Gary Owens Research Paper

A love of baking and divine confirmation created the perfect business recipe for a local couple.

Gary & Jerri Owens are the proud owners of Mouthful of Joy, “a classic bakery” that specializes in pastries, breads and confections.

For as long as he can remember, Gary Owens was always in the kitchen in some capacity but he learned baking was where his passion lied.

“He spent a lot of time in the kitchen in general. Somewhere along the way he decided that opposed to cooking, he just preferred to bake. It was actually a long running family joke because every year at Christmas he would ask for cake pans or tools. One year, my mother bought him the whole cake decorating tool box so every year he would ask for more and more baking gadgets. He just developed it from there” said Jeri Owens.

“My husband is the baker. He’s self-taught. Basically he was just baking things for fun and somebody I work with asked him to make a birthday cake. He did that and ended up having to go to work the day the cake was to be decorated so I did that and it was a big hit” said Jerri Owens.

Riding on the success of that, the Owens decided to further their education and took a cake decorating class that defined their roles in the business.

“We took a local cake decorating class and it turned out that I was better at it than him so he does the baking and I decorate” Owens said.

When deciding on a name for the business, Jerri Owens was frustrated until some divine help intervened.

“We struggled for a long time. I kept saying ‘We need a Facebook page. We need to do something. If you really want to get out there we have come up with something.’ I was so frustrated because I felt like this was something that God had given us together. It was something that brought us together. It gave us a hobby together” she