Today’s vendor spotlight is on Pink Salt Sweets, a local bakery specializing in unique, balanced flavor combinations between sweet, salty, floral, and herbal. We spoke with Victoria DeRubeis-Godfrey.
For as long as I can remember, I’ve been passionate about baking (and eating, let’s be honest) desserts. I loved watching my grandmother and mother bake and learning as much as possible from various TV shows, blogs, and chefs. In 2020, I perfected many of my skills and recipes when I lucked into baking for the coffee shop/lunch restaurant where I worked. In that role, I played around with unique flavor combinations that initially made people nervous, but after a taste, so many loved what I made that it shocked me! I had old construction workers who first hesitated to try anything “flowery,” swearing by my Lavender and Earl Grey Sugar Cookies. When the restaurant closed early this spring, many people told me to start a baking business, so here I am, giving it a shot!
There is no storefront (yet!), but I live in Bellevue and bake in a commercial kitchen space on the North Shore. Behind the scenes, I am developing recipes and baking, but I have been fortunate enough to have help from my mom with baking and running the market booth. My partner has been a huge help with the market booth, coordinating social media, taking pictures of my products, and designing my logo. You can always find me, Sarah, and sometimes my mom at the market booth.
I love to find ways to put unique and new twists on classics, often by incorporating herbs or floral flavors. It may sound wild to a lot of people when I offer things with flavors like rosemary and raspberry, strawberry and basil, or cherry and rose, as those flavors sound more like perfumes and not something to eat. I love letting people try them and discovering something they love, too! In addition to baked goods, I make and sell syrups. My favorite syrup by far is lavender – it is always a winner, even with people who didn’t think they’d like the lavender flavor. In a glass of cold lemonade, not much can beat it, except for maybe the perfect pinch of pink salt on top of a chocolate chip cookie, of course.
This year is my first at the Bellevue Farmers Market! I’ve attended the market since moving to Bellevue in 2020, so I’m excited to be a part of it this year. I love all the amazing local goods! I’ve tried so much that I would have never known about if it wasn’t for the Bellevue Market bringing them into my neighborhood.