Dolled Up Desserts

Dolled Up Desserts Inspiring the dessert lover in you to share ! A gluten free and vegan bakery locate We value quality, trust, and empowerment!

Dolled Up Dessert’s mission is to re-create and share high quality desserts reminiscent of the treats “mom used to make” with a modern twist. All desserts are gluten free and vegan, and are made with 50-75% less sugar, ingredients that are organic, locally sourced and at times, suited for a paleo diet. Dolled Up Desserts Vision is for a community where people with dietary restrictions, health conc

erns and allergies can feel confident eating sweet comfort foods wherever they may be; grabbing a morning coffee and muffin before the daily grind to savouring a slice of cake while out on the town.

Say what you will, I have immense ✨ gratitude ✨ for these two women here. Dolled Up wouldn’t have existed if it wasn’t f...
11/12/2023

Say what you will, I have immense ✨ gratitude ✨ for these two women here.

Dolled Up wouldn’t have existed if it wasn’t for Kelly and Erin paving the way.

And today, is celebrating 11 YEARS!! of giving hope to people like me that you can be allergic to gluten, dairy, and eggs and STILL have beautiful, tasty treats 🍪

When I was cycling through old pictures from my early gluten free days (ie, the Facebook posts), my best bakes, the ones that really made me feel like I wasn’t sacrificing or missing out, were the ones I made from ’s web blog back in 2014. The world peace cookie, the carrot cupcake 🧁 the meringue cake was me being confident enough to venture out and try making my own treats.

As you can see in the last picture (recipe coming tomorrow!), I’ve come so far with my carrot cupcake icing piping skills 🤣

But it was Kelly’s that empowered me to be a better baker.

If she could do it, why can’t i?

I remember the first time I went to Kelly’s in second year university. I ordered their triple chocolate brownie, a world peace cookie, and a Mexican chocolate cupcake.

I remember feeling so HAPPY I found a safe place to go to where I could eat ANYTHING without feeling sick. And it wasn’t just a grainy, gross nut and seed bar. It was truly a treat!

In 2017, I entered the vegan bake off and WON in professional class best presentation for the lavender lemon cookie. And Kelly presented me my little prize and certificate.

Not gonna lie, I cried a bit. Her creation had such a huge impact in my journey to try opening my own bakery, spreading the mission of inclusive dessert beyond her shop in Burlington. Adding onto the legacy she created with cupcakes, as I was pushing the limits on things you couldn’t buy at Kelly’s (like lavender lemon cookies or cake pops).

This is my long winded way of saying THANK YOU to for doing what you did for those with dietary differences, and for me. I wouldn’t have done what I did (and am doing now) if it wasn’t for you providing light in a dark time in my life ✨

Mis en place before and after for tomorrow’s recipe...Any guesses to what it might be?🐵 🍌 Hope you’re baking something d...
10/29/2023

Mis en place before and after for tomorrow’s recipe...

Any guesses to what it might be?
🐵 🍌

Hope you’re baking something delicious today, and sharing it with loved ones 💕

If you haven’t yet subscribed yet to our newsletter, you really should. You get direct first dibs notifications as to when we launch new recipes and reflections. And it also helps me know you’re actually seeing what I’m sending 💕✨😎 link in bio to subscribe

All good things start with a good foundation This goes for treats and friendships ✨Baking for someone is my love langu...
10/26/2023

All good things start with a good foundation

This goes for treats and friendships ✨

Baking for someone is my love language 👩‍🍳

It’s also one form of self care 💕

When I go back to write these reflections for the recipe capsule, I get the opportunity to witness (and then write) the stories that made the treat, and made me.

And the magic bar, one of the OG treats of Dolled Up, really was part of making me.
- It was central to my friendships, especially with Sohail who is pictured throughout
- central to me baking better quality inclusive dessert (for Sohail, and for me)
- central to me learning to scale my baking to enterprise level (one of the most cost efficient recipes we’ve made)
- central to the relationships I had with vendors, customers and my employees (it’s never not been on the menu)

Who knew some coconut and cookie crumbs could do so much?

Read the full reflection at dolledupdesserts.com or at the link in bio 💕

✨ magic bars on my mind ✨ Oreo cookie crumbs - coconut - walnuts - chocolate - coconut condensed milk - Oreo centre icin...
10/24/2023

✨ magic bars on my mind ✨

Oreo cookie crumbs - coconut - walnuts - chocolate - coconut condensed milk - Oreo centre icing 🧁

Full recipe @ link in bio and on dolledupdesserts.com

💕

This brownie has HISTORY 📚 (Full recipe link and video in bio ✨)The original recipe brownie from Dolled Up was part of t...
10/17/2023

This brownie has HISTORY 📚

(Full recipe link and video in bio ✨)

The original recipe brownie from Dolled Up was part of the core 6 recipes I started wholesale with: brownie, blondie, carrot cake, banana muffin, dolled up cookies, hello dollies.

