including that of her grandmother’s apple dumplings.
“I love chocolate and peanut butter together,” she said. “I can hardly wait to really get going.”
Amadee said she changed the name of her business when she went full time because “I wanted something different that maybe people would remember. To me, the yummy things I didn’t have time to make before are very indulgent.”
Indulge already has nearly 100 new Facebook followers since Amadee registered with the state earlier this month for the name change for the business.
About 130 people showed up to taste-test and check out the bakery on the open-house weekend.
And now, she has the flexibility to follow 16-year-old Brantlee, 12-year-old Kaymbree and 9-year-old Bexlee in their activities.
Amadee gives her husband a lot of credit for making it all possible.
“He’s been amazing with my ideas,” she said. “And he isn’t afraid to fix supper for the kids on Thursdays when I bake.”
The transition from kindergarten teachers to baking buddies looks to be a successful one for Amadee and Kayla.
“Baking is so much less stressful,” Amadee said. “It’s my happy place.”
