By: Maggie Wong
Shayda Wilson has always loved baking. She went from stealing her mother’s Martha Stewart magazines to running her very own pastry shop. But her journey was not so linear.
After graduating from N.C. State University with a degree in accounting, she went on to be an accountant for two years. However, she decided to pursue her true passions and travelled to Paris and completed a year-long program at Le Cordon Bleu. While in Paris she fell in love with the pastry culture in France.
“I wanted to bring back a taste of the pastry culture that I saw over there, and I didn’t see too many places that were just focused on pastry over here, so I really wanted to bring that kind of thing to the area,” Wilson said.
Upon returning from Paris in 2014, Wilson opened Sweets by Shayda. The shop offers pastries of all sorts, including croissants, eclairs, compote and galettes. Some fan favorites include raspberry macaron cake, hazelnut crunch mousse, chocolate caramel mousse and lemon lavender cake.
Out of all her menu items, though, Wilson loves baking macarons the most.
Sweets by Shayda offers a large assortment of macarons with almost 20 flavors. Wilson also creates macarons for various occasions. For example, in honor of Pride Month, Sweets by Shayda offered a Fruity Pebbles flavor featuring a vibrant rainbow shell. All proceeds from this flavor will be donated to LGBTQ Center of Durham.
“Creating this macaron was super fun,” she said. “I was like how can I get as much color into this as possible, and then I thought ‘Everyone knows [Fruity Pebbles].”
Like her macaron flavors, Wilson also strives to add diversity to her menu, including seasonal pastries. For example, she is planning on adding plum galettes, peach galettes, and peach tarts this fall. In addition to a wide variety of desserts, Wilson also keeps in mind the wide variety of customers. That is why she offers many gluten-free options. One such offering is the Persian love cake, which is made with pistachio cake, vanilla cream and a rose mousse.
People can enjoy all of these pastries at Wilson’s new storefront, which opened in January of this year, located in downtown Durham. Wilson worked closely with architects to design the new space to be perfect for customers to enjoy their Parisian delights. There is also a built-in flower wall that is perfect for taking Instagram pictures.
“Everything we make is from scratch and from hands, so we really like to put a lot of love into everything we do,” Wilson said.
If you want to taste a bit of the French pastry culture and enjoy a tasty treat, you can find Sweets by Shayda at 105 W. Morgan St., Suite 105. To learn more about Sweets by Shayda visit their website or check out their social media @sweetsbyshayda on Instagram and TikTok.
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