We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Jenna Graham a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Jenna thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Can you tell us a bit about who your hero is and the influence they’ve had on you?

My hero is my daughter. She’s inspired many of my choices over the last 13+ years. She was the inspiration for Cookie Queen. Before her 1st birthday, my daughter was diagnosed with multiple food allergies. There were few resources at the time, but I was able to find a treasured cookbook called Food Allergy Mama’s Baking Book by Kelly Rudnicki. That book got me through 9 birthdays and countless birthday parties, events and just regular days. There were many trials and errors, as I tried to make baked goods without dairy, eggs, nuts and palm oil. I had successes and failures, and my daughter was my taste tester. If she didn’t like it, I tried something else. I wanted my daughter to always feel included when it came to food. That even though she had so many restrictions that it wouldn’t keep her back from a good experience just like everyone else. She could join the party too just on her terms. Terms that were safe for her. Even though Cookie Queen doesn’t focus on food allergies, we do offer special dietary orders by request, and we have regular gluten free options.   My passion for baking started with my passion for baking good, safe treats for my daughter.

Jenna, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I’m a cottage baker. That means I’m licensed to bake delicious treats in my own home kitchen to sell to the public. My love for baking was inspired by my love for my daughter who was diagnosed with multiple food allergies before age 1. Immediately, I had to bake without common baking staples like milk, butter, and eggs!  Her first birthday cake didn’t taste that great, but it was the true beginning of my baking journey. I spent countless hours baking in my free time trying to perfect the perfect cake or cupcake, etc. My goal was to make sure that my daughter always felt included at a friend/family member’s birthday party or holiday gathering. My daughter carried her own little, food allergy-free cupcake to every party we attended. I would include her in the baking process and explain why I used apple sauce or tofu instead of eggs, or juice instead of milk, etc. As I continued to bake over the years, my technique got better and I expanded to non-allergic treats, especially as my daughter started to outgrow some of her food allergies. Over the years, many people would tell me that I should sell my baked treats. Well, in 2019, my husband and I decided to buy a house and we needed money for our moving expenses, etc. so I got creative. My cousin had a successful cottage business selling cupcakes at the time and I found her to be a great inspiration to start selling my own cookies. My daughter heard me say several times that I should sell my cookies and finally she said, mama just get a table and a banner and start selling cookies. Children have a wonderful way of getting straight to the point and they have a great belief in our abilities to achieve goals. I thought to myself, she’s right! I’m going to show her that we can set goals and make this happen. I asked for her help in naming the business and she gave us the name “Cookie Queen”. Our business is small, and we sell at local fairs and local shops that support local, small business. We also take special orders.

My goal is to make good quality baked goods. What’s on the label is very important to me. Ever since my daughter was diagnosed with multiple food allergies, I have made reading food/product labels a priority. I care about what’s in my baked goods and I care about the people that I bake for. I care about the quality of my ingredients over the cost. I love to bake, and I think people can taste the difference.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

The baking industry is saturated with businesses and products. There are commercial and store bakeries as well as other cottage bakers. There are also people without a license that sell baked goods. With this to consider, I had to dig deep to really find out where Cookie Queen fit in that market. For the first year or so we just went with the flow, but that didn’t help us to stand out or even really be seen in such a robust market. I had to do more than just bake tasty food. I had to put Cookie Queen out there where the people were– in person and online! I increased our social media presence, started making videos, taught my daughter how to use apps so that I could pass the knowledge on to her and get her help. I engaged my husband more and asked him to find us new venues. I got the whole family more involved. I started following other bakers that I admired and joined online baking groups. Within the year, I started to see an increase in our social media followers and in our special orders.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

I increased my social media presence by watching what people with many followers do. What they do is they hustle! They do not stay still. They’re constantly posting engaging content. They’re active on multiple platforms. They’re content is beautiful. This takes time, work and skill. I have a full-time job outside of Cookie Queen. In the evening when my “regular” job has ended, my full-time mom job picks up (it never stops actually) and when my child is doing homework or asleep, I’m working on Cookie Queen work. When she’s available, I engage my child in my creative content building. She knows how to edit small videos and how to take and edit beautiful photos. This helps me to be able to take on other parts of the social media tasks. When my husband is able, he watches the social media profiles and alerts me when correspondence is needed. Social media became a team effort for the whole family. Most of the platforms allow you to schedule posts so I do that often too.   It’s the only way that we can manage it all and it’s totally worth the team effort.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/azcookiequeen
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/azcookiequeen
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@azcookiequeenllc [email protected]

Image Credits
Cookie Queen LLC