Today we’d like to introduce you to Mollie Kelderman
Hi Mollie, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
People ask me all the time how I got into baking and the answer is – I honestly don’t know. I have loved baking for as long as I can remember! When I was little and someone asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up I would say I wanted to be a cake decorator. I have pictures of myself around the age of 2 or 3 baking with each of my grandmas. For as long as I can remember I have been the one who would make all the desserts for birthdays and other family events.
One year, when I was in high school, my dad signed me up for the Wilton cake decorating classes at Michaels as a Christmas gift. This was the first time I had any sort of real training, up until this point all of my knowledge came from either my grandma or from my own time in the kitchen. I had loved to decorate cakes and cupcakes before this but because I was self taught I didn’t totally know what I was doing. Around this time I also had the opportunity to do a few small internships which allowed me to experience working in both a bakery setting as well as a restaurant. I learned so much about what it is like working in each of these settings from these experiences and they helped to solidify my decision that this is what I wanted to do with my life.
In high school while all of my friends and classmates were trying to decide what to major in for college the answer was already clear to me. I knew that I wanted to study pastry and I wanted a bachelor’s degree, preferably a degree that combined pastry and business. As I looked at colleges there was really only one choice that combined the two without having to double major – Johnson & Wales University. I chose to attend the Denver campus and graduated in 2021 with a degree in Baking & Pastry Arts and Food Service Management. I loved this experience and gained so much knowledge about baking and pastry and learned things that I never even dreamed of. I had classes on everything from breads to cakes to chocolates and sugar artistry. During my time in college I also had the opportunity to spend 11 weeks studying pastry in France at Ecole Nationale Supérieure de Pâtisserie (ENSP). This was such a cool opportunity because it took place after all of my formal pastry training in the US. In France I got to expand on a lot of those skills and techniques I had learned, but under some incredible French chefs. France is so well known for their food, and my time there really gave me a deeper love for the classical French techniques and pastries. I have really enjoyed combining these techniques with traditional American desserts.
It was during my time in college that I decided I was sick of waiting to start my business and open a bakery. I started looking into Minnesota’s Cottage Food Laws to see what I would need to do to take this hobby to the next step and begin selling my desserts on a larger scale than I had been. Because I was still in college I was able to get help from a few of my professors and chefs throughout this process. They were a huge help in navigating what my business would look like under Cottage Food laws and figuring out what steps I needed to make this dream a reality.
The first summer that Mollie Rae’s was officially open I signed up to participate in two farmers markets each week. Participating in two markets each week was a lot of work, but it was a great opportunity to help me grow and learn how to run my business.
Over the years both myself and Mollie Rae’s have changed quite a bit. I have gone from participating in farmers markets and taking on custom orders to selling at art shows to teaching classes to launching a dessert subscription box. This is one of the beautiful things about owning a business, you can change and pivot towards a direction that best fits your needs and passions. Mollie Rae’s was started in 2019 when I was a sophomore in college, and has grown and changed so much since then. Now, instead of weekly farmers markets and custom orders I focus on Sucrée – my bi-monthly dessert subscription – and teaching cookie decorating classes.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
One of the biggest obstacles that I’ve had to overcome (or more accurately am working to overcome) is moving to a new state. I was finally at a place where Mollie Rae’s felt like an established business and was making sales regularly when I decided to move from Minnesota to Michigan. This past year and a half has been a huge adjustment for me as I’ve had to totally start over with my business. When I moved to Michigan I didn’t really know anyone other than the family that I have here and some of their friends. I didn’t have the network here that I did in Minnesota that really helped me while growing my Mollie Rae’s. Moving here I essentially had to start over with Mollie Rae’s and it has been tough. It has made me appreciate the success that I had in Minnesota a lot more than I did in the moment. Any small business owner will tell you that the start is rough and you can go weeks, if not months, without any sales. This is how it has been for me since moving, but I can feel a change starting to happen. I love Mollie Rae’s and this is what I know I am meant to do with my life, so I just keep working so that someday this can be my full time job.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
Right now Mollie Rae’s is a Cottage Food Bakery, this means that all of my pastries and desserts are made right in my home. Being a Cottage Food Producer means that I have a lot more restrictions around what I can and can’t make and how I can sell my products than I would if I was operating out of a commercial kitchen. Although there are a lot of restrictions under Cottage Food laws it is a wonderful opportunity to start a bakery at a very small level that doesn’t require as much overhead costs as starting a brick and mortar bakery would.
Currently I am trying to really narrow down what I am focusing on, because in the past I have tried to offer way too many things at once. My main offering right now is Sucrée, my bi-monthly dessert subscription. I wanted to move away from custom orders because I felt like I was losing a lot of the creative freedom that I love when it comes to baking, and I wanted to make high quality desserts more accessible to people. This is where the idea for Sucrée came from. Sucrée is a curated box of hand crafted desserts delivered right to your front door every other month. I want this box to be something that can bring joy to people during life’s everyday moments, because I believe that delicious, hand crafted desserts shouldn’t just be for special occasions.
I think something that really sets Mollie Rae’s apart from other bakeries – especially home based bakeries – is my training in classical pastry both in the United States and in France. I take a lot of pride in knowing that my pastries and desserts not only look good, but taste good as well. I think that a lot of bakeries in the US tend to sway heavily towards one of these or the other, but it has always been a top priority for me to make sure that my desserts check both of those boxes.
Can you talk to us a bit about the role of luck?
When it comes to business and some of life’s other big accomplishments I don’t believe luck has anything to do with it. I think it all comes down to hard work and the energy you put into something. I fully believe that any success I have had in my business has come from the work that I’ve put into it, and the community that I have surrounding me and supporting me. When things aren’t going well it tends to be because I’m not putting in the time and energy that I need to be.
If luck has played any part in this journey, it is that I have been very lucky with the family that God has given me and the ways that they support me.
Pricing:
- Sucree $45 every other month
- Cookie Decorating Classes $60 per person
- Private Cookie Decorating Classes (for groups) starting at $300
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.mollieraes.com
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/mollieraes
- Facebook: https://facebook.com/mollieraes
