Rutland Herald
Megan
Wagner, owner of Dream Maker Bakers, plates three of her signature
cupcakes at her new bakery location at the former Pasta Pot restaurant
in Killington. (Kate Barcellos / Staff Photo)
KILLINGTON — Later this month, a woman’s childhood dream will finally come to true, frosted in buttercream and filled with chocolate.
Dream Maker Bakers, a patisserie, bakery and gourmet cafe, will open for business Aug. 22 inside the former Pasta Pot building on Route 4 in Killington, with local Megan Wagner at the rolling pin.
Born on Beale Air Force Base in California, Wagner said it was when she moved to Randolph with her family in the fourth grade that she realized the sweet life was calling her name.
“I told my dad, ‘I’m going to own a bakery,'” Wagner said. “So he bought me the ‘Baker’s Bible’ and ‘1,001 Muffins’ and let me destroy his kitchen.”
Years later, Wagner found herself working as a waitress at Chef Claude’s Choices Restaurant and Rotisserie in Killington.
Even as a waitress, Wagner couldn’t get herself out of the kitchen, and often experimented with different flavor combinations and recipes at home.
“I used to bring in things I’d baked,” Wagner said. “Pies and a lot of quick breads, which worked because he had those on his lunch menu.”
After three years or so of waiting tables and helping out in the kitchen, Chef Claude noticed her talent and decided to make her an offer: a week-long crash course at the Culinary Institute of America.
“He said he would pay for the class if I paid for my gas to get there,” Wagner said.
After baking at Choices for aboutfour years, and having her first son Joey, Wagner decided to try something new and branched out from her nest at Choices to work at The Foundry up the access road.
“They gave me a lot of freedom,” Wagner said. “They had a rotating, weekly seasonal dessert, which gave me a lot of room to play and try new things, and they did a lot of events.”
After her second son was born though, Wagner decided to work as a bookkeeper for her husband’s plumbing business, where her brother is apprenticing.
“I thought I wouldn’t bake again for a while,” Wagner said. “I decided I didn’t want to bake for restaurants anymore. Desserts are an after-thought (there).”
And for a little while, that notion held.
But this spring, the baking bug bit again. Another baker, whom Wagner had come to admire, was selling off some of her culinary tables, a bakery case, an oven and a commercial cooler, among other things.
And Wagner couldn’t resist. She bought the equipment and for months stored it at a friend’s house while she and her husband looked for a new place to bake.
Wagner said she’d considered renting the old Comfort Inn check-in building behind the Back Country Cafe, but then a friend called her up and told her to go talk to “Pasta Pete,” Pete Timpone, owner of Killington’s Pasta Pot restaurant.
Wagner and Timpone made an agreement. After putting down a deposit, Wagner said she and her husband Joe plan to buy the building within the next two years.
“That was how this all started,” Wagner said, gesturing around her new workspace which is accented with baking supplies, bottles of extracts and a cooler of fresh cream that she orders by the gallon from Thomas Dairy. “That happened mid-April. We were in here May 1.”
Wagner said she chose the name Dream Maker Bakers because even though the bakery is her dream, she couldn’t have done it alone.
“I wanted a name that was representative of a team effort,” Wagner said. “This isn’t just about me.”
Wagner said her assistant, Kelsey Kelley, is a big part of the creative vision when they’re trying out new recipes.
“I see a lot of myself in her,” Kelley said. “Some of her flavor combinations are one’s I’d never think of.”
With the summer flying by, Dream Maker Bakers has been taking shape. Wagner spent almost every day since May 1 at the new location, slapping on fresh paint and tearing up carpet, while baking for the four accounts she has along the access road.
She makes seasonal pies for Jax Food and Games, and still bakes the seven-item dessert menu for the Foundry. For Mad Hatter’s Scoops, she bakes brownies, cookies, homemade hot fudge and homemade caramel chock full of Cabot butter.
“No margarine. Ever. I always use butter. And you’d never see shortening in butter-creams,” she said.
And for Sushi Yoshi?
“Dessert sushi,” Wagner said. “I use Swedish Fish for the fish on the nigiri. And I also make candied-ginger lemon cupcakes.”
Wagner bakes homemade cakes, pies, cake pops, cannoli, cream puffs, eclairs, mousse bombs and croissants that take three days to make.
“They’re around 90 layers by the time they’re done. And they’re dark; that’s the butter. Shortening gives them a light color, and butter makes them dark,” she said.
By the time their new location is ready to open, Wagner said she hopes to have transformed the former bar into a take-out orders space with a cake cooler, and also install a coffee bar where customers can sit and enjoy espresso drinks, pastries and breakfast items.
Wagner said she’s even planning to reuse the keg taps for cold-brew coffee and Aqua ViTea kombucha on tap.
Though Wagner enjoys eclairs and cakes, her favorite dessert is pie.
“Chef Claude’s coconut cream pie,” Wagner said. “That’s my favorite. Or fresh cherry, the kind where you pit every cherry yourself when they’re in season. You can’t use frozen cherries … it’s not the same.”
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