Slideshow

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  GAYLE SHOMER -

  Daphne Wagner guides her daughters, Alexis, 16 and Ashley, 10, in the family business; Mrs. W's Old Time Candy of Terrell, NC. They bake Peanut Butter Cup Cookies this day, for custom orders from Lake Norman to Asheville, NC.

  Store |
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  GAYLE SHOMER -

  Daphne Wagner guides her daughters, Alexis, 16 and Ashley, 10, in the family business; Mrs. W's Old Time Candy of Terrell, NC. They bake Peanut Butter Cup Cookies this day, for custom orders from Lake Norman to Asheville, NC.

  Store |
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  GAYLE SHOMER -

  Daphne Wagner of Mrs. W's Old Time Candy of Terrell, NC.

  Store |
• 

  GAYLE SHOMER -

  Daphne Wagner guides her daughter, Alexis, 16, in the family business; Mrs. W's Old Time Candy of Terrell, NC. They bake Peanut Butter Cup Cookies this day, for custom orders from Lake Norman to Asheville, NC.

  Store |
• 

  GAYLE SHOMER -

  Daphne Wagner guides her daughters, Alexis, 16 and Ashley, 10, in the family business; Mrs. W's Old Time Candy of Terrell, NC. They bake Peanut Butter Cup Cookies this day, for custom orders from Lake Norman to Asheville, NC.

  Store |
• 

  GAYLE SHOMER -

  Daphne Wagner guides her daughter, Ashley, 10, helping wash baking sheets for the family business; Mrs. W's Old Time Candy of Terrell, NC.

  Store |

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After working in the real industry for 20 years, Daphne Wagner left it all behind in 2009 to pursue a career that was very different…and sweeter. Instead of haggling over contracts and negotiating prices, she now spends her time making cookies, candy and other yummy treats. It’s something she had been doing for years for friends and family, and says it was a natural step to take her love of baking to the next level with Mrs. W’s Old Time Candy. Her company is based in Terrell, where she works out of a commercial kitchen inside a renovated home where her husband’s custom home-building company is also located.

It all started years ago when Wagner first made her husband’s great-great grandmother’s chocolate toffee candy for her children as a holiday treat. It was a big hit, and soon friends and other family members were asking if she’d bake them a batch as well. By 2009, she was having a hard time juggling her real estate career and satisfying everyone’s sweet tooth. So she gave up real estate to focus on her new baking venture, which also allows her to spend more time with her family

“My new schedule doesn’t include weekends,” Wagner explains. “And I get more excited now about receiving a $20 candy order than a $5,000 real estate commission check.”

Today her tasty treats—such as chocolate toffee candy, oatmeal cookies and milk chocolate almond bark—can be found at retail stores and restaurants in Lake Norman, Charlotte and Asheville, as well as online.

“The candy sells itself,” Wagner says. “It’s homemade, cooked fresh, preservative-free and never mass-produced. Candy just makes people happy.”

For more details about Mrs. W’s Old Time Candy, including retails locations, go to www.mrsws.com.