Marion bakery recreates recipes on request

MARION – Emily Hamilton can thank her grandmother – or at least her grandmother's cinnamon roll recipe – for launching her career.

Hamilton, owner of The Kettel House Bakery & Café in Marion, started baking when she was in 4-H. Her grandmother's cinnamon roll recipe was the first she attempted, eventually adding her own tweaks to the original.

Today, cinnamon rolls are just one of the items available for purchase at The Kettel House Bakery & Café. Others include pecan rolls, scones and cupcakes.

But it's the food not on the menu that Hamilton loves to make.

“We have people come in with family recipes, or memories of food that their grandparents made when they were younger, and we'll recreate it for them,” she says.

Part of this service is for the challenge – Hamilton says she often tells customers not to hold back on their requests – but the other is for the happiness it brings her to bring a culinary remembrance to life.

“They have great memories about the requests they make of us,” she says. “There's a lot of nostalgia tied to the food we enjoy and they want the chance to remember what it was like.”

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