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New at-home business lets owner turn full time to baking

Business Spotlight

By MARGUERITE LANTHIER, Staff writer 4 min read

IRON MOUNTAIN -- Heather Nelson recently quit her job to devote herself to her real passion: her bakery business, U.P. Sweets LLC.

"I took a gamble, leaving my full-time job to make this my full-time job," she said. She previously worked at Bellin Health.

The business, which operates from her home as a cottage industry, sells a variety of baked goods. She believes she has more variety than most bakeries. She experiments to create flavors and is open to requests.

"There isn't anything that I'm not willing to try and make. I like to create weird flavors that somebody may not have ever had or thought of making," Nelson said.

Over the summer, she had an order for lavender, lemon blueberry cakesicles. "I actually am highly allergic to lavender, but I made it anyways because it's what the customer wanted," she said.

She had to have her family sample them to make sure they tasted right.

Nelson first began taking a bigger interest in baking in 2019, when she made cookies for a bake sale at Bishop Baraga Catholic School.

"The amount of raving reviews that I got about them, that I needed to start doing this all the time, I kinda went with it. I started out just doing cupcakes and was making 100s of cupcakes in my kitchen," she said.

There has been a lot of trial and error involved and many cupcakes ended up in the garbage until Nelson decides she has the right taste and texture.

"I am a self-taught baker, so anything that I'm creating, I have taught myself how to do. For instance, I've never dabbled much in floral arrangements for cupcakes, and last night, I managed to whip up some floral arrangements," she said.

Nelson rebranded the business as U.P. Sweets last year.

She is working on creating a recipe book that she plans to sell. Another thing she wants to start is a "Bake a Wish" program, for those who are struggling financially or has hardships in their life who can't afford a birthday cake. More details will be coming in the future.

Nelson lists a lot of special things through her Facebook page. She sells pre-mixed baking jars filled with premeasured dry ingredients in a variety of flavors. Currently there are DIY Halloween cookie decorating boxes for sale. She has a Weekend Grab & Go Treat Cooler filled with a selection of baked goods that she keeps on her porch during the spring and summer.

She has a lot of repeat customers and receives a lot of word of mouth. Some weeks she has a number of orders. This past week she made 250 cupcakes for a wedding, a two-tier wedding cake, 10 dozen cookies between regular bakery style and decorated sugar cookies and another three dozen cupcakes.

"I have definitely grown since when I first started in 2019. I kind of just did it on a whim and made a whole bunch of everything and hoped for the best. And now I'm to the point where I don't have to produce everything and push those sales, those sales are coming to me," Nelson said.

She hopes one day to open a bakery in a building. "I've had enough people telling me that what I'm putting out is definitely worth a storefront, so yes, I absolutely would like to expand one day," Nelson said. "Truthfully, if I had it my way, I would have a bakery in every state that I could, because I absolutely love what I'm doing."

Michigan allows some businesses to cook out of their homes, including baked items, but she is not allowed to make something temperature-controlled like a cheesecake. She took the class offered by the state and is a licensed cottage baker.

While she didn't have baking experience previously, Nelson did work as a cook for a while and she was a certified nursing assistant for 20 years.

People can contact her on her Facebook page, which also has an order link; at 906-282-6186; or at upsweets.mi@gmail.com. She is at 619 W. Hughitt St. in Iron Mountain.

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Marguerite Lanthier can be reached at 906-774-3500, ext. 85242, or mlanthier@ironmountaindailynews.com.

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