Today we’d like to introduce you to Katelyn Vu.
Hi Katelyn, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
Hi, my name is Katelyn. I’m a mother of three young children.
I developed a passion for baking after my first child was born. My initial goal was simply to bake for their birthday parties and family get-togethers. I come from a big family, so we always get together at least once a week. Seeing my family and friends love my pastries gave me even more motivation to keep improving and bake better treats.
I’m a stay-at-home mom, and while my kids are at school, I use my free time to practice and create new desserts. I’ve learned everything from scratch, constantly making adjustments to achieve perfection.
My first big challenge was making macarons back in 2016. After mastering those, I started learning how to make croissants and other Asian pastries that my kids love. The process of making croissants is very challenging and time-consuming—it takes about two days to make fresh ones from scratch. But knowing I can serve warm, freshly baked croissants to my family for breakfast motivates me to keep learning and perfecting the craft.
In 2023, my family and I took a trip to Denver. We stopped at a bakery and tried a cruffin for the first time. It completely blew our minds—it was that good! My husband and I couldn’t stop talking about how amazing it would be to open a bakery like that one day.
That same year, we started our home cottage bakery called Blue Moon Macaron, specializing in macarons and chunky cookies. However, cottage food laws limit what we can sell from home.
In the summer of 2025, we traveled to Japan. The cruffins we tried there were incredible all over again, and we also fell in love with high-quality matcha and other healthy tea options. That trip solidified our dream of bringing exceptional desserts and drinks to our community.
Southside is where my husband and I started our family together, so it holds a lot of memories for us. We want to open our first real bakery right here—bringing fresh-baked goods every morning, made without artificial dyes, using homemade sauces and high-quality ingredients for both our pastries and drinks.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
As a new business owner we had to learn new skills quickly. Just like all new business we had to navigate all of the legal requirements and licensures. Then we needed to hire our staff and learn the point of sale systems. We were fortunate that the space we took over needed just minimal renovations which end up saving us money. We started with a soft opening over 2 weeks with a limited menu to allow the staff to get used to making the food and drink recipes. On our grand opening day on January 3rd, 2026, we had a line forming starting about 45 minutes before opening and it want around the block! That was a very intimidating start to the day, and to make things worse, our drink label printer stopped working so we had to improvise and handwrite the names of each drink on paper and tape it onto the drinks. We are so fortunate to have such great staff and they all worked hard to diligently complete all of the orders efficiently. It was quite a surprise with all the support we received from the community, especially for a single location small family owned business. We are very grateful for our customers who supported us on our grand opening day and who continue to come back as regulars.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I spent most of my adult life as a stay at home mom. I think this is one of the difficult and rewarding jobs out there. It takes a lot of patience and love to do it well. As my kids have gotten older and less dependent on me, I knew that I wanted to get back into the work force, so I leaned into one of my passions: baking! I went to college and graduated with a degree in finance and had no formal training in baking or making desserts. The experience in baking started after I had my first child, it was mainly to try and make some desserts that I felt were more healthy than what I could buy at the store. Shortly after, I expanded what I was able to bake by learning from others online and making adjustments to classic recipes to fit my tastes. What started out baking small batches soon led to the skills of being able to make everything from French macarons to laminating croissants and making cream cheese danishes. After a while baking just kinda came naturally. I would look at a recipe and knew what I could change right away to make it better. Then I started making my own recipes as well. Now I find myself as a full time head-baker at my very own bakery. Its like a dream come true.
What do you like best about our city? What do you like least?
I love Jacksonville. I have lived in Jacksonville for the past 20 years and there are parts of Jacksonville I still have yet to explore. The city is so diverse and expansive. There are so many things to do, from nature trails, water activities, professional sports and concerts. This city has everything you could want. The food scene is also excellent, especially in the Southside Jacksonville area with a wide selection of diverse and authentic cuisine.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.cruffinandtea.com
- Instagram: @cruffinandtea
