Meet Rachel Baas of Equinox Pastries & Pops

Today we’d like to introduce you to Rachel Baas. 

Hi Rachel, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
As a child, I have very fond memories of baking with family. Every holiday my cousins and I would spend all afternoon at grandma’s house before our family festivities baking cookies and dipping sweets in chocolate. As I got older, my dad and I would frequently make No-Bake Cookies together while watching This Old House on PBS. And all through high school, I attempted to recreate Pinterest baking ideas and share them with classmates in the halls. After high school, my family encouraged me to look into pursuing this hobby baking as a career which led me to pursued a degree in baking and pastry art. In 2019, I graduated from Secchia Institute of Culinary Education at Grand Rapids Community College and preceded to continued my education at Ferris State University to gain my Bachelor’s degree in Hospitality Management. I ended up enjoying so much of my management coursework and thought I could run my own bakery someday with the skills gained from both degrees and the couple baking-related jobs I had had at the time! While I was still in school, I did a lot of research and branding work on my business, Equinox Pastries, and Pops! Everything from learning how to get an LLC, recipe development, and designing my own logo. 

I officially started Equinox Pastries in early 2019 while finishing my degrees and working full time! I started super small, following Michigan’s cottage food laws that allowed me to sell items I had made out of my parent’s home kitchen. Within a year and a half, I had grown to where it wasn’t very easily manageable to work out of the home kitchen, space-wise, and I wanted to do more things with my items that I wasn’t allowed to do with cottage foods laws! So, in September of 2020, I accepted an opportunity to join a wonderful lady named Paula Reed and rent out her kitchen space hourly! I applied for and got my commercial food licenses and now work out of a fully licensed kitchen where I am able to do more volume and package items for retail sale or shipping. Since then, it has really taken off to where I don’t go many weeks without creating orders for my amazing customers and only work part-time alongside my business. Paula’s kitchen, The Bee Side Kitchen in Eastown has grown into a full-on collaborative incubator kitchen with several businesses working out of it! It has really been the perfect stepping stone for me to go from home baker to commercial bakery without yet needing my own space! I am waiting for the exact right door to open still, but I have been exploring what the next steps are for Equinox to go from rental kitchen to physical retail bakery location in the next year or so which I am so excited about! 

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
I have always been a goal-oriented person and have had this big dream of opening a bakery and a rough idea of a plan for how I wanted to make it there for many years! Since I have had a somewhat clear vision of what I would like to do, I have managed to have a generally smooth path to where my business is now; however, that does not mean I have not faced challenges along the way. Much like many small business owners, I have dealt with many common obstacles like finding a place in your market, time management while working and starting a business, navigating the coronavirus over the last few years, etc. which have all challenged me to find new opportunities to learn and pivot to overcome them. On a more personal level, I have struggled a lot with balancing my responsibilities as a small business owner with making time for my overall mental health, a battle I think is also likely more common than we like admit especially when our businesses are successful! I am working every day to focus on being healthy physically and mentally to do the best baking I can even when I feel burnt out or there are days when answering all the emails seems too overwhelming. As long as I continue to look at challenges with the mindset of learning and finding growth in any situation, I am confident that I will continue to run that generally smooth path as Equinox grows! 

As you know, we’re big fans of Equinox Pastries & Pops. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
Equinox Pastries and Pops is an LGBTQ+-owned micro bakery that offers custom cake pops, cookies, cakes, pastries, and other desserts for any size event and celebration! Our cookies and cake pops can be fully personalized to order with your events theme, colors, logos/images, etc.! This year we have been doing so many new things including creating a cookie of the month subscription service (It’s called GR Cookie Club! Check it out!), working with larger corporations and brands to create cookies and desserts with their branding and logos on them, creating more customer experiences like cookie and cake pop decorating classes, and are planning on attending a weekly farmer’s market during the spring and summer of this year! Additionally, I am selling cookie decorating tools and resources on Etsy including 3-D printed cookie cutters that can be created in almost any shape you can imagine! I pride myself in the fact that each and every custom order is handmade, uniquely individual, and highly detailed (not to mention delicious…). I work hard to have personal connections with my customers to really understand their needs and dessert dreams in order to make them a reality! I appreciate every one of them allowing me to be just that little part of their big events and celebrations and I get so much enjoyment in creating the cookies or cake pops that give it that special touch they were looking for! 

You can get more information about custom cookies and other celebration desserts on my website! All you need to do when you are planning those big events is fill out the inquiry form there on the web page and I’ll reach out with all other information I need to get that fully custom order ready to go! 

Any advice for finding a mentor or networking in general?
I have found guidance and mentorship through so many different paths! When I was starting my career, it was from instructors and professors during school who were willing to give bits of knowledge during the very beginning baby steps of starting my business. Secondly, I have gotten a ton of knowledge from my previous places of employment whether that be from my management or coworkers. So much of my hard-working mindset and work ethic came from the people who were working closely with me. Recently, a resource I always have at the ready is the internet and social platforms to find mentors or help. There are an endless amount of information and people willing to give you as much help as you feel you need to grow your business. I think that it has helped me a lot to find smaller groups of people that have shared interests or experiences like groups of other cookie decorators in my area, groups about marketing a baking business, or even more generally other female small business owners in my area. Groups have made it much more approachable for me to ask questions and find a network of references, vendors, coaches, and even friends! 

Pricing:

• Custom Cookies start at $48 per dozen
• Cake Pops start at $30 per dozen
• GR Cookie Club is a $40 monthly membership! Save extra with a 3-month, 6-month or annual subscription!

Contact Info:

• Email: [email protected]
• Website: https://www.equinoxpastriesandpops.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/equinoxpastriesandpops/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/equinoxpastriesandpops
• Other: https://www.instagram.com/grcookieclub/

Image Credits
Olivia Anderson Photography