AUBURN — It’s only seven miles away from her old location, as the crow flies. But to hear Jenna Roberts describe it, 245 Center St. in Auburn is a world away.

“Oh night, and day. There’s no comparison,” the owner of Marvelous Macarons says. “People are not going to Sabattus in the middle of the week for a lemonade,” even if it is fresh squeezed. “Here, we’re right in the middle, the central, the hubbub of Lewiston-Auburn.”

Walk through the front door and that bakery smell hits you right away. Barely two months in, the larger, better lit, and more centrally located store is already drawing her legion of sweet-toothed fans to return in force. It also helps that Marvelous Macarons is now open four days a week instead of two.

“They were here day one. A lot of the people have been with me right since the farmer’s market… some even before that,” Roberts says.

Roberts closed her Sabattus location in June after more than four years there, promising to reopen in a new and more accessible location within a month. Promises and construction don’t usually come together in a timely way in Maine. It was the last weekend in October before she could open her doors on Center Street.

The sweet tooth queen has not missed a beat, cranking out her famous macarons, Dubai fruit cups (which are still mega popular), cookies, muffins, cupcakes, cruffins and more.

What’s a cruffin you ask? Roberts describes cruffins as croissant dough dipped in melted butter, shaped like a muffin and rolled in cinnamon sugar, oh — and then it has Bavarian cream in the middle. “Yeah, they’re fat-free is what I tell people,” Roberts says with a smile.

NEW BAKERY, NEW DIRECTION

Roberts has been making macarons for 16 years and asked to describe how they taste to someone who has not had them before, she says: “They are crunchy but soft and chewy at the same time. It’s definitely like a textural experience for sure.”

The basic ingredients include almond flour, powdered and granulated sugar, and egg whites to give them the light, meringue texture. Macarons are notoriously finicky and time consuming to make, but Roberts has mastered the recipe over the years and spends an entire day making them each week.

Macarons sell for $16 for six or $25 a dozen, and come in lots of flavors. Roberts says she rotates her flavors and offers 12 different ones every week, with cookie butter the current favorite by far.

The holidays are for holiday flavors like hot cocoa, peppermint mocha, eggnog, gingerbread, cookie butter, cotton candy, cranberry-apple, strawberry-pistachio, raspberry cheesecake, blueberry pancake and strawberry cookie dough.

The move to Auburn has allowed her to expand her offerings as well as her days open, which means she now has a staff of seven, including her mother, her sister Chelsey Dugal, and her nephew Mase, a resident of a Margaret Murphy Center home.

Roberts has partnered with Darlin’ Farms in Lisbon Falls to bring in sourdough products every week.

“Well the original plan was to keep it in the fridge for resale … and make grilled cheese out of it. But we were selling so many, we couldn’t keep up and she couldn’t keep up,” she says, referring to Payton Veilleux, the owner of Darlin’ Farms.

Lunch is a new offering at the bakery and is limited for now as she gets her footing. Grilled cheese on fresh sourdough, soups and hot dogs are on the menu now. She’s looking to add different items, but is limited without a full commercial kitchen.

Customers are also asking for more coffee options, which Roberts is also craving, but first she has to sell enough macarons to afford the required floor drain to meet health codes for her new espresso machine.

Asked what sets her apart from the other bakeries in town, Roberts explains it this way: “Instead of focusing on things that everybody else does, I’m always going to try and find the thing that looks unique.”

Marvelous Macarons has more than 8,000 followers on Instagram and Facebook, where Roberts carries on a constant virtual conversation with her followers, announcing new items and showing off her creations.

January is typically a slow retail month, but not at the bakery. Then February means Valentine’s Day and March features St. Patrick’s Day, one of the busiest holidays of the year for Marvelous Macarons.

Trends are important in the baking business and it was the viral Dubai fruit cup that catapulted Marvelous Macarons to fame last year, with lines of people waiting for her to open her doors. The lines are less frequent with the additional days open these days, but Fridays and Saturdays can be hectic at an already busy bakery.

“I think the chocolate strawberry cups are going to come back into popularity when February hits, because that’s what’s in season,” she predicts. The self-taught baker — who likes to say she is a University of YouTube graduate — has been pretty accurate predicting trends so far.

Roberts is also planning on bringing back cake decorating classes, which she said were very popular.

“I bake the cake and they come in and they decorate them with me and I teach them how to use fondant. I teach them how to stack and frost,” she says. The classes last about two hours and run around $70.

Marvelous Macarons is open Wednesday-Friday from 10:30 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Saturday from 10:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.