Full transparency, this is the first time one of our Featured Bakers has told me, “I’m not much of a baker, honestly.” 😆 It was in this moment; I knew we were in for a genuine and honest look into this baking journey! Sadie Weber, of Mountain Made Sweets is located in Bailey, Colorado, about an hour outside Denver. I’ve admired Sadie’s work over the past several months but once I saw her infamous dinosaur set, I knew she was a baker who needed celebrating! Prepare to be blown away by the artwork of this cookier who planned to open a cake shop!
Full Steam Ahead! Or Not…
Sadie’s journey began in 2021 when she was admittedly, “depressed, and felt lost”. She was a stay-at-home mom but really needed something to connect with her lifelong love of art and creativity. She dove into cake decorating and really loved it and was great at it, so she made a plan to open a cake shop! Unfortunately, she learned that Colorado’s cottage baking regulations don’t allow the use of buttercream! This was a showstopper for Sadie which is when she thought she’d give cookies a try. But before we dive headfirst into her cookies, let’s take a moment to relish in some of Sadie’s beautiful cakes! Note that Sadie was clear that as soon as Colorado allows cottage bakers to use buttercream, cakes are going back on the menu!
“I Knew Nothing”
Feeling a bit defeated after no longer being able to move forward with her cake shop, Sadie pivoted to cookies. Her first attempt at decorating cookies occurred in July 2021 when she tried to make some cookies for a friend who graduated from nursing school. “I knew nothing,” Sadie shared. And we don’t even have a photo to feel sad for. We do, however, have a photo of Sadie’s second cookie decorating attempt! These fishing cookies were made for her father-in-law after watching “A LOT” of YouTube videos. Between us, if these were her second attempt, I’m suspecting that first batch wasn’t that bad!
Sadie was now committed to learning and developing her skills in the hopes of launching a business. Here is a gallery of some of her early work!
Mountain Made Sweets
Sadie launched Mountain Made Sweets in January of 2022 so has only been in business for about 14 months, at the time of this writing. And once you see Sadie’s cookies now, let her serve as your inspiration of how quickly you can become amazing!
Sadie lives in the mountains so perfecting a high-altitude recipe proved difficult, but she’s got her one best recipe and she sticks to it! As mentioned earlier, Sadie shared, “I don’t even like to bake, honestly.” But she loves to decorate! In fact, she loves all of the creative steps, coming up with the designs and cute packaging. “I just love to create,” Sadie shared.
When it comes to her decorating skills, “I love hand painting and adding dimension,” Sadie told me. And this, my besties, is where the aforementioned dinosaurs come in. Behold, the coolest dinosaur cookies EVER.
Year 2 of Business
Sadie currently books out about a month for her custom cookie sets. And since she is a busy stay-at-home mom, she caps her orders at about 5 dozen per week. She offers custom cookies and what us cookiers call “pre-sales” which are essentially pre-designed sets customers can order usually around different holidays and seasons. This business structure works well for a good balance right now. But long-term, Sadie would love to start teaching cookie decorating classes. And I think she’d be great at it!
Her biggest challenge is time management, which is a common one in our world. Cookies aren’t quick! And Sadie said that “It’s hard to turn off thinking about cookies.”
Golden Advice
I love hearing cookier’s advice for aspiring or current decorators and Sadie’s was SO good! She shared, “Do those hard cookies, because they are only going to make you better. You are going to learn so much.” Honestly, no other cookier has ever offered this advice and it’s a great perspective!! I’ll definitely be channeling my inner Sadie next time I doubt myself!
Oh, and Sadie couldn’t live without her projector. Now this is advice we commonly hear from our Featured Bakers. It’s a game changer and a life line.
What Does Sadie Love Most?
Sadie made a point of letting me know how welcomed she has felt by all the other bakers in the community. For example, when she recently had knee surgery, fellow local baker, Kristin, from Sunshine Moonbeam, dropped off chili with all the fixins, funny socks and coloring books for Sadie! And another time, a fellow cookier bought cookies from Sadie and left a glowing review on her business page! Now this is what we call community over competition and it’s a beautiful thing. “I love being a part of this community and the bakery business,” Sadie genuinely shared. And Bailey, Colorado, is lucky to have Mountain Made Sweets along with so many other caring bakers to serve their community.
Staying Humble
It was such a pleasure connecting with and featuring Sadie and I hope she inspires you! Even after discussing her incredible talent and thriving business over the last year, Sadie humbly said, “I still have no idea what I’m doing.” We laughed and I said, “Well it sure looks like you do.”
I hope you enjoy this amazing gallery of Sadie’s work! You can see more, follow Sadie’s work and connect with her at her socials here.
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I love it 💓 Thank you soooo Much Ericka! It was great chatting with you! I loved hearing your story about overcoming hardships and your mother and daughter baking duo!