What was special about the brownies however was the fact that it could be easily made refined/cane sugar free. This innovation was made on request by , owner of which was one of my FIRST wholesale customers 🥰

I remember the moment almost crystal clear, when I walked into Relay on Concession with a pink box of samples. I was greeted by the lovely who was working the bar, and she was SO JAZZED that someone had finally brought gluten free treats to the shop because she recently went gluten free! If it wasn’t for her enthusiasm, I wonder even if my treats would have made it to Rachel!

Rachel and her husband Jason are Hamilton business friends to me. We always picked up where we left off, and I could go to Rachel and talk challenges and successes with so much love and support radiating from her aura.

Our brownies, and Dolled Up, wouldn’t be where it is today if it wasn’t for Relay!

Thank you Rachel and Jason for giving me a chance, and then becoming my friend 🥰

We made the dolled up desserts brand design in an afternoon 🤣We (my husband (boyfriend at the time) and I) thought Dolle...
10/13/2023

We made the dolled up desserts brand design in an afternoon 🤣

We (my husband (boyfriend at the time) and I) thought Dolled Up would just be a fun summer fling 💕

We had to meet a deadline for Summer Company, which was to present our company brand to our cohort. Summer Company was the funding start and spark for me to start a bakery.

I played around with vintage slang words, trying to make catchy alliterations (bees knees biscuits, cats Pajama cookies)

I told that I wanted the brand to look like Katy Perry’s one of the boys album, with my favourite colour of 💖

I also wanted it vintage so it could be an excuse for me to wear my collection of vintage dresses more often 👗

He made the font design and pink polka dot background in an afternoon. We made our first website (with the second image as the site banner!) in that same afternoon.

I didn’t realize that this brand would go on to define my 20s... and that I wouldn’t be wearing very many vintage dresses 😂

We didn’t overthink it. The brand evolved to be a reflection of me, as everything I did (with dolled up as the face) came from my heart ❤️ and people liked it. It caught on, and stayed with me until today 😇

Thanksgiving was one of Dolled Up’s most important holiday weekends 🍁 It was the motivation for us to change the menu fr...
10/09/2023

Thanksgiving was one of Dolled Up’s most important holiday weekends 🍁

It was the motivation for us to change the menu from floral/citrus/light flavours and dive DEEP into the pumpkin spice reserves 🎃

It was a holiday that I could bring in enough to pay off any overdue bills that weren’t paid in the summer due to the summer vacation sales slowdown 🏖

It was also a time of year I wanted to celebrate with our team at the my family cottage. After the rush of the thanksgiving weekend, we would all head up to Paudash lake for a weekend of nature hikes, lazing around, and realllly tasty meals 🤤 a friendsgiving of sorts 🥰

Thanksgiving was also the weekend we closed dolled up desserts! I had the final Dolled Up thanksgiving at the ancaster mill last year.

I like thanksgiving because it really is just a time to express gratitude. And the gifts of the journey of dolled up desserts were many! I always have so much to be thankful for, and I wanted to share it through our baked goods, but especially with the people that made the business succeed!

This thanksgiving, I’m grateful for the community! Dolled Up is getting a whole new start because of the recipe capsule, and the response to our launch video was EPIC 🥰 thank you for standing by, for sharing, for subscribing, and supporting!

Lots more goodies to come 🍪 if you want at it first, be sure to subscribe to our newsletter 😉

Photo Captions:
1) outside our shop with our pumpkin cheesecake streusel and pecan pie, 2021 🥧
2) our first pecan pie rendition and pie preorder (we sold 30 total!), 2017 🥧
3) harvest pie tarts, 2022;
4) the first sign of fall at DUD, the chai snickerdoodle, 2020;
5) the best scone we made, the pumpkin spice scone with pumpkin ganache and cinnamon cream cheese icing, 2022;
6) the crew at the cottage, 2021;
7) the crew after a silent lake provincial park hike, 2020;
8) pumpkin carving at the cottage, 2020;
9) the final DUD thanksgiving at the Ancaster Mill, full team photo, 2022;
10) one of my favourite cakes and cake innovations that taught me a lot about vegan egg replacement, the pumpkin spice cake, 2019 🍰

✨ P R E M O N I T I O N ✨ This is a teaser in many ways.1) teaser of the stories that made Dolled Up: I remember being r...
10/06/2023

✨ P R E M O N I T I O N ✨

This is a teaser in many ways.

