KALAMAZOO, Mich. (WOOD) — A woman in Kalamazoo has turned her mother’s secret cookie recipe into a successful business.
In January, Kristi Potts started making frosted whispers cookies — her mom’s secret cream cheese sugar cookie recipe made with almond extract — for her friends and family.
“I started making them with my mother in January. She’s 79 and she doesn’t make them as much anymore,” she told News 8 over the phone Tuesday. “I’m the only one left in the family to continue the recipe. … I started making them and there was a large following, and next thing you know, I had people asking to order my cookies.”
Inside WOODTV.com: Building West Michigan
She started selling the cookies at the Kalamazoo Farmers Market and the Texas Township in May, often selling out. Under Michigan’s cottage law, she made them in her 10 foot by 12 foot home kitchen, with 50-pound bags of flour and sugar taking over the space.
By July, she’d bought her own kitchen, a space with a drive-thru at 1502 Westnedge Ave. near Pioneer Street in Kalamazoo.
“The rest is history,” she said.
And on Tuesday, she hosted a ribbon-cutting ceremony to celebrate the opening of her new business, Kzoo Cream.
Crews install new Hot ‘n Now by Gun Lake in less than a day
Along with the original cookie recipe made with almond extract, Kzoo Cream offers lemon, orange, coconut and seasonal versions. Also on the drive-thru’s menu is soft-serve ice cream, coffee, lunch items and dirty sodas — pop with additions like coconut cream or vanilla soft-serve.
When asked if she expected to see success so quickly, Potts said: “No, not at all.”
She said while she knew her cookies were unique, she figured there’s other specialty cookie shops in town that she’d be competing with.
“(Everyone) that has it says, ‘I’ve never had anything like this before.’ But every time I hear that, I think, ‘Oh, they’re just saying that,'” Potts said. “But then after hearing it over and over and over again, and telling me, ‘This is better than (cookie chain shops) … I’m thinking: ‘OK, maybe I have something here.'”
Her cookies are available on DoorDash and at ChocolaTea in Portage, and Potts hopes to eventually sell frozen cookie dough through grocery stores. But even just having the chance to share her mother’s cookie recipe with her community is enough, she said.
“It touches my heart to be able to share this cookie with the community that I grew up in,” she said. “For just my mom to still be living and to be able to witness all of these people loving her cookie recipe, it means so much to me. If that’s all that happens from this, then … I’m satisfied.”
