Halepaska's Bakery keeps recipes alive in new cookbook - Victoria Advocate

When Carin Halepaska began taking orders for the new Halepaska’s Cookbook, she wasn’t prepared for the flood of people eager to get their hands on the secrets behind sweet treats they’ve been devouring for more than 60 years.

Halepaska said she’s been working hard to organize thousands of orders she’s received in the first round, which closed on June 14. On Monday, she said she’d received 6,000 orders from as far away as Hawaii. She had only expected to sell several hundred copies of the book she designed for her father-in-law’s famous bakery.

“It’s just really been a staple in Victoria for so many years,” she said about Halepaska’s Bakery. “We just want people to keep enjoying it.”

Tom Halepaska, the owner of the bakery founded by his mother in the 1950’s, made the decision not to return to business after the bakery closed on March 28 because of COVID-19.

The announcement of the closure led hundreds to express deep sadness for the loss of the local favorite in Facebook posts. Comments on the announcement reminisced about wedding cakes bought from the bakery’s original location in Ann Halepaska’s home on Old Refugio Highway. Others talked about the tradition of buying cakes from the bakery for generations of birthdays.

In April, Tom Halepaska teased that he was considering selling the business, or at the very least making the company secrets available in a cookbook.

Former Victoria resident Richard Haifley thinks he may be the only person in Utah who will have a copy of the cookbook. He placed his order last week.

Haifley lived in Victoria for about two years after getting his first job out of college as director of communications and marketing for the Victoria Generals.

When he saw the announcement of Halepaska’s closure in April, Haifley said he felt nostalgia for the bakery, which he used to visit a few times each month before he moved in 2015.

“Supporting a family-owned and operated business is something that’s key to me,” he said. Plus, he said, “They’re delicious.”

Haifley said he’s excited to be able to bake his favorite treat, Halepaska’s buffalo chip cookies.

What else is he excited about?

“Just having a little piece of Victoria in Salt Lake City,” he said.

Carin Halepaska said she’s excited for her in-laws being able to retire.

“They’ve worked so hard for so many years,” she said.

As a teenager working in the bakery, Halepaska grew close to her future husband, Tom Halepaska’s son, Jonathan.

She said she jumped at the opportunity to help her family preserve its legacy, despite challenges that included converting the bulk recipes to more manageable sizes for single-family homes.

“This is where granny’s and Barbara’s and Tom’s legacy can live on,” she said. “It’s about them.”

Tom Halepaska said only about four or five recipes were directly written down by his mother. The largest recipes were for batches of up to 390 dozen confections.

“She was an intrinsic cook,” he said about his mother.

Part of his first job at the bakery included converting his mother’s memorized trade secrets into written recipes. Later in his career, Halepaska became a certified master baker, of which there are little more than 200 in the country. Many of the bakery’s recipes for cookies and other treats were his own creation.

As part of the process of rewriting the recipes, Carin Halepaska said she baked every recipe that went into the book.

Orders for the cookbook have closed, but she said she will be taking a second round of orders after she’s finished processing the first.

For Tom Halepaska, the reaction to the cookbook warmed his heart because it represented the impact his bakery had in the community. He said he’s still considering offers to sell his business.

“It makes us feel good. We’ve worked hard our whole lives, and we’ve had these wonderful customers,” he said. “We hope somebody will continue that legacy.”