Sweetays makes life sweeter one cake at a time

JOHNSON CITY — Chantay Skrine didn’t know when she was a young girl cooking with her grandmothers that those moments would shape who she would become. Over the years, she’s worked in other fields including retail but always came back to cooking. “I’ve been cooking since I was 16,” Skrine says. Eventually, her love of cooking led to Skrine opening her own business, Sweetays LLC, in 2021 — offering cakes, cookies, candy apples, popcorn, and nut blends from her home and at various farmers’ markets around the region. She started the business with a federal COVID pandemic stimulus check and a dream. “I had a vision,” she recalls. By her second year, Skrine was busy enough that she worked with Cornell Cooperative Extension to obtain her food-processing license and began cooking in the organization’s commercial kitchen. She also expanded her product offerings to include more options like potato salad, macaroni salad, and more. “I have a frozen soup line in their store now,” Skrine says. Sweetays also now offers catering services and custom cakes for events. “I’m looking to branch into more local grocery stores.”

To expand her store offerings, Skrine is working with a company in Geneva to develop shelf-stable versions of some of her recipes so they don’t need to be kept refrigerated or frozen. “I’m looking for the best way to bring them to the masses,” Skrine says of her foods, which also include seasoning rubs, candied fruits, brownies, doughnuts, and favorites like greens, gumbo, and jerk chicken inspired by her southern and West Indian heritage. “When people come to my table, it’s like ‘oh my gosh,’” Skrine says of the variety she offers through her catering. “Something for everybody.” Going forward, Skrine hopes to expand all areas of her business. “I’m looking to get a brick and mortar [location] within this next year,” she says. The building would serve as a home base for cooking as well as a place to meet with clients and sell some items retail. While the vision is still a work in progress, she also hopes to have already packaged bakery products for sale and maybe even a small eat-in area. She would like to build up the catering business, landing more events. Sweetays offers an array of catering options from buffets to full-service meals. Currently, Skrine runs the business with one employee, her son, and hires people as needed for events. She hopes to add employees this year to help work the farmers’ markets so she can participate in more markets. In the meantime, Skrine focuses on continuing to learn new things as Sweetays evolves and focuses on making life sweeter “one cake at a time.” Skrine holds associate degrees in culinary arts and business.