Nilah DeLetto-Howard, head baker and owner of Honeybee Baking, leads her microbakery out of her Arnoldsville house with intention.
Nilah DeLetto-Howard recently poses with her ready-to-bake, gluten-free cinnamon rolls. Thursdays and Fridays are busy baking days for Honeybee Baking microbakery, as she prepares for weekend farmers markets. (Emily Adams/ The Oglethorpe Echo)
From gluten-free cinnamon rolls to her Salvadoran quesadilla, everything at Honeybee Baking microbakery is made with intention.
“It gives me meaning, and it gives my hobby, and the thing that gives me peace, an avenue for a way for me to make a living,” said Nilah DeLetto-Howard, head baker and owner of Honeybee Baking.
DeLetto-Howard has been running the microbakery — a smaller-scale, artisanal bakery originating from a home kitchen — out of her Arnoldsville house since January 2024. She sells her pastries, custom orders and desserts at local farmers markets, such as the Marigold Farmers Market and Athens Farmers Market.
“It's just easier to get someone to buy one slice of cake than a whole cake,” DeLetto-Howard said. “It's easier to price a $6 slice than an $80 cake.”
Just six months after opening, her gluten-free Black Forest cake was recognized as a Critic’s Choice in the 2024 Greatest Baker competition by Brian Hart Hoffman, editor of Bake from Scratch magazine.
“It kind of gave me the confidence and the assuredness that I was on the right path and doing the right thing,” she said.
That journey started in September 2023, when DeLetto-Howard accepted a challenge for a co-worker’s sister who was in the hospital: baking gluten-free, dairy-free and soy-free strawberry cupcakes.
More recently, she baked a 12-inch cookie cake for a farmers market customer who was celebrating the two-year anniversary of donating a kidney to her dad.
“I think food, even though it can give us nutrition, it's also sometimes just about celebrating life,” DeLetto-Howard said.
As a child, DeLetto-Howard always brought sweet treats to class celebrations and birthday parties, an example set by her mother, Maria Leticia DeLetto, who was known for her New York-style cheesecake.
“Seeing that she is following her passion, that makes me happy,” Leticia said. “And, that makes me feel like I’ve done something well.”
As an homage to their Salvadoran roots, the mother and daughter pair still enjoy creating their own recipes, such as the Salvadoran quesadilla, which can always be found on Honeybee Baking’s menu.
The microbakery’s menu also includes seasonal bakes, like coconut ladoos during the celebration of Diwali in India and horchata cookies during Hispanic Heritage Month.
For DeLetto-Howard, it's not the cakes and baked goods she values the most, it's the support that the residents of Oglethorpe County have given her.
“It's a community of great people who care about meeting the makers and supporting local businesses, which is honestly what I love most about this area,” she said.