Proofed: A Baker's Journey

Michelle Chesser started baking 17 years ago in a two-bedroom trailer in Southeast Missouri with four kids, three feet of counter space, and box-mix cupcakes sold in styrofoam takeout containers at the farmers market. Her first market made $75. She thought she was rich.

Today she runs Home Sweet Home Baker out of a commercial kitchen she built for $2,000 in a room of the house her husband and kids built by hand, and the bakery money helped pay for that house. She baked wholesale for a coffee shop for eight years, learned the hard way what it costs to say yes to everything, and now coaches home bakers through the Baker's Library.

In this conversation we get into the trailer years and the index card on the bathroom mirror, the year she prayed to get out of a business that was consuming her, the market day the van wouldn't start and the whole market showed up to help, why her husband told her to charge more and bake less, and the line every home baker needs when someone compares their prices to a big box store: you are not Walmart.

If you're building a bakery in a kitchen that wasn't built for one, this one is for you.

FIND MICHELLE
Instagram and Facebook: Home Sweet Home Baker
The Baker's Library: homesweethomebaker.com

FIND PROOFED
proofedpodcast.com
Instagram: @proofedpodcast

Proofed: A Baker's Journey is a podcast for bakers and makers building something magical, one batch, one brave decision, one quiet morning at a time. Hosted by Raina Shults, founder of Sprinkle Me Sugar. New episodes weekly.

Emily Henegar started her cookie business when she was eleven years old. Her first sale was nineteen dozen cookies, sold door to door on one street, with a clipboard and business cards she printed at home.

Fifteen years later she makes custom cookies for Harry Styles, Taylor Swift, Dolly Parton, Paul McCartney and Beyoncé. She's been commissioned by Nissan Stadium. And she still bakes out of a home kitchen in Nashville.

In this conversation we get into pricing your work when the people who love you think it's too expensive, why a cramped kitchen made her better at her craft instead of limiting it, and the reframe that changed how her customers treat her.

If you're building a cottage food business and quietly waiting for a commercial kitchen before you take yourself seriously — this one is for you.

FIND EMILY

Instagram: @cookieinthekitchen

cookieinthekitchen.com

FIND PROOFED

proofedpodcast.com

Instagram: @proofedpodcast

Proofed: A Baker's Journey is a podcast for bakers and makers building something magical — one batch, one brave decision, one quiet morning at a time. Hosted by Raina Shults, founder of Sprinkle Me Sugar. New episodes weekly.

2023 was the year that almost killed me. My grandmother nearly didn't make it. My husband lost his job. I pulled my kids from school. My twins received an autism diagnosis. And somewhere in the middle of all of it — I launched a baking business, scaled it to six figures, and opened America's first luxury macaron boutique.

I'm Raina Shults, founder of Sprinkle Me Sugar. And I didn't build this podcast to impress you. I built it because I've been that baker — up at 3 AM, filling 1,200 macarons alone, wishing someone would just tell me the truth about what this life actually looks like.

Proofed: A Baker's Journey is for bakers and makers building something real — one batch, one brave decision, one quiet morning at a time. Every week you'll get two kinds of episodes: Proofed Notes, short reflections to keep you company in the kitchen, and Proofed Conversations, honest interviews with bakers doing the extraordinary who aren't afraid to say how hard it was to get there.

This is not a podcast about hustle or shortcuts. It's about the slow, steady rise of something made with care.

Subscribe, bring it into your kitchen — and let's rise together.