1) teaser of the stories that made Dolled Up: I remember being really proud of that gluten free double decker brownie cake with a cream cheese icing. It was the first layer cake I had made EVER; and first gluten free attempt at cake. It was for my room mate and great friend Xyza (pronounced size-a). It was her 21st birthday, and we were at our student house in Westdale (near McMaster)! As you can see in photo 3, Xyza was already co-manifesting my reality, and this was in 2014.

The last two pictures are her premonition coming full circle, at my bakery I opened ⭕️ ❤️ my cake skills came a LONG way from that cake in 2014 😆

2) teaser of things to come: the brownie part of this cake was the first gluten free/dairy free brownie recipe I liked when I started baking for my dietary differences. It was shared with me that summer of 2014 from my moms friend . It was one of the only reliable recipes I could bake that I liked. And it MAY be something you’ll bake soon...

Also pictured is also one of my best friends from university , which you’re going to learn all about his influence on my baking sooner than you think 😉

If you have NOT subscribed to our newsletter yet, you gotta get on it. I’m sending out a massive sneak peak for the new subscribers @ noon EST 😉 link in bio ✨

10/04/2023

Something BIG and DELICIOUS is baking.... 🎂 😋

A year to the day we closed (October 8th), prepare for the launch of a new chapter...

Inclusive Dessert: The Dolled Up Desserts Recipe Capsule ✨

SUBSCRIBE to our newsletter for an exclusive sneak peak of the capsule trailer before Sunday...

https://mailchi.mp/c4ccf61c1a2d/inclusive-dessert-landing-page

😉

Until then, keep checking back. I’m SO excited to be able to share this and create this.

Happy Women’s Day 💕I hope your day is filled with a healthy dose of girl power 💪🏻 my life was full of it thanks to the w...
03/08/2023

Happy Women’s Day 💕

I hope your day is filled with a healthy dose of girl power 💪🏻 my life was full of it thanks to the women of Dolled Up! It’s was because of them that we managed to do what we did... women are pretty powerful 👏

It’s been silent here because I’ve been percolating the next chapter. More recipes and reflections coming sooner than you think 😉

If you haven’t subscribed to our email list yet, visit the link in bio so you get notified first when we’re finally sharing the next chapter...

2022 was a year of awakening ✨ It started on a low note. I already knew when signing the lease at 142 James that this wo...
12/31/2022

2022 was a year of awakening ✨

It started on a low note. I already knew when signing the lease at 142 James that this would be our last year as a store. Although part of me wanted to try and build what I could that year, I didn’t have the support, nor the mental or physical capacity to make it happen.

I leaned into my other interests: permaculture, web3, while also trying to cope with this cloud that weighed on me. It was hard, because as I lost steam, the business also lost steam.

When I finally announced the closure of Dolled Up to my staff, and then the community, it felt like a weight was lifted off my shoulders. Although I am still tying up loose ends to this day, I feel now that the world is once again at my fingertips. I can put my mind to anything and create the reality I want to. I feel so passionate, obsessed, and motivated to build something in line with what brings me joy. And I cannot WAIT to get my hands dirty, the anticipation is intense.

So as much as 2022 started on a low note, it has ended on the best high note of my life. The process of closing up this chapter has allowed me to reflect on what was successful, what was fulfilling, and what I want to improve on in 2023.

Michael, my husband, likes to sum up the last six years of Dolled Up as my life MBA. I learned how to start, scale and operate a successful business first hand; got exposed to how the economy functions, how investment functions, how the hierarchy of the world functions. I learned and practiced skills from how to manage people to how to sell and build deep relationships. I had the unique privilege to skip the books and exams, and learn first hand the life of an entrepreneur, and despite all the challenges and failures, I would never trade it, ever.

I don’t know everything, that’s for sure, and there is certainly A LOT that I do not know that I do not know. However, the last 6 years of Dolled Up, this MBA, have prepared me for this next chapter of life, where I know things will go the way they are meant to: positively successful and fulfilling.

I feel unstoppable 💪🏻
I feel positive 😆
I feel confident 🙌
I feel passionate 💕
I feel inspired 🌈
I feel ready ✨

Address

142 James Street N
Hamilton, ON

Opening Hours

Friday 11:30am - 6:30pm
Saturday 11:30am - 6:30pm
Sunday 12pm - 6pm

Telephone

+12899415437

Website

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