Careful Creations Bake Shop

Today I'm talking with Marissa at Careful Creations Bake Shop. You can follow on Facebook as well.

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00:00
You're listening to A Tiny Homestead, the podcast comprised entirely of conversations with homesteaders, cottage food producers, and crafters. I'm your host, Mary Lewis. Today I'm talking with Marissa  at Careful Creations Bake Shop in  Mankato, Minnesota. Good afternoon, Marissa. How are you? I'm good. How are you? I'm good. What a beautiful day we're having in Minnesota today. Oh gosh, yeah. I see that they're predicting snow the first four or five days of November. oh

00:29
So I mean I'm used to that with just moving back from Sioux Falls. We barely got snow last year. So this will be  a nice change for us Yeah, the last two winters have not been too bad for snow in Minnesota Just so you know, so you may luck out again and not have a whole lot of Oh,  man, my youngest children will be disappointed with no snow then

00:54
Yeah, I don't know. This weather's been nuts. And that's why I always start the podcast off with, how's the weather? But because you're right down the road for me, I was like, oh, it's a gorgeous day for both of us. Yeah. So tell me a little bit about yourself and what you do. So I am 28. I'm married. I'm a military wife. I have four kids. My husband and my eight-year-old daughter both have

01:24
tree nut allergies. My eight-year-old,  also has sunflower allergies.  my goal has always been to  make the environment safe for them. And  when we go to the store,  we can't really buy any baked goods because everything has some sort of manufactured on or near

01:53
nuts, then 90 % of store products do have sunflower of some sort. creating my own bakery company and business has been a dream come true because now I can keep my loved ones safe and other people's loved ones safe. love that you would not believe how many people I have talked to in the last two years.

02:21
who had a need for themselves, figured out how to fill that need and then were like, oh, I can help other people who have the same need. I love everybody in this community so much.  Yeah, it's a whole new ball game for me, but I am definitely excited to be able to  provide those special dietary needs for  my clientele and customers.

02:48
Mm-hmm. So how have you been getting the word out because you just started the business a little bit ago? So  this morning at about five o'clock, we actually launched  our website that is also  on my  Facebook page.  We have  a public group. We have a public page.  And also here in Mankato, we have been taking advantage  of the free public

03:17
bulletin boards and we have putting flyers out as well. And then Friday we receive our business cards so we'll be able to hand those out as well. Awesome. Tell me the website address if you know it off the top of your head now and then you can tell me at the end too. It is www.careful-creations-bake-shop.com. Okay, awesome. And I'll ask you again at the end so people can catch it at the end too.

03:48
So, so what are you  I know nothing about tree nut allergies or sunflower allergies because  I haven't had that in my family at all. So  are you just avoiding making things with nuts or have you found some kind of substitution for them? So  we completely avoid them altogether.  There are  things where we do substitute. So if like it is something for example

04:16
My favorite thing to make  is butter chicken, but traditional butter chicken requires cashews,  and that is the deadliest for my husband. So  when I make it, I actually leave it out completely. I just add a little bit of extra butter to make it a little nicer. Butter makes everything better. Oh yes.  But  most of the time we just avoid.

04:43
If there are recipes where we need to substitute, we usually use flax seed or we go ahead and use chia seeds. Okay, yeah. Can you use pumpkin seeds? Yes. Sometimes we will use pumpkin seeds. They're a little nuttier than sunflower seeds, which I personally like, but some people just don't like that. So we, if like,

05:13
One of our recipes calls for a tree nut. You know, we just ask, hey, you know,  do you  have an allergy to this?  Do you like the flavor of it?  And  if the customer states that they'd prefer that we leave it out, we work around.  Awesome.  I'm actually going to pull up your website because I had  questions about your menu  and I need the web to be able to do that. So hang on just a second.

