There’s a mixing bowl in the middle of the floor big enough to hold a sleeping child – and it once did just that. The bowl belongs to a seven-foot industrial Hobart mixer, and it easily accommodates 78 pounds of sugar, 22 pounds of shortening and 23 pounds of butter. It’s a busy week at Helfer’s Pastries in Florissant – and there are a lot of cakes to be made.
That child who actually did nap in this giant “bucket” is all grown up. Jamie Lewis took over the family business with her husband, Cameron Lewis, three years ago. But Helfer’s got its start back in 1977, when it was just a one-room shop on Manchester Road in Ballwin. Jamie’s parents ran the business there until 1992, when they moved Helfer’s to its present location, a 3,000-square-foot space in Florissant. Helfer’s is now among the oldest businesses in town.
“I grew up here, I know this,” Jamie said. She’s standing at the long counter looking down through the glass. These are the kinds of pastries dreams are made of. There are cupcakes and cream cakes, cheesecakes and custard cakes. There are Danish pastries, strudels and lattice pies with fillings dictated by the season’s fruit: strawberries and peaches in summer, apples in fall.
It’s safe to say that Cameron turns out hundreds of items each day – not bad for somebody who, prior to taking over the business, had no formal baking experience besides working in a sandwich shop. A lot of Cameron’s work is done through the night: He arrives at work at one o’clock in the morning, not knocking off until 10 a.m. “I think I’m good at this,” he said. There’s a wisp of hesitancy in his voice, but among all the other fruits of his labor, the cherry edelweiss stollen, ladled with gooey butter, tells it like it is: Cameron is a master at this.
Considering the dizzying choice of confectionery, Helfer’s is not a large store. Most of the space’s square footage is taken up by the behind-the-scenes areas where people like Darlene Markovich get to work. “I randomly decorate however I want,” she said. There’s a little cake spinning on her work bench. As it spins, she deftly drags a scraper around it, smoothing its sides to meet the top at a sharp 90 degrees. All of this happens in a matter of moments. “I’ve got to be fast,” Markovich said. After this, she’ll start on the shelves and racks around the room. “This is last night’s work,” she said, pointing to yellow cakes and white cakes, red velvets, German chocolates and marbles. “This is prime decorating season.” Cameron concurs: For graduations alone, he recently made a whopping 500 pounds of cake, including 27 full sheets and 87 eight-inch rounds.
On the way to this “factory floor,” there’s a small office where a few photos are pinned to a board. One is an old black-and-white shot of a woman (Jamie’s mom) decorating a wedding cake with a baby (one of Jamie’s three older sisters) strapped to her chest. “Now I get to raise my three girls in the same environment I was raised in,” Jamie said. She looks dreamy for a moment, lost in a sweet memory – something about childhood and the Sunday before Christmas when the baking and packing of Christmas cookies took place. “It’s by far my fondest memory,” she said.
It’s true that at 10 o’clock in the morning Cameron looks a little weary. He has flour on his beanie and his apron is dusty. “I’m thinking about ways to respect the past while bringing us into the 21st century and investing in the things we are good at,” he said. “And I’m learning about work/life balance.”
380 St. Ferdinand St., Florissant, 314.837.6050, helferspastries.com
This article appears in August 2024.