From her Brooklyn kitchen to cookie lovers nationwide, Susan Palmer of SFA member Little Red Kitchen Bake Shop has built a brand rooted in nostalgia and creativity.
What began as seasonal bakes quickly grew into an award-winning line of small-batch treats, led by the fan-favorite Molasses Spice cookie. Today, Palmer balances a bustling e-commerce business, innovative offerings like cookie pies and DIY kits, and a newly opened brick-and-mortar shop—all while staying true to her mission of handcrafting cookies that spark memories and feel like home. In this SFA member spotlight, Palmer shares how she balances tradition with innovation, maintains a handmade touch at scale, and continues to dream up the next sweet chapter for her bakery.
Your Molasses Spice cookie is an award-winning standout! Could you walk us through how this offering first came together and what inspired its unique blend of spices?
Our Molasses Spice originally started as a seasonal cookie, available October through December. I saw how popular it was and the demand for it to be available year-round. A number of our customers have commented on how it tasted like their grandma or mom used to make for them but they weren’t able to replicate the recipe themselves. Those comments sum up why we do what we do—to evoke that memory with your first bite.
Part of the process was creating that classic molasses cookie taste, one which is hard to come by now. I chose organic unsulfured molasses for a cleaner taste and paired it with organic brown sugar. When it came to the spices, I knew at scale we wouldn’t be able to continue making our own spice blend, so I researched high-quality pumpkin pie spices but added additional ground ginger for that spicy kick at the end. Each cookie gets rolled in cane sugar for extra crunch and a little sparkle on top.
With a strong e-commerce presence, what have been the most rewarding and challenging lessons in scaling your direct-to-consumer operations?
Seeing the same names place an order time and time again—we have a good number of repeat customers, and that in and of itself is more rewarding than any review. That alone tells me we’re doing something right and people love the product. The most challenging part is trying to stand out amongst our competitors that have budgets for ad spend, social media coordinators, and help with building out their websites to rank high in Google searches. I do most of the behind-the-scenes work solo, and it’s hard to compete with similar companies.
Flavor development is clearly essential to your success. Can you share your creative process when developing new cookie varieties or seasonal collections—do you experiment frequently, follow trends, or lean into customer feedback?
I try not to follow trends too much—I prefer classic flavors with a twist or that simply taste great. For example, our s’mores cookie utilizes gelatin-free marshmallows to make it vegetarian-friendly, and instead of graham crackers, I use honey and cinnamon in the dough to mimic graham cracker flavor. I do take customer feedback into consideration, especially with items we serve at our store since we have more freedom to change things up versus packaged items. I also have more room to work with seasonal flavors at the shop—we rotate a brookie, scone, and babka flavor each month, playing into what’s current in season. Our September flavors feature apple, pomegranate, and fig.
Your site offers subscriptions, cookie kits, and cookie pies alongside classic offerings. How do you balance innovation in product formats (like DIY kits and pies) with maintaining your core cookie line?
DIY Cookie Kits came about during COVID. So many people were having trouble getting baking ingredients, but they were home and looking for something to keep them occupied. We had the resources and it seemed like a natural addition.
I came up with the idea for the cookie pies in 2016. I did a lot of research to see if a product like this was available via mail order, and while one other company was selling cookie pies, it was completely different than what I had created. Theirs was a chocolate chip cookie inside a pie dough. My version is a homage to the skillet cookie you’d find at restaurants or bake at home. Logistically, shipping cookies in cast iron skillets was cost-prohibitive, but baking it in an aluminum pie tin gave the same taste and texture I was looking for. There is no pie dough—just 100% cookie dough baked in a pie tin.
It also gave me the opportunity to add toppings that normally wouldn’t work with our packaged cookies. Balancing the products with our core cookie line was fairly easy, as everything was still cookie dough and the process was the same. Cookie pies are actually more efficient for us at scale, as they take less time to prep. Everything we make is by hand, so whether it’s our core cookies, cookie pies, or cookie kits, all are weighed out and rolled by hand.
As a Brooklyn-based bakery shipping nationwide, how do you maintain that freshly baked, neighborhood bakery quality at scale? And how do you ensure every package still delivers that home-baked taste?
Despite rising costs, I have not compromised on our ingredients, and I think that makes a big difference in taste. Everything we use are common ingredients you can pronounce and recognize. As mentioned above, we make everything in small batches, by hand, to maintain consistency and the taste you know and love. Our orders are baked and shipped out the same day, which means customers are receiving cookies 1–2 days after they leave our ovens. Nothing sits around in a warehouse—we bake and ship five days a week to keep up the taste that customers expect.
Looking ahead, what exciting plans or new directions are you exploring for Little Red Kitchen Bake Shop?
I think opening a brick-and-mortar store is enough excitement to hold me over for a few years! Although, I am looking to eventually bring our babka or cinnamon buns to market at some point next year. The recipes are there and we sell them at the store, but the next step is figuring out the right packaging and lowering the cost on the babka so it makes sense for a grocery store shelf.
Palmer’s dedication to quality, consistency, and customer connection has set Little Red Kitchen Bake Shop apart in a crowded cookie landscape. With new products on the horizon and a loyal following nationwide, Palmer is proving that there’s always room at the table for cookies that feel like home. Learn more about Little Red Kitchen Bake Shop on their website.
Little Red Kitchen Bake Shop is Scaling Nostalgia, One Cookie at a Time
