Four generations of family baking

Four generations of family baking

Warnock sisters say it’s a legacy of love for Mom

Story by Tim Colliver

Savannah and Hannah hard at work in their kitchen bakery, putting the icing on their latest cake creation.

When Teresa Warnock caught sight of the old milk house that wasn’t being used on the family farm, she saw more than a block building in need of a paint job and some minor repairs.

She saw a dream come true — her very own bakery and baked goods store.

“My mother always dreamed of having her own bakery,” said Hannah Warnock, the older of Teresa’s two daughters. “She wanted a store where people could come in and choose from a wide selection without having to place an order ahead of time.”

Last November, Hannah and her younger sister Savannah opened what they call the Rose Factory Home Bakery and Bake Shop in memory of their mother, who succumbed to cancer on Oct. 4, 2018, at the age of 51.

Following a successful grand opening, the Warnock sisters have decided to focus on cakes and cupcakes for special occasions like birthdays, graduations and weddings, taking orders for those and specialty items by phone or through their website.

The “home office” for their bakery is the kitchen of their home, which is nestled among the rolling hills of southern Highland County, south of Hillsboro on state Route 136, just past Haines Lane one mile before Sugar Tree Ridge.

“It all began with our great-grandmother Isabell Rose,” Hanna said. “She had a joy for baking and was a widow at a young age when her husband was killed in a coal mine accident.”

Warnock said her great-grandmother often baked items to give to what she called the “hobos and transients” who came through the New Lexington/Lancaster area, and in turn passed both her love and talent for baking down to her four daughters.

One of those daughters was Teresa Warnock’s grandmother, Shirley Rose, who built on her family’s baking heritage and enrolled in cake decorating classes so she could later take orders for birthdays and weddings.

“Grandma then passed her knowledge down to Teresa, our mother,” she said, “and Mom loved to bake for others, too, and she baked everything from pies to pastry to cookies and did all the different cakes as well.”

The torch has now been passed to a fourth generation of bakers, and Hannah said they decided to carry on to honor their mother’s legacy.

Hannah said that during the spring and throughout the summer, they expect to be busy with graduation cake orders followed by wedding cakes, which will be a familiar sight since wedding bells of her own are on the horizon for October.

In what sounds like a plot-line from a seasonal Hallmark Channel movie, she said she will become the wife of local farmer and full-time carpenter, Devin Porter, getting married at Calvary Church of God where her father is the pastor, to be followed by an old-fashioned reception in a barn.

Seventeen-year old Savannah will be experiencing a life change as well, having completed her Christian Light Education home school curriculum with graduation set for July.

The sisters admit that launching out as new entrepreneurs has been a bit overwhelming, at least until they take to heart the wise words of advice from their late mother.

“Mom always said that if you bake with love and a passion,” Savannah said, “then you’ll be giving that love and passion to those that enjoy what you made for them.”

____

Rose Factory Home Bakery and Bake Shop

Home-based business south of Hillsboro

Orders can be placed by calling 937-205-0722, and a menu can be seen and orders placed online at www.cakesbyteresa.weebly.com.

Salt Magazine




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