Continuing our theme of tasty guests on the podcast, this week Deidre Lotecki of Sweet Relief Pasteries joins us for a delicious dessert, and to talk about how she’s serving up sweets for Calgarians.

Deidre first got in touch with the Wild Rose team to speak to Nick about getting her hands on some Wraspberry Ale for a unique father’s day special: beer cupcakes. This was an idea she’d had for a few years but never had time to pursue, but with COVID disrupting business-as-usual she suddenly had extra time on her hands to set up what would end up being a 6-pack of cupcakes, with each cupcake made from beer from one of six different craft breweries, and the Wraspberry Ale contributing to a lemon raspberry cupcake. Deidre dropped off a number of these cupcakes for Nick and the team to try… but we’ll never know just how many because they were so tasty Nick enjoyed them all himself!

Her passion for baking goes all the way back to her childhood, and as Deidre explains “baking is what I’m meant to do”, but she hadn’t considered it for a career. She had gone to university for a science degree and happened to pick up a summer job at a bakery and fell in love not just with the baking but working in the industry. This led to her enrolling in a course at California’s Culinary Institute of America, after which she moved to Banff to work in the pastry kitchen at the world famous Banff Fairmont. After 3 years in Banff she made her way to Calgary to start Sweet Relief, and the rest is history.

After our delicious treats from Deidre we saved absolutely no leftovers for Mama T, but she didn’t seem to hold that against us. We answer a question from a listener about starting up a cult, but T doesn’t think she’d want to be a cult leader since it seems like too much responsibility and too much work, and instead would just like to start a virtual cult of people who like her bus on instagram.

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Wild Rose Brewery: taproom | website | instagram | twitter
Deidre Lotecki - Sweet Relief Pasteries: website | instagram | twitter