“Coming home after school when I was a young girl. My mother would be in the kitchen baking,” Kent Baumkel said as she recalls her childhood. “It was good to come home and have the smell of food everywhere.”
Although Baumkel has grown up, it’s these memories of her childhood that drive her to make the confectionary goodies she proudly sells at the MIX Marketplace.
The MIX Marketplace is a relatively new creation within the confines of Ypsilanti. Every Tuesday from 4-8 p.m. and Saturday from 11 a.m. until 4 p.m., different venders gather in what used to be a Mongolian Barbeque.
According to Baumkel, at the market one can find, “Absolutely fabulous handmade jewelry. A lady bakes doughnuts, which are healthier than fried, and she has her son there. One man sells cheese. Harvest Kitchen is also there. But the venders change every week.”
Amongst these ever-changing venders is Baumkel who sells her treats on Saturdays. Baumkel’s company, Kent’s Confections, specializes in candies.
“I’m sticking to what I know, and right now that’s all things caramel,” she said.
Baumkel’s recipes originate from her grandmother. “My grandmother came from Kentucky. She immigrated after World War I with my grandfather,” she said. Her story continues, “My mother cooked every year for Christmas… I grew up in a home with a mom who did art… Now mom’s in her 80’s, but she
used to teach art… the cooking was also part of the creative environment.”
The days of Baumkel’s mother doing all the cooking are long gone. Baumkel has two brothers who she describes as “great tasters!” This past Christmas, one of Baumkel’s brothers helped out to carry on the family tradition of making treats and wrapping them up for the family.
Baumkel works hard to put the same care into the treats she sells at Mix Market as she does with her Christmas treats. I can feel my grandmother and my mother standing behind me [while I cook] in spirit,” she said. Baumkel doesn’t introduce a new treat unless she’s sure it’s exactly right.
Kent’s Confections sells items from four different categories: caramels, sauces, pralines and nutty caramel corn. Within the caramels, one can buy pecan caramels, cashew caramels, or toasted almond caramels. You can also try the sauces, pralines and caramel corn in any of those three different types of nuts.
Each time one buys some of Baumkel’s treats, they can be satisfied knowing that Baumkel buys her packaging supplies from The Green. “They sell eco-friendly things for home and paper products,” she said.
Not only is the packaging ecofriendly, but it’s also decorative. “I make my packages to look like gifts. It’s done on purpose so that people can give their loved ones treats as presents.”
Baumkel goes through a lot of work to be able to sell her goodies at the Mix Market. Between her day-job at NEW, a center which is described on its website new.org as, “NEW’s mission is to help nonprofits succeed by strengthening nonprofit management and offering solutions to issues facing the nonprofit community,” and working on preparing for weekend sales, Baumkel seems to have no free time at all. “When you start a new business, you’re pretty much doing it all the time,” she said.
Even with having little time for much else, Baumkel said “I’ve lost a batch of caramels now and then, but I just keep working… This is something I really love to do.”
