Dessert artist crafts mouthwatering sweets and treats
For Ciara Kennell, Valentine’s Day is a series of numbers: 900 strawberries, 95 pounds of chocolate, 14-hour days and hundreds of happy customers. She wouldn’t have it any other way. Since 2021, Ciara has been making sweet treats through her home-based business, Chocolate Dippery.
At her home in the small town of Belle, Ciara’s tiny kitchen is a hive of creativity. Sprinkles of every variety and color, luscious strawberries, stacks of silicone molds and pounds of chocolate wait to be transformed into scrumptious and Instagram-worthy desserts. “I make the treats everybody loves dipped in chocolate,” she says.
Ciara Kennell, owner of the Chocolate Dippery in Belle, makes unique and beautiful sweet treats.
Ciara’s sweet-focused business actually started due to an unexpected hardship. She had spent more than four years in a job she didn’t like and unexpectedly lost it. Since Valentine’s Day wasn’t far away, the self-taught baker decided to make some chocolate-covered strawberries to sell. “I actually got a lot of orders for them, and then it just took off from there,” she says.
At first Ciara used the standard chocolate you buy at your local grocery store to dip her berries and other treats. They tasted good, but soon her creative side got the best of her, and she started blending multiple types of chocolate to see if she could make her goodies just a little different and tastier. It worked.
“I use two different brands of chocolate to get my unique blend,” she says. “That creates a silky-smooth bite. I use milk, dark and white chocolates, and they’re all three uniquely blended.”
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- For Valentine’s Day the top treat is Ciara’s chocolate-covered strawberries. Other goodies include cake pods, crunch grapes, chocolate-covered pretzels, custom cakes and personalized boxes. She adorns her treats with everything from colorful sprinkles to gold leaf. “My favorite thing to do is like the gold splats; it feels like it’s my signature,” she says.
Ciara started with chocolate-covered strawberries but what spearheaded her business was a tasty little treat she calls the cake pod. She had bought some cute silicone molds that created small discs, so she decided to try a small homemade cake filled with buttercream, covered in chocolate and pressed into the mold.
“I posted a video of them on Facebook and everybody wanted to try them,” she says. “Once they tried them, I got so many orders for them. Then they tried my strawberries, and everybody just fell in love with my little shop.”
Ciara offers the cake pods in the classic flavors of chocolate and vanilla and the more complex flavors of caramel pumpkin, cookies and cream and mocha espresso. They are often paired with chocolate-covered pretzels, cake pops, chocolate-covered Oreos and various berries coated in chocolate to make an eye-catching party box.
Another popular item is her crunch grapes, which are green grapes dipped in white chocolate and rolled in a strawberry crunch topping. “They are very popular, even if they are a bit unusual,” Ciara says.
Ciara creates custom cakes for all types of celebrations, such as the fun birthday cake above. Customers share an idea and then she takes it from there. Over time, Ciara’s customers have found her through word of mouth, Facebook posts and the pop-up events she attends.
Many of Ciara’s creations vary with the season. She’ll do hot cocoa bombs and hot chocolate stirrers at Christmas, fancy caramel apples for Halloween and shamrock-shaped sugar cookies for St. Patrick’s Day.
Chocolate Dippery treats can be customized for birthday parties, weddings, baby showers and anniversaries. Beyond her chocolate-dipped goodies, Ciara also crafts custom cakes. She’s created confectionery masterpieces that range from a Kansas City Chiefs football field to a hot pink Barbie cake with disco balls to an elegant two-tiered wedding cake adorned with real flowers.
Ciara’s treats can range in price from $12 to $65, depending on the quantity, size and personalization. For example, a half dozen cake pods cost $15 and a dozen chocolate-covered strawberries cost $40. Cakes range from $25 to more than $300. She continually tracks food trends and looks for inspiration online from other bakers. It just takes a tiny idea for her to marinate on and create something new and uniquely hers.
“I don’t really copy off anybody,” Ciara says. “Sometimes customers will send me an inspiration photo or two, and I go based off of that. But it is still going to be my own creation in the end.”
For the last three years, Ciara has run her business solo. During busy times, she hires a friend and her boyfriend to be extra sets of hands for making and delivering treats. Customers can pick up their goodies from her home in Belle, or she’ll make deliveries to Jefferson City, Rolla and Linn. “There’s people who come from an hour away to pick up stuff from me,” Ciara says.
As she reflects on her small business, Ciara says her customers have been the most surprising part. “I can’t believe all the customers I have and how loyal they are. My customers keep coming back — it’s amazing,” she says.
Ciara grew up in Belle and loves raising her daughters, Thara and Zayda, in the same place. “It’s good to be in a small town because of the sense of community,” she says. “Many of my customers are here; the community is great.”
While Ciara loves making all kinds of sweets and goodies, chocolate-covered strawberries are still her favorite. She is looking forward to helping make Valentine’s Day just a little sweeter for her customers. Last year she dipped 900 strawberries in just a few days — maybe this year she’ll top 1,000.
You can contact Ciara Kennell at chocolatedippery@gmail.com. Find her on Facebook at www.facebook.com/chocolatedipperylux.com. Treats can be picked up in Belle or delivered to Jefferson City, Linn and Rolla. She accepts payments through Venmo and PayPal.