CHECKING IN WITH ... SONDRA AMES:

Sondra and Allyson Ames, the mother-and-daughter team in charge of Wonderland Bakery in Newport Beach, don’t get much rest around Valentine’s Day — but they get plenty of love, as customers line up all week to order their favorite holiday confections. Sondra spoke to the Daily Pilot Thursday morning while her daughter bustled behind her in the kitchen.

What’s the most romantic gift you’ve ever received?

I would say the most romantic gift I’ve received is creating gifts for our customers to help make their day incredible. We baked a cake with an engagement ring inside. We had a 50-year anniversary that this couple was celebrating, and we spelled out their names in delicious edible cookies and chocolate-dipped treats.

In your press material, you refer to your store as “wonderlicious,” and you say that when you design a store, you “wonderize” it. Is “wonder” your favorite word?

“Wonderize” would be my favorite word. I call it an action verb, where we can apply something to our environment, to our packaging, where we can make something ordinary into something spectacular. It’s part of our branding as well.

Do you get hungry for sweets working in a bakery all day?

I have something sweet every single day. So yes, a big capital-Y yes.

What’s your favorite sweet?

It depends on the day of the week. This week, I’m in love with our chocolate-dipped brownie pops. That’s a chocolate fudge brownie dipped in milk chocolate from one of our 4-foot fountains on a stick. That, and of course, our cupcakes, which we dip in our chocolate fountain as well.

Is your store named after “Alice in Wonderland”?

My daughter, Allyson, was named after “Alice in Wonderland.” It was my favorite book as a youth. When we decided to create a business, we were deciding on the name, and we loved and had always loved “Wonderland.” So we decided to do a play on words.

What appealed to you about that book?

What appealed to me was that Alice was a very clever girl. The queen tried to cut off her head and she was too little, she was too big, she drank something to be bigger and something to be smaller. She was always being very creative in her environment and celebrating life in a fun and whimsical way.

How long have you been baking?

Allyson’s been doing it since she was 5 years old. It was a passion of hers.

Was it Allyson who got you into it?

Yes. I’m an excellent cook, but I’m not passionate about it, and Allyson has incredible talent. They call her a cooking prodigy. I think the Daily Pilot once called her a cooking prodigy and a culinary genius. So with her skill set and her passion, she’s living her dream. [Note: The Daily Pilot called Allyson those things in 2003 when she competed in the Best Teen Chef in America contest.]

Is it easy to run a business with your daughter?

It’s fabulous. She runs the back of the house, and I run the front of the house. I think the combination of us together and our skill set and strengths has been the formula for our success.