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June 17, 2024
EDEN – A passion for gooey, warm-from-the-oven cookies was the driving force behind a growing Fond du Lac County business that opened a little more than a year ago.
Ike’s Bake Fresh debuted April 2023 and offers ready-to-bake frozen cookie dough in five flavors, packed in reusable baking tins that customers pop in the oven for a fresh, fast treat.
Owner Isaac “Ike” Floyd said he based the idea for the online business venture (ikesbakefresh.com) on his mother’s cookie recipe.
“Growing up, she always made the best chocolate chip cookies, and she was known for making sure they were warm when served,” he said.
Floyd said his mother baked for a myriad of events for him and his four siblings and their extensive extracurriculars.
About five years ago, he said he thought the concept of selling single-serve cookies – specifically the idea to offer pre-made dough in a baking tin – might be something worth pursuing.
“I took her recipe and did some experiments and figured out how to package it,” he said.
An entrepreneurial mindset
Floyd said the entrepreneurial spirit was instilled in him