New downtown bakery starts selling sweets

April 9, 2020

Twisted Sisters Sweetz has quietly moved into its downtown storefront, postponing its grand opening celebration until COVID-19 releases its grip on gathering in public places.

“It has not been an easy road for us,” said Nikki Wallenberg, who owns the bakery with her sister, Dana Johnson, and their mother, Valorie Johnson.

But the family is forging ahead, continuing to take special orders, offering curbside pickup and delivery of occasional specials such as monkey bread and moving their popular cookie decorating classes onto social media.

“People are saying to me, ‘You’re opening in the middle of the recession.’ I didn’t know I was going to do that,” Wallenberg said. “I put everything I had into making this dream a reality.”

Wallenberg began baking commercially more than a decade ago, and the family formed Twisted Sisters Sweetz in 2013, using rented kitchen space for their signature decorated cookies, custom cakes, cupcakes and other desserts. They decided early this year to take over the short-lived Smallcakes Cupcakery & Creamery space at 317 S. Phillips Ave. and scheduled the grand opening for March 28.

As social distancing orders went into place and customers began giving up their spots in cookie decorating classes, it was clear Wallenberg’s dream wasn’t going to be immediately like she had imagined.

She’s finding support from regular customers, relying on them for word-of-mouth growth, and is using the bakery’s Facebook page to communicate what’s available.

At some point, “we may start producing inventory daily like we would if we were open,” Wallenberg said. For now, however, the bakery cases are empty.

The new shop isn’t large enough for the cookie decorating classes, and once the social distancing guidelines are eased, those will return to the Ellis Road Sanford Wellness Center. For now, they’ve moved online. Twisted Sisters recently offered one for Easter cookies, and more cookies are available this week. Kits can be ordered and picked up at the shop, and participants get a link to a private Facebook group where they can watch instructions and share their results.

“Everybody is supporting each other and giving feedback,” Wallenberg said. “It’s giving them something they like to do.”

She sees the classes and take-and-bake offerings like the monkey bread as something for families to do together now that they’re staying at home.

Eventually, the shop will get to reschedule its grand opening. In the meantime, Wallenberg and her family are taking it one order at time.

Bakery to take over Smallcakes space downtown

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New downtown bakery starts selling sweets

Twisted Sisters Sweetz has quietly moved into its downtown storefront, postponing its grand opening celebration until COVID-19 releases its grip on gathering in public places.

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