If you are searching for a way to slake your sweet teeth, look no farther than 3050 Belmont St. in Bellaire.
There you will find that Unique Treats by Jacquie specializes in offering a veritable cornucopia of delicious baked goodies to its customers.
Officially in business inside the All-American Town for roughly two years, Bellaire native Jacquie Jochumsen’s creations were known far and wide long before she first opened a brick and mortar location farther north on Belmont Street.
For 15 years, the engineer by trade worked the craft circuit, selling her gourmet caramel apples to increasing acclaim. A yearly hit at the giant craft show at WesBanco Arena, that’s where Jochumsen’s fame continued to grow.
Eventually, it was time to devote herself fully to her love of baking and bringing warm smiles and full bellies to her customers.
“I just got tired of the big rat race,” Jochumsen said. “I worked in the engineering department of a local manufacturing plant and, as you get older, life is so short. My soul felt empty.
“I wanted to do something that feeds my soul, and that feeds other people and helps make them smile.”
Unique Treats by Jacquie, the store, soon became a reality. She first moved into the shop next to Lil Gerardo’s in Bellaire, currently occupied by the recently opened For the Love of Pierogis.
What started as primarily a location to sell her apples quickly began to grow. The All-American Bakery farther down Belmont handled the daily duties of supplying donuts to the Bellaire faithful. But, come Sunday, that option wasn’t available.
“People would stop by on Sundays and ask ‘do you have donuts? Why don’t you do donuts,’” Jochumsen recalled. “So, we started doing donuts on Sundays and they were a huge hit. But then people started asking for them on other days .”
Unique Treats is located at 3050 Belmont St., right next door to the Holistic Cloud CBD store. 
Unique Treats is across the street from Gulla’s Lunch, another downtown Bellaire staple.
Time for a Move
As her business continued to grow, Jochumsen soon realized she needed more space. So, when the building that housed the former All-American Bakery became available, it was almost too perfect.
What caught her eye, in particular, were the oven and overall setup of the bakery.
“She set this place up well; it’s a beautiful bakery,” Jochumsen said. “The over—I dream about this over. I can get 46 pies in there at once or 80-some pumpkin rolls. I did 16 dozen cookies (today) in about 15 minutes.”
The oven functions like a Ferris wheel with four rotating racks, allowing Jochumsen to create a lot of items at once.
“It’s only been six months, but we just keep growing and growing and outgrew that place up the street,” she said.
She also enjoys working alongside her new neighbors at the Holistic Cloud, and owner Bill Schmitt Jr. Schmitt’s CBD store butts up against Unique Treats and naturally, the two businesses can complement one another.
“We’re quadrupled our business, and I’ll tell you what; it’s great being located next to Bill,” Jochumsen said. “They are great people, and they’ve even helped us bring in deliveries, in 8-inches of snow. All of his customers are so nice and friendly, and he sends them over here. He’s a great neighbor, just like with Gulla’s across the street.”
Jochumsen noted that when she finally gets a chance to catch her breath, she’s going to start baking brownies that Schmitt can sell as CBD edibles in his store. Jochumsen noted that after baking all day, sometimes the last thing she wants to do is cook, so Gulla’s receives her business 2-3 times per week.
“They’ve even walked it across the street and delivered it for me,” she added.
Pizzelles and a variety of cookies are just a few of the many items available 
Another of Unique Treats intricately designed cake creations
More than Caramel Apples and Donuts
Unique Treats does have a wide variety of items, both sweet and savory. You can see some of its many creations both on its Facebook page and website.
Another staple for Jochumsen is her designer birthday cakes. That trend began when a woman came in during the height of the pandemic and asked her to make a special cake for her daughter’s 21st birthday. The woman told her that her daughter deserved that cake turning 21 during the pandemic and that she couldn’t bake it herself, so Jochumsen had a month to figure it out.
And figure it out she did. Jochumsen puts her own spin on the number birthday cakes, personalizing each one and tailoring it to the recipient’s likes and personalities. No detail is too small, and no two cakes are alike.
“I even joke to people, if you give me a picture and want me to copy it, I charge an extra $25,” Jochumsen noted with a laugh. “Let me do my thing. I spent 20 years following the rules, and this is my fun time, and I do things my way.
“I ask a lot of questions about the person and inquire if they want a particular logo or theme, but then I get an idea, and I go from there.”
Another of the number of popular items is Jochumsen’s hot chocolate bombs. To illustrate just how popular, consider this fact.
The Bellaire Elementary School recently conducted a fundraising sale, taking orders for items from Unique Treats: primarily, the hot chocolate bombs, peanut butter pretzels, buckeyes, and chocolate-covered Oreos.
The result was the school’s most lucrative fundraiser ever. It did so well that Jochumsen spent countless hours this week in the bakery meeting the demand from those orders—the bombs in particular.
“This was our first year partnering with them, and they knocked it out of the park,” Jochumsen said. “They told me some kids individually sold over $600 apiece. The bombs were popular. We sold more than 800 of them at Christmastime, and I probably could have doubled that, but I didn’t have the capacity at the time with everything else going on.”
Learning the “Science”
As stated, Jochumsen’s background is in science—engineering to be exact.
But she came from a large family. She’s the youngest of five, and for her mother, cooking was a passion.
“At any given time, my mom could feed 25 people out of the contents of their fridge,” she recalled. “They had a 22 cubic foot freezer, and there was always a side of cow, a half a pig, a case of every vegetable imaginable.
“And what she did, she did all from scratch, cooking in cast iron skillets.”
She took what she learned from her mother and started a catering business a long time ago. But now, she sticks to the science of baking.
“Cooking on top of the stove is an art, but when you bake, it’s a science; there’s no wiggle room,” she said. “You can’t just say, ‘Oh I’ll put a pinch of this and a bit of that and see how it works out.’”
Unique Treats is open Wednesday through Friday from 8 a.m. until 6 p.m. and Saturdays from 9-2. Starting in April, they will be closing at 4 p.m. for a couple of weeks as Jochumsen’s assistance is needed with her grandchildren as well.
“We’ll see how it works out and the feedback we get,” she said. “I like staying up until six because I can remember working until five, getting done and then nothing being open.”