05:43
Okay. Oh, there's the menu right there. Sourdough or yeast breads and muffins and cookies, quick breads, tortillas and English muffins. So that's awesome. But  can people just request a certain kind of muffin or cookie or are going to have a like a?  Are you going to have a list of things that you would make, you know, just regularly? Yep. So those are kind of just going to be like  our.

06:11
we're going to have it as like seasonal. like the pumpkin and apple is gonna be seasonal. Banana bread to me is my absolute favorite and like banana muffins, those are my absolute favorite. And those are, that's gonna be one that just kind of stays there. But throughout the seasons, we will change it up.  And there's also a form  if you have a special

06:40
order requests, you just send in that form and we will fulfill whatever  you would like. All of our items come with  one to two inclusions.  If you want like a special topping on top of like your muffins or your breads, we're just gonna ask that, hey, you you pay the extra inclusion charge. And then everything

07:07
special dietary need will also be special order. We just ask that you give us 72 hours so that we can fulfill that order in the safest  possible manner. Absolutely. And you mentioned a couple of things I want to hammer home. Number one,  baking takes time. So don't expect to send Marissa a form and say, need 25 cookies in the next two hours because that's probably not going to happen. Yeah.

07:37
And number two, homemade baked goods are going to be probably at least as expensive, if not more expensive, than store-bought baked goods. And the reason why is because you are paying for the person's expertise and you are paying for the really good ingredients and the special things that the grocery store is not going to provide you. Absolutely.  And the time and energies  of creating.

08:07
these masterpieces.  Mm-hmm. Yep, exactly. And that's part of the reason that I am not diving into the  making things and selling them yet out of my kitchen. I have my registration and my son  has said that he will help me get into making some Christmas cookies in November. So I will be selling some things with my registration in November and December.  But it is really expensive right now to buy ingredients.

08:37
to make baked goods. And in your case, it's probably even more expensive because you're having to find work around.  Yep. Yep.  But that does not mean that no one will spend money on treats because even when money is super tight, treats are a blessing and you are providing them, Marissa. Exactly. Also with people who have similar allergies  as my husband and my daughter, I have found

09:05
will pay whatever price  that they need to in order to  feel safe and secure being able to eat their nostalgic treats as well. Yes, and everybody should be able to eat a cookie. I don't care how many allergies you have, a cookie is God's gift to the tongue, I swear. Well, and when you go to stores and you look at the labels, it says,  may contain,  and then it

09:33
always has tree nuts and I'm like, well, my  husband and my daughter can't have this. So I have to go home, I have to make cookies. And what better  way to honor  my husband and my daughter than starting a business around them? Yes, absolutely. So it's called Careful Creations Bake Shop. So I have a big question for you. Yes. Did you name it Bake Shop because you're hoping to expand into an actual shop at some point?

10:04
Absolutely. All right. Tell me about that. So our goal for right now  is  the first couple of years while we take off running,  I'm to be working out of my home. And then  right around that two year mark, we're hoping to get into a storefront. And our goal is to actually have a storefront near home  because  nothing feels like home than baking.

10:34
And home doesn't feel like home unless I'm baking. So to me,  it's  a big deal. It's all tied together for you. Yes. Yes, absolutely. And by the way, you mentioned banana bread.  I love banana bread. I also love apple bread. Oh yeah.  We  are very big banana bread lovers in our house. I make it at least  every  two to three weeks.

11:04
unless I forget to buy the bananas and we're kind of pushing it once a month. Yeah, the grocery store that was a mile from our house when we lived in town five years ago, they would sell the bananas that were going  off. They weren't still pretty at like 29 cents  a pound instead of  the 35 cents that they had for the good bananas. And so we would always buy a bag of bananas every week at the 29 cents a pound and we would just let them continue to get  spotted.

11:33
And then I would make banana bread. And  my kids loved banana bread when they were young. I don't know if they still do, but they did. So. See, every once in a while, I think it's like once a month maybe, Quick Trip actually does 29 cents a pound produce. So that's when I buy my bananas in bulk.  I'll buy like 10 pounds  a week during that timeframe.

