Raise your hand if you love baked goods. If you raised your hand, make sure to keep reading below. You’re in for a treat — literally and figuratively.
Meet Rosalyn L. Robb-Herrington, owner of LaTresa’s Treats in Hattiesburg. Rosalyn is a passionate full-time baker. She has a wonderful family including her husband of 23 years and her two children: Taylor and Mason Jr.
It all started when she was in the seventh grade. While the other children were outside playing and getting into trouble, Rosalyn intently watched the women in her family cook.
“I loved to follow my mom and grandmother around the kitchen,” she recalled, noting that the importance of cooking was passed down to her by her mother. “My mom would tell us to come into the kitchen and learn to cook because we were going to have to learn how to do it.”
Years of passing ingredients to her mom and grandmother turned into a lifelong love for baking. Rosalyn’s business, LaTresa’s Treats, started with her cooking for her children’s birthdays. After years of tasting many cakes and feeling something was missing, she embarked on a journey to make the perfect birthday cake for her children. The results? Everyone loved them! From there, she would cook for work potlucks, loved ones, and even a family member’s wedding.
After the pandemic, Rosalyn went full time with her baking business and has not looked back since. The job is rewarding to her because she is able to set her own schedule, express her creativity by exploring new recipes weekly, and interact with old and new customers at vendors and farmers markets.
“I’m at peace when I’m baking,” Rosalyn said. The only negative aspect she mentions is not having consistent clientele; however, to her, it is well worth it to follow her passion.
Being a baker entails many different skills as it “really is a science,” according to Rosalyn. She believes that bakers should have the ability to study recipes, measure ingredients, and remain focused and patient through it all.
Rosalyn comes up with new recipes by pulling from her environment.
“I can be in the grocery store and see cranberries and oranges, and my mind automatically goes to muffins,” she used as an example. She also mentioned how she saw figs at her father’s house and was inspired to make fig bread. Keeping a list of items she is inspired by helps her create new, original recipes as well. As a person who sells her food in a farmers’ market, she gets inspired by random items she spots there.
Her favorite recipe is her pecan bars: “I love to see people’s faces when they eat my food.” These bars are her number one hit, and people’s faces light up the moment they take a bite. Her pecan bars have the flavor of a pecan pie with the texture of bread. I can attest that these are absolutely delicious!
Want to reach her? Rosalyn’s business, LaTresa’s Treats, can be found here on Facebook. There, she keeps us up to speed on what she’s whipping up in the kitchen and her farmer’s market appearances.
Photos courtesy of LaTresa’s Treats.
