Fridays Were Full Of Sweet Surprises From Great Bites

Mar 21, 2026 | blogs, Events, Magazine, News Station, Newspaper, Press Release, substacks, TV

They say out of adversity can come opportunity. For Maryellen, truer words were never spoken outside of Philadelphia in Delaware County. It all started when Maryellen was a little girl helping her Nanny in the kitchen. At the age of seven her parents divorced, and at age ten her father was killed in an accident. That same year, her mother got re-married to a gentleman that Maryellen refers to as Popason. According to Maryellen, he was the best thing to enter into their lives. For her mother, in raising her and her brother, he was the Rock of Gibraltar for their family. They rarely ate out and virtually every meal was homemade; creating lasting, fun memories around the kitchen table. While helping her Nanny, the future baker would be covered in flour and sugar much of her childhood as making desserts was a favorite for the future entrepreneur. Fast forward to when she graduated from high school, entering college to study occupational therapy. She was asked by a family friend to make a Winnie The Pooh cake from scratch. She hasn’t looked back since. “When I made that first cake, I was like, this is fun! I am artistic and have an eye for making fun, delicious things,” remembered Maryellenhttps://greatbites.substack.com/p/maryellen-derr?r=7xej3q&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&triedRedirect=true