12:04
then I make a lot of banana bread at that point.  But one of our quick trips actually does  a plastic bag with bananas that are just at like that perfect ripeness for banana bread. And they sell them for like 50 cents a bag. Nice.  Nice, that's so helpful.  other thing that I learned when  I was doing this, you know, in the wintertime with the kids.

12:32
is that you  can pull the banana out of the peels. You know, the banana's ready for banana bread, and you can put it in a Ziploc bag and freeze it, and it stays good for banana bread for a year. Oh yeah. Yep, we usually freeze bananas too, so I know that feeling. Yep, so that's another trick for anybody who's hankering for banana bread right now, which I am because I hadn't thought about it in forever until I talk to you right this second.

13:02
So you do sourdough bread. Is that it or have you been doing that for a while?  So I actually started my sourdough about two months ago. I'm actually working out of a one gallon jar  now  because I have so much sourdough starter. Yes.  It takes a lot of patience  and a lot of practice. My first two to three sourdoughs

13:31
didn't  work very well. But then  as soon as my starter was good and ready to go,  I made my first loaf  and it turned out perfect. You are really lucky because my first loaf that I made turned out like bagel texture. It was really yummy, but it was very dense. Hey, bagels are good. I make those with sourdough too.  Yeah, this was completely on accident, but it tasted really good with cream cheese. I loved it.

13:59
And then I made a second loaf and it was dense. And then my sourdough that was doing really, really well got the pink mold on it and I had to toss it out.  Oh no.  Well, I wanted to cry. It was, you know, when you reach into the jar with a spoon and it like crackles because it's got all the bubbles in it. Yes, that's the best feeling. It had gotten to that stage and I got up.

14:24
I got up to feed it the next day and it had the pink mold on top. was like, what  happened? What did I do? haven't had that issue yet.  Mine,  they just, I don't know if it was  the type of flour I was using to begin with, but just didn't work. m Yeah, it's a trick. mean, it's not  hard, but there is definitely patience involved.

14:51
and things go wrong that you can't even know will go wrong with it. So it's patience every day. Oh yeah. So I haven't started a new one yet, Marissa. I'm going to this weekend, but I've been giving it a week to be not angry about it. I mean, I have a little bit extra if you'd like some. Like if you stopped by for my bake sale this weekend, I would gladly give you some. I am up in Lesor and I'm probably not going to be down in Mankato this weekend because it's my husband and my 20th

15:22
23rd anniversary this weekend. Well, happy early anniversary. Thank you. And we're going to stay in and have really yummy food from a place that we love and hang out and make a plan for next year's gardens. Oh, that sounds heavenly. Yes, that's the way we party at our house because we're 55 and 56. I mean, see,

15:47
My husband and I are 28 and 30  and we like to have a night in just watching a movie  and  making each other our favorite meals.  It's just what we do best and it's what we love to do. We're coming up on nine years together. Nice. Nice. My husband and I would be coming up on many more years together, but we didn't meet until we were like 25 and 26.

16:15
So if we'd met sooner, we probably would have had a lot more years together, but I'm really good with the 23 that we've had so far. So, but I will be starting some more sourdough probably Saturday morning. I'm having terrible trouble with my S's this morning or today.  Sourdough on Saturday. There we go.  And hopefully by next weekend, it'll be going along at a good clip and I'll be able to make sourdough bread in two weeks. That would be great.  yeah. My sourdough.

16:45
I learned that when  starting my good batch, a lot of people recommend using whole wheat flour. I just went straight to all purpose bread flour  and she has taken off. Yep, that's what I was using. And again, it was perfect.  When I saw that pink mold, I just wanted to cry. So yes, bread flour is totally fine.

