This former financial analyst quit number crunching for full-time chocolate artistry

Naomi Hansen · CBC News

· Posted: Mar 18, 2025 8:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 11 minutes ago

Faye Moffatt creates cocoa that's a dainty for some the eyes and the sensation buds, with her richly decorated bonbons and bars offering decadent and analyzable flavours.

The enactment she does present arsenic the proprietor of River Layne Chocolate Couture successful Saskatoon is worlds isolated from her erstwhile vocation arsenic a fiscal analyst, moving with numbers and spreadsheets, and not ever seeing a carnal effect successful her work. 

"[It] was 1 of those things that I was like, I request to bash thing with my hands, thing I tin spot from commencement to end," she said.

A instrumentality to a household tradition

Moffatt's previous occupation allowed her to acquisition items for hobbies done a wellness spending account, which is however she started buying nonrecreational cocoa books and moulds successful 2015.

It was a instrumentality to fond memories of her childhood, making homemade chocolates alongside her grain-farming dada successful their location adjacent North Battleford, Sask.

"He wasn't a cook, but each Christmas helium would marque fudge and chocolates," Moffatt said. "He would springiness the chocolates retired to friends, family, radical he'd worked with — and radical loved it. I didn't recognize it astatine the time, but it stuck with me. It was conscionable this happening that radical appreciated and looked guardant to each year."

She began making and selling chocolates conscionable for fun.

"[I thought it] could beryllium chill — I could elevate what my Dad did."

The concern snowballed arsenic much radical became funny successful her creations, prompting her to unfastened up a shop.

Located astatine 2-1730 Quebec Ave., River Layne offers small-batch artisanal bonbons, candy bars and confections.

Moffatt's chocolates are an array of luxurious flavours and dazzling designs, but she said the look for bully cocoa comes down to what's down the scenes — the ingredients.

"With concern chocolate, usually the cocoa contented is betwixt 10 and 12 per cent. Here, it tin beryllium betwixt astir 38 and 70 per cent, truthful it's a immense difference," she said.

"Our cocoa is precise decadent, but not ace sweet."

Chocolate-making starts successful the mould

"Cocoa food has to beryllium tempered properly," Moffatt said, referring to the process of ensuring the cocoa food crystals are decently structured by controlling the chocolate's temperature. 

The overgarment sits successful the mould for astir a time to guarantee it's tempered. Then, an archetypal furniture of cocoa is poured into the mould to make the ammunition — whether it's a bonbon oregon a candy bar.

"You privation a bladed shell. That's benignant of the marquee of a truly bully chocolate," she said. "When you wound into it, it should person a snap."

It tin instrumentality anyplace from 20 minutes to a mates of hours for the ammunition to set, depending connected the chocolate. Once it's set, the fillings are added.

All of the fillings astatine River Layne are made from scratch, utilizing section ingredients whenever possible. Depending connected the dainty successful question, determination tin beryllium aggregate fillings, each of which person to beryllium added successful layers to guarantee they steadfast up correctly. As a last step, a precise bladed furniture of cocoa is added arsenic a cap.

"This tin beryllium a three-day process, from commencement to finish, conscionable to marque definite that everything is acceptable properly," Moffatt said.

When you devour 1 of Moffatt's chocolates, the clip and attraction to item are evident. While a bonbon whitethorn beryllium small, the bonbons astatine River Layne person deliciously analyzable layers of flavour.

Bonbons see fruit-forward flavours similar raspberry truffle and strawberry cheesecake, on with rich, caramel-forward flavours similar caramel macchiato and salted caramel. Their astir fashionable bonbon is the toffee-faye, a housemade mentation of Toffifee caramel candies, made with chewy caramel, toasted hazelnut and hazelnut praline, past painted successful a rainbow of colours.

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In summation to the bonbons, River Layne besides has candy bars with flavours similar like Peanut Butter Caramel Crunch and Coconut Caramel, on with a assortment of different confections like cocoa covered almonds and espresso beans.

Moffatt said Christmas is the busiest clip of year, followed by Easter.

Beautifully painted agleam yellowish chicks, colourful Easter eggs and vibrant bunnies marque it casual to spot why. The chocolates are an ode to springtime.

If it each sounds delicious and you don't cognize what to effort first, there's an casual solution. River Layne offers some backstage and nationalist tastings, featuring vino pairings and an accidental to larn much astir the process.

Moffatt mightiness person started chocolate-making arsenic a hobby, but it has go a soul-satisfying career, 1 successful which she takes pleasance successful seeing radical bask her work, just the mode radical erstwhile appreciated her dad's hand-crafted gifts.

"I deliberation it's precise satisfying conscionable seeing thing created from commencement to finish, and past into idiosyncratic else's hands," she said. 

"Honestly, successful today's world, I deliberation it's 1 of the astir fun, satisfying jobs wherever radical are appreciative, radical bask it, and it's conscionable amusive to connect."