Photos: Chris Emeott
Business provides an easier at-home baking experience.
Sweet memories were a primary ingredient for Sarah Lofgren’s business, Baking It Real, a cookie kit design company.
The Maple Grove resident’s childhood memories of baking treats alongside her mother inspired her to develop the sweet service, so others can enjoy similar experiences—without too much prep and clean up in the kitchen.
While she still has an affinity for baking, Lofgren says her role as a working parent can get in the way of setting aside time to create in the kitchen. “My mom and all of her friends always had [baked goods] around, and it was something that I loved and wanted to do with my kids, but you have to find the perfect recipe, you have to go to the store to find everything on your list, and cooking and measuring with [young children] can often lead to disaster,” Lofgren says. “It just always seemed like a ‘to-do’ when doing it.”
Realizing that she wasn’t the only one who faced the kitchen conundrum that can come with baking from scratch, Lofgren wanted to create an easier way for people to have fulfilling baking experiences without the hassle. Making baking kits out of her own home, Lofgren began bagging her family-friendly recipe starters for neighbors and friends. Armed with positive responses, she was inspired to take her idea one degree further.
With a concept comparable to meal kit services HelloFresh or Blue Apron, Baking It Real provides three to five bags of pre-measured ingredients (elements not included include eggs, oil and butter to maintain freshness for the recipe), an item description, instructions and an additional surprise in every kit. “It gets to the fun stuff faster,” says co-owner Stacie Dudy. “I want to enjoy the cookies, have my house smell like cookies and not have to think about the mess that I just made.” Pricing runs $49.99 for a full kit and $14.99 for individual kits.
The kits might be an ideal solution, too, over the holidays when time and patience can run a touch thin. Baking up batches of cookies for teacher, hostess or other gifts or as additions to the entertaining lineup could be easier with a cookie kit. Each box features chocolate crinkle, molasses spice cookie, peanut blossom and sprinkle cookie ingredients. “We incorporate elements that you would have in your pantry. [They are] ingredients you can pronounce and the classics that your mom or grandma would’ve had,” Lofgren says. Each variety makes two dozen cookies or eight dozen cookies per kit.
Baking It Real hopes to expand its business model to include a variety of baked goods, such as muffins, cakes and bars. “If we can continue to be in peoples’ homes and allow them to create those memories with their families and feel really good about that, that is the goal,” Lofgren says.
Baking it Real
Facebook: Baking It Real
Instagram: @bakingitreal
