What is a Schnickelfritz? People with a sweet tooth are finding out

Schnickelfritz Bakery in Red Bud started as a joke three years ago, and the three sisters who dreamed up the idea are still laughing.

They’ve turned a Facebook page for selling homemade birthday cakes into a full-blown retail business that also offers cookies, muffins, cupcakes and cheesecakes.

“We have 25 different types of doughnuts and other pastries,” said younger sister, Danielle Muertz, 27.

The bakery, 122 E. Market St., occupies one of two storefronts in the old Firestone tire and battery building, which underwent a major renovation this spring.

Middle sister Nicole Muertz, 29, picked the name “Schnickelfritz,” not even knowing what it meant until she looked it up. It’s a German term of endearment for chatty, mischievous or silly children.

“It’s so perfect,” Nicole said. “Not only do we have an enormous number of children in our family, we act like silly children ourselves.”

Nicole has two kids. She is partners with younger sister Danielle, who has two, and older sister, Heather Wolter, 31, who has five. Brother Cody Muertz, 26, has two more.

Cody isn’t officially involved in the business, but he hung the chalkboard menu, did other heavy lifting and served as barista on opening day in June.

“I did the decorating,” said Nicole, who helps out on Saturdays and works full-time as a saleswoman for Secon Rubber and Plastics.

The space has an industrial look with high ceilings, white brick walls, a concrete floor and large pendulum lights. Coffee mugs hang on hooks over a shelving unit that serves as a coffee bar.

There’s seating for 16 people at tables and on bar stools, as well as two contemporary couches. One decorative pillow reads “Coffee before talkie.”

Small aluminum buckets are filled with faux daisies. Garage doors can be raised to create an open-air atmosphere.

“They tried to maintain the integrity of the original building,” Heather said.

The brick two-story was erected about 1910 as a Ford assembly plant and car dealership.

Today, the sisters are still pinching themselves, not quite believing they are restaurant entrepreneurs or that a local family did so much to help them get started.

“It was like winning the lottery,” Heather said.

She was referring to a proposition from the Carter family, including Andrew, his wife, JoAnna, his brother, Josh and his sister-in-law, Abby, who bought the Firestone building about a year ago.

They agreed to pay all the costs of converting half the lower level into a bakery and to buy much of the kitchen equipment.

“We weren’t looking for big returns,” Andrew said. “We were looking to get some good tenants in the space and bring in a business that the community needed. Red Bud has been without a bakery for eight or nine years.”

Andrew, 39, is an architect by trade but works as chief marketing officer for his family’s business, Knight Hawk Coal, which owns coal mines in Southern Illinois.

The Carters also created and equipped a second storefront for MiCasa Sub Shop.

“(Red Bud) didn’t have a lot of quick, casual dining, except for the chains,” Andrew said.

The roots of Schnickelfritz go back to 2011, when Heather began making elaborate, themed birthday cakes with homemade buttercream icing for her children.

Other local residents began hiring her to make cakes for weddings, showers and parties.

“I would do almost anything for people,” Heather said.

One of her favorite cakes was shaped like a stuffed pig for a luau. Another featured a radar weather map.

In 2014, Heather and Nicole were watching an episode of “Donut Showdown,” a Cooking Channel reality TV show that features contests between three doughnut makers.

“(Nicole) said, ‘We could do this,’” Heather recalls. “But she’s a terrible baker. She cannot bake. So I’m pretty sure she meant, ‘Heather, you could do this.’”

A year later, Danielle returned to Southern Illinois after her U.S. Navy service and began helping Heather.

Danielle was the “artsy” sister who initially went to college to be an art teacher. She quickly mastered “painting” with fondant icing on cakes and cookies.

“You can use food coloring just like watercolors,” she said.

Early last year, the sisters created a Facebook page for their online bakery and got their first order in an hour.

Then they started selling baked goods at Red Bud’s indoor Market on Main. Heather’s cheesecakes (starting at $28 for seven-inch or $45 for nine-inch)were a hit and often sold out with advance orders.

“I make these huge cheesecakes,” she said. “I did one last week, and it was my biggest one yet. It weighed 7 1/2 pounds.”

Abby Carter, who knew Heather through their sons’ baseball league, invited the sisters to visit the Firestone building last fall and asked them to imagine a bakery counter where tires were stacked.

The rest is history.

Today, regular customers include Nina Hille, 47, of Sparta, owner of MiCasa Sub Shop next door.

“Everything is fresh,” she said. “You can’t go wrong when something is made that day. And they’re really great people. Their hearts are really in it.”

Nina is partial to the muffins, iced sugar cookies ($1.50 to $3), cream horns and savory pastries, such as a sausage and gravy kolach and bacon-Cheddar scone.

Customer Megan Korves stops in Schnickelfritz once or twice a week with her husband, Chris, and 2-year-old daughter, Ryian.

“We really enjoy the atmosphere, and the workers are really nice,” Megan said. “They go above and beyond. They always ask us how they can improve things, so we feel like we’re a part of it.”

Megan likes the doughnuts (90 cents to $1), particularly the blueberry cake ones. Chris is partial to Danish, which come in different flavors.

Ryian always orders a cupcake ($2 to $3).

“When she goes in, she’ll say, ‘Cuppy! Cuppy!’ They think it’s adorable,” Megan said.

The sisters are serious about their business, but they like to laugh and have fun. They wear pink T-shirts with the slogan, “You can almost taste the crazy.”

Heather gets to work at 2:30 a.m. each morning to start baking. Her philosophy is reflected in a tattoo on her back honoring her late grandfather, Steve Kipping.

“It has his saying, ‘I’ll sleep when I’m dead,’” she said. “There’s a cookie with a bite taken out of it. He loved sweets.”

This story was originally published August 24, 2017 at 10:50 AM with the headline "What is a Schnickelfritz? People with a sweet tooth are finding out."