Mickey's celebrating 70 years
By Becky Barclay
Published in News on September 4, 2016 1:45 AM
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News-Argus/SETH COMBS
Jerry Ray, left, his son, Jerald, and daughter, Melanie Daniels, stand behind the counter of the the family-owned Mickey's Pastry Shop. The business is celebrating its 70th anniversary.
Mickey's Pastry Shop has been baking sweet treats for Wayne County residents for 70 years.
The family-owned business has seen three generations of bakers turning out everything from cream puffs and cupcakes to wedding cakes and holiday pies.
It all began with Mickey McClenny in 1946 in downtown Goldsboro.
"My grandfather started it when he returned home from World War II," said one of the current bakers, Melanie Daniels. "He was a pastry cook in the war. He served the troops.
"The oldest of four children, he dropped out of school in the eighth grade to help feed his family. As a teenager, he worked for a local candy maker. After the war, he bought the existing bakery and put his name on it."
Mrs. Daniels said her grandfather sold a lot of cream puffs and brownies throughout the years.
"But we liked everything he made," she said. "He did the baking until the day he died in September 1999."
Mrs. Daniels' father, Jerry Ray, started at the bakery in 1969, having never done this kind of work before.
"I grew up in the bakery," Mrs. Daniels said. "I worked there while I was in college. Then I came home to work with my grandfather before he passed away. I was fortunate to be shoulder to shoulder with my grandfather and dad for five years until my granddad passed away. It was a great opportunity to be able to serve as the third generation of a long-standing community business.
"We feel like we're a fixture in Wayne County."
Mrs. Daniels and her father are both certified master bakers, two of the less than 350 in America.
Having been in business for 70 years, Mickey's Pastry serves generations of customers daily.
"We feel very proud to be serving those grandchildren that come in with their grandparents or even their great-grandparents, who were our first generation customers," Mrs. Daniels said.
She said the sweet shop offers 60 different products that are made from scratch every day.
"This time of year, we do tailgate parties with cupcakes decorated for your favorite team," Mrs. Daniels said. "We also do cheese stars and a few savory snacks for tailgate parties.
"We do wedding cakes every weekend that we're open and sometimes travel out of town with them. We also do birthday, anniversary and other special occasion cakes.
"We make up 700 pounds of cake a week, in various sizes and all from scratch."
Valentine's Day is a big holiday for the shop, at which time cupcakes are in high demand. Other big occasions are Easter, Mother's Day and graduation.
"We do egg-shaped cakes at Easter," Mrs. Daniels said. "We have pans that date all the way back to 1946, as does most of our equipment."
In the fall, customers will find sweet potato and pumpkin pies, as well as other flavors.
At Christmas, it's anything red and green, Mrs. Daniels said.
Most of the recipes date back 70 years.
"A lot of our original recipes came from my grandfather, he made them up," Mrs. Daniels said. "They are not in print anywhere. We have modified just a very few as ingredients have changed over the years. But 98 or 99 percent of them are real from the beginning."
She said in the past several years, Mickey's has brought back some cookies from the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s, such as the cherry delight cookies, which are the shop's best selling cookies.
"Over the course of 70 years, we have created a lot of products," Mrs. Daniels said. "Some have been winners, some have been losers.
Mickey's delivers a dozen of it's products all over eastern North Carolina to grocery stores and convenience stores, including long johns, pies, cupcakes, cakes, pound cakes, cheese stars and party platters.
Mrs. Daniels said she hopes she's raising a fourth generation of bakers for Mickey's Pastry, but her children are still young.
Mickey's Pastry is located at 2704 Graves Drive. You can log onto its website at www.mickeyspastry.com.