This former financial analyst quit number crunching for full-time chocolate artistry
Naomi Hansen | CBC News | Posted: March 18, 2025 12:00 PM | Last Updated: March 18
River Layne Chocolate Couture owner elevates childhood chocolate-making experience
Faye Moffatt creates chocolate that's a treat for both the eyes and the taste buds, with her richly decorated bonbons and bars offering decadent and complex flavours.
The work she does now as the owner of River Layne Chocolate Couture in Saskatoon is worlds apart from her previous career as a financial analyst, working with numbers and spreadsheets, and not always seeing a physical result in her work.
"[It] was one of those things that I was like, I need to do something with my hands, something I can see from start to end," she said.
A return to a family tradition
Moffatt's previous job allowed her to purchase items for hobbies through a health spending account, which is how she started buying professional chocolate books and moulds in 2015.
It was a return to fond memories of her childhood, making homemade chocolates alongside her grain-farming dad in their home near North Battleford, Sask.
"He wasn't a cook, but every Christmas he would make fudge and chocolates," Moffatt said. "He would give the chocolates out to friends, family, people he'd worked with — and people loved it. I didn't realize it at the time, but it stuck with me. It was just this thing that people appreciated and looked forward to every year."
She began making and selling chocolates just for fun.
"[I thought it] could be cool — I could elevate what my Dad did."
The business snowballed as more people became interested in her creations, prompting her to open up a shop.
Located at 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 recipe for good chocolate comes down to what's behind the scenes — the ingredients.
"With industrial chocolate, usually the cocoa content is between 10 and 12 per cent. Here, it can be between about 38 and 70 per cent, so it's a huge difference," she said.
"Our chocolate is very decadent, but not super sweet."
Chocolate-making starts in the mould
"Cocoa butter has to be tempered properly," Moffatt said, referring to the process of ensuring the cocoa butter crystals are properly structured by controlling the chocolate's temperature.
The paint sits in the mould for about a day to ensure it's tempered. Then, an initial layer of chocolate is poured into the mould to create the shell — whether it's a bonbon or a candy bar.
"You want a thin shell. That's kind of the marquee of a really good chocolate," she said. "When you bite into it, it should have a snap."
It can take anywhere from 20 minutes to a couple of hours for the shell to set, depending on the chocolate. Once it's set, the fillings are added.
All of the fillings at River Layne are made from scratch, using local ingredients whenever possible. Depending on the treat in question, there can be multiple fillings, all of which have to be added in layers to ensure they firm up correctly. As a final step, a very thin layer of chocolate is added as a cap.
"This can be a three-day process, from start to finish, just to make sure that everything is set properly," Moffatt said.
When you eat one of Moffatt's chocolates, the time and attention to detail are evident. While a bonbon may be small, the bonbons at River Layne have deliciously complex layers of flavour.
Bonbons include fruit-forward flavours like raspberry truffle and strawberry cheesecake, along with rich, caramel-forward flavours like caramel macchiato and salted caramel. Their most popular bonbon is the toffee-faye, a housemade version of Toffifee caramel candies, made with chewy caramel, toasted hazelnut and hazelnut praline, then painted in a rainbow of colours.
In addition to the bonbons, River Layne also has candy bars with flavours like like Peanut Butter Caramel Crunch and Coconut Caramel, along with a variety of other confections like chocolate covered almonds and espresso beans.
Moffatt said Christmas is the busiest time of year, followed by Easter.
Beautifully painted bright yellow chicks, colourful Easter eggs and vibrant bunnies make it easy to see why. The chocolates are an ode to springtime.
If it all sounds delicious and you don't know what to try first, there's an easy solution. River Layne offers both private and public tastings, featuring wine pairings and an opportunity to learn more about the process.
Moffatt might have started chocolate-making as a hobby, but it has become a soul-satisfying career, one in which she takes pleasure in seeing people enjoy her work, just the way people once appreciated her dad's hand-crafted gifts.
"I think it's very satisfying just seeing something created from start to finish, and then into somebody else's hands," she said.
"Honestly, in today's world, I think it's one of the most fun, satisfying jobs where people are appreciative, people enjoy it, and it's just fun to connect."