Alexandria woman turns hobby into Sweet Creations Bakehouse

Melinda Martinez, Alexandria Town Talk
·2 min read
Thi Truong (left) helps her daughter Amy Tra (right), owner of Sweet Creations Bakehouse, sell baked goods. Tra specializes in making macaroons but she also makes cake pops, chocolates chip cookies, custom cakes, cupcakes and other desserts.
Thi Truong (left) helps her daughter Amy Tra (right), owner of Sweet Creations Bakehouse, sell baked goods. Tra specializes in making macaroons but she also makes cake pops, chocolates chip cookies, custom cakes, cupcakes and other desserts.

Amy Tra, owner of Sweet Creations Bakehouse, started baking as hobby.

Tra arrived in the United States from Vietnam in 2015 after she got married. Then she had a baby in 2016.

“When she got around 2 years old, I started baking, like just a hobby,” she said, adding that she would bake and decorate cakes like birthday cakes.

Then Tra enrolled at LSUA to become a math teacher. She taught briefly at Pineville High School but found that teaching really wasn’t for her.

So she went back to baking. Tra started Sweet Creations Bakehouse as a Facebook online business to take custom cake orders. She also worked in a local bakery for awhile.

“I learned a lot through the bakery,” she said.

Tra is one of the regular vendors at the Cabrini Farmers Market held from 9 a.m. to noon on Saturdays in the parking lot behind St. Frances Cabrini Church, 2211 E. Texas Ave., in Alexandria, and at the Front Yard Food Trucks Farmers Market, 5233 Highway 28 East in Pineville, held from 3-6 p.m. every Thursday.

Macaroons are her main product. At each market, she tries to have six or eight different flavors.

Though macaroons are her specialty, she makes other treats such as cake pops and chocolate chip cookies that she says she makes more interesting by adding candies like Almond Joy, Turtles and red velvet. She also makes custom cakes, cupcakes and other desserts.

Tra also sells Vietnamese coffee after Mary Rogers, one of the organizers of the Cabrini Farmers Market, asked her if she knew how to make it. Tra said didn’t but she went home and researched it.

“And now I make Vietnamese coffee,” she said while laughing. “It’s just a very strong, slow drip coffee with condensed milk and sold with ice.”

This Saturday she will be one of the vendors at the Glenmora Market on Main Street. Tra said it’s a night market. The Glenmora Market on Main Street page said the market will be from 7 to 9:30 p.m.

She can also be found at events like the Magical Markets and festivals like Alex River Fete.

Check out Sweet Creations Bakehouse on Facebook for more information.

This article originally appeared on Alexandria Town Talk: Alexandria woman turns hobby into Sweet Creations Bakehouse