Sips & Sweets/ Zelienople, Pennsylvania

Photo Credit: Julianne Helfrich

Simply Sweet

Every day is Valentine’s Day at Sarah Rothrock’s bakery, Sips & Sweets, in Zelienople, Pennsylvania. The motto “Make Every Day Simply Sweet” doesn’t mean just sugary desserts are all that’s on the menu. It might mean a cupcake one day and a rainbow-colored smoothie bowl with fresh local berries the next. 

“It’s all about celebration,” Sarah says. It’s also about balance. Her daughter, an athlete, urged her to offer a menu of delicious baked goods and healthier options. “She was like, ‘Mom, you’ve gotta have something else too,'” Sarah recalls. “That, and smoothies and smoothie bowls are just kind of taking off.” 

Sips & Sweets’ smoothie bowls feature house-made granola, yogurt, and fresh fruit and produce. Depending on the recipe, add-ins might be hemp and chia seeds, matcha dust, goji berries, collagen, or nut butter. No one misses the sugar with a squirt of flavor-boosting purée. Sarah has been adding flavors to her menu ever since she learned about The Perfect Purée from her distributor and ordered samples. 

“I transfer the purées to a squirt bottle,” she explains. “Strawberry, Mango, Blueberry, Banana — I literally think I use all of them. I only use a couple of squirts, and it enhances the flavor beyond belief.”

Baked with Love

Sips & Sweets’ bakery treats include hand-made galettes, tarts, muffins, scones, sweet and savory rolls, lemon bars, cookies, and more. Then there are Sarah’s cupcakes that inspired her to open Sips & Sweets in 2022 after a mom on her daughter’s cheer team said she’d pay Sarah to make them for a birthday party. She makes fruit curd fillings with Lemon Zest, Meyer Lemon, Blood Orange, and Key Lime concentrate. Soon she’ll be adding The Perfect Purée’s newest flavor, Lime Zest. Customers especially love Sarah’s key lime cupcakes with vanilla bean cake, graham cracker crust, lime curd, and whipped vanilla buttercream.

“It’s so intense, the flavor that comes from the concentrates and the zests,” Sarah says. “The flavor enhancement is just incredible because it’s such a concentrated amount of fruit.”

Sips & Sweets’ Valentine’s Day special is a strawberry champagne cupcake with strawberry curd and champagne buttercream. Sarah also makes decadent cup desserts with raspberry or chocolate strawberry mousse, homemade vanilla bean whipped cream, and a drizzle of purée. 

Lifelong Passion

Sips & Sweets is a dream come true for Sarah, whose lifelong passion is making real food for friends and family. Ingredients are mostly organic, always non-GMO, and, as much as possible, sourced from local farms. The shop’s barnyard bakery theme inspires product names that make customers giggle, like ‘piglet’ (snack) and ‘hog’ (meal) sizes for smoothie bowls. At home on 13 acres, Sarah and her family raise chickens that supply eggs for the bakery’s recipe development. 

Sarah values the art and creativity of making good food, a process enhanced by The Perfect Purée. “Before, I was making my own purees — blending and cooking down the fruit and spending time straining things and zesting lemons. [The Perfect Purée] really cuts down on my time. The first time I tried Lemon Zest, I was just blown away — I said, ‘This is what pure lemon zest tastes like!’ You need so little of it to make such a difference in anything you make. It also just adds such a vibrant pop of color.”  

Community Collaborations

Sarah works closely with local farms in rural Pennsylvania, sourcing fresh fruit, honey, flour, produce, and herbs. She is also working with local brewery ShuBrew to create a beer based on her key lime cupcake recipe. 

For classes and tastings, Sarah transforms the working bakery into a private event space. Classes include Buttercream 101, Royal Icing Basics, Cupcake Decorating Techniques, Cookie Decorating, and more. She takes the work out of birthday parties, showers, and other special events with themes including Cupcakes & Cocktails and Bites & Brew.