Huron County Economic Development grant got local entrepreneur started

Young entrepreneur, Willeke Barten, shows off a package of her frozen butter croissants made in her commercial kitchen.  High quality frozen pastries that can be baked at home are flying out of the freezers.

If you want to feast on an OMG-good pastry, you must taste the fresh-baked croissants from Wilhelmina Bakery. Soft warm flakes of buttery pastry melt on your tongue. Close your eyes, sip your coffee, and you are literally transported to a sidewalk café in Europe. This is the magic of local pastry chef and business owner, Willeke Barten.

Back in 2021, Wilhelmina Bakery successfully made a pitch for Huron County’s Starter Company Plus micro-financing grant.

Willeke used the start-up funding to invest in a commercial oven, resulting in a crucial boost in productivity and product consistency.

Kicking off her new business with an oven and a website, Willeke refined her repertoire of special occasion cakes and fancy desserts, catering on request, supplying local restaurants and cafés from Blyth to Goderich, even selling at local farmer’s markets.

After three years of hard work and hustle, Willeke realized she would rather bake than run a storefront, so she promotes her bakery business as order-only.

She partners with local shops from Blyth to Goderich to Exeter to supply her fresh or frozen pastries – croissants, sausage rolls, cookies and pie shells. Wilhelmina Bakery also uses her website and popular on-line platforms for ordering specialty pastries.

Willeke’s love of baking began in high school after a serious concussion at the ice rink took her out of school for a significant length of time.

During her recovery, baking cakes and traditional Dutch food with her mom became one of her favourite activities. Upon completing a high school co-op term at Benmiller Inn, Willeke knew that she wanted to be a pastry chef.

Three years at pastry school in the Netherlands and a strong work ethic gave Willeke the hands-on experience to be a premier level pastry chef.  It was the next year studying at the prestigious Cordon Bleu in Ottawa that really honed her strict professional standards.

“We always had to come to class in a clean, ironed uniform, or were sent home from class for the rest of the day,” Willeke said, proudly adding that she never got excused from class.

“We also had to memorize the ingredients and every single step of our recipes, and that is a skill I use every day.”

With the Huron County Economic Development grant covering the cost of the new oven, the new business was able to take the next step and acquire a used 1963-vintage dough sheet.

“New dough sheeters from Europe cost as much as a fancy sports car,” Willeke laughs, “but this machine was in my budget and works just as well.”

Any pastry that needs to be rolled out goes through this machine, and for Willeke, it has meant another improvement in labour efficiency and dough consistency plus the ability to produce higher volumes of specialty pastries.

Willeke loves the challenge of adapting European pastry recipes to Canadian ingredients. Top quality is essential to this young entrepreneur, who smiles brightly in her spotless white shirt with its blue windmill logo.

Along with other products from Wilhelmina Bakery, those delectable croissants can be purchased at Pennys of Blyth, Greyhaven Gardens in Londesborough, and the Maitland Market just east of Goderich and now available in Merchant 6 in Exeter.  There is a mouthwatering reason that she is developing a local following.

Willeke noted that her frozen pastries that can be baked at home have really taken off in the last year – people love that home-cooked aroma in their kitchens.  It just doesn’t get any fresher.