17:12
I keep hearing about people using the ancient grains for sourdough. And  that's way cool too, except that I have bread flour in my pantry that I can use that's already paid for stuff. Right. Yeah, I tried to use whole wheat flour and  my starter just did not like that whole wheat flour. Yeah, it's finicky. I don't know.  I'm really hoping. oh

17:38
I don't need to make this all about my adventure with sourdough, but I'm really hoping that this next batch works. I can perfect a loaf. I can get comfortable with it and make sourdough all winter and put it in our farm stands so that people can have good sourdough sandwich bread this winter.  Oh, absolutely. That would be amazing because so many people search for that during the wintertime, especially since wintertime is chilly and soup weather.

18:07
When I think of sourdough, I think of comfort. Uh huh. Yep. Absolutely. And you're going to laugh. I thought I hated sourdough bread. I really thought I didn't like it because I don't like it really soury. I don't like it with a real tang to it. And then I did some research and it doesn't always have to have that sour tang to it. It can be sourdough and not be sour, you know, to the point where you really notice it. Yep.

18:35
Personally,  we like the sour taste. I do have one child that he's not huge on the sourness, but with the way I make it, he loves it. Especially when I make my jalapeno cheddar loaf, he's like, wow, I didn't know sourdough could be good. And I'm like, you just need to know what inclusions to have, buddy. Yeah, and the inclusions make it so much fun, because you can do almost anything with it.

19:05
Oh yeah, I made a  lemon blueberry loaf the other day  and it was a huge hit. So I have a question about that. Did you put any sugar in the sourdough  dough so that it was a sweet bread with the lemon and the blueberry? So the lemon actually brings out the natural flavors and like the  more like sweet natural flavors to the blueberries.  And it was really nice. Awesome.

19:32
I'm dying, I can't wait to be able to try all that fancy stuff, probably in the spring once I get the basics down this winter. And then you have cookies on your menu. So what kind of cookies would you be willing to make? mean, what's your favorite cookie to make in the first place? So  my favorite cookie to make is actually pumpkin chocolate chip. It's my favorite. My second favorite to make is

19:58
snickerdoodle and that just happens to be my husband's favorite. But I am willing to make any combination of cookie, even if it's the weirdest combination ever. I love going outside of the box and creating things that people will enjoy and love and feel the love that I put into making their special cookie. I love your heart, Marissa.

20:28
I love that you're doing this. This is amazing. Okay, so I don't know what else to ask you because you're very focused on baking. One of the things that I would share is that I know it's October 1st because I have a beef roast in a crock pot downstairs cooking away and it smells amazing. And I feel like you picked the best time to start this business because fall is when people want baked goods. And this is gonna be a weird question.

20:58
The last few years, my dog's barking, the last few years I have been trying to find the assorted Christmas cookie trays that they used to sell at like Sam's Club and the grocery stores and no one is doing it anymore. Is that something that you would do if somebody asked? I mean, you cut out what was the- Assorted Christmas cookies, assorted Christmas cookies, different Christmas cookies on one platter. Absolutely, I would-

21:26
love to do that. That is one of my favorite things to do.  I am  not the type of person that sees  money being the most valuable thing, but love being the most valuable thing.  And when it comes to birthdays, anniversaries, Christmases, my favorite thing to gift is cookies. Yeah, baby.  So at Christmastime,  both sides  of my husband's family and my family

21:55
they get baked goods. So I tend to make cookies that I know that they like and enjoy.  So, so if somebody, I'm not, I'm not asking for me.  I will be making cookies and we'll be selling cookies  in LaSore this winter as far as I know.  if somebody said to you, I want thumbprint cookies with the Hershey's kiss in the top, you know, that they do.  And

22:25
I want, I don't know, the  candy cane cookies, the ones that are the two different color dough that you  wind around each other and make a candy cane, do know what I'm talking about?  And I don't even know what people make in Minnesota, because I'm not from Minnesota, but I swear there's one that's like a white cookie with cherry bits in it. It's like a cherry. I'm not sure about that, but I know an all-time favorite like Christmas cookie.

22:54
In Minnesota is a spritz cookie. Yes. Yes. The one that you have to use the little tube to put them on the tray. that what you're doing? Yep. Yep. Those are the ones that I get at the store  and they actually do a really good job and they're very buttery. Well, maybe you'll have to come  and check me out at Christmas time and  I'll have those on my menu. That would be amazing.

23:21
My husband actually works in Mankato. Maybe I could have him just swing by and pick up whatever we decide to order from you. That would be cool.  And the other thing that  I assume you know about is supposedly we're going to be able to ship baked goods if we have our cottage food registration starting in 2027. So that'll help too. A lot of us trying to get our stuff across the state. It's not, we can't ship out of state, but we can ship in Minnesota as far as I know, starting in 2027.

23:51
which will be really nice. I know I've had a lot of inquiries about shipping my products and unfortunately I have to tell them because of the cottage slice and legally cannot ship products. It has to either be picked up or delivered personally by the baker. Yes.

24:15
One of the things that drives me insane, I'm going to say it again, I've said it at least five times in two years I've been doing the podcast, is I can make a batch of cookies, put them in a container, put them in a box with bubble wrap or whatever, ship them to my folks for Christmas in Maine. And that's totally fine because they're not buying it from me.  But I can't, my sister wanted to buy cookies for a business thing at her job in Maine. I can't send them to her. I would have to just give them.

24:45
to her and ship them to her. Which is rough, especially when you're trying to get yourself out there  and  start your business.  Yeah, it's crazy. Like, I was so excited when I saw the email come through from whatever,  from the registered people thing. I don't know what it's called. The Department of Ag, I guess, is who it's under. But when the email came through saying that we would be able to ship.

25:15
I was so excited. And then I saw starting in 2027 and I just completely deflated. Ugh, I know. My husband and I were talking about it last night and I was like, you know, we, the day before we had actually just talked about potentially just doing my  LLC and then this dropped and I was like, we can just, we can just wait.  Yup.  And

25:41
We're already under an LLC here because we're a farm to market farm to table place. So  we decided to get to our businesses in LLC. And so everything is under that LLC, everything, even the podcast is under that LLC because it's all a tiny homestead. So,  but yes, definitely if you're going to really get into this, do something like an LLC because it's really important that way if you get sued, they go after the business assets, not your personal assets.

26:10
Yeah. And  I can't imagine you'll get sued, but covering your bum is a good thing to do if you're going to start a business and that's for you or anybody.  Well, and that's why we've been looking I am so excited for you. Yeah. Go We've been looking  at  insurances and stuff  or situations like that.  Not saying it's going to happen, but there's always going to be that one person who could

26:39
potentially make those accusations  and we want to have our bases covered there.  Yes, and the other thing is, and I say this with everybody I talk to about this, is that not only are you trying to protect yourself, you're trying to protect the other people who do business with you. God forbid someone does get sick from something that you made. No, I mean,  it happens. You want them to be protected too. Yeah.

27:07
So it's not just about you, it's about the whole thing. It's the whole circle. So anyway, I was gonna say, I'm so glad I had a chance to talk with you today. Tell me where people can find you. You can find me at www.careful-creation-shop or dash bake-shop.com. And on Facebook, right? Yep, you can find me on Facebook.

27:37
just go to the search bar, type in Careful Creations Bake Shop. You will not only find my public page, but you'll also find my public group where we do  monthly promotions, giveaways. And then you can also find me Instagram, careful.creations.bake.shop. And is that it or are you on YouTube or TikTok?  Nope. I haven't gotten my TikTok.

28:06
established yet, but it's in the works. Awesome. Good.  Use every free channel you can.  I swear, just do it because it will so help you. Yeah, no, that's where I plan to do all of my live videos for showing them my process of keeping them safe. Fantastic. Great. All right.

28:33
As always, people can find me at AtinyHolmsteadPodcast.com and go check out my Patreon at patreon.com slash Atiny Homestead. Marisa, thank you again. Thank you for having me. Have a great day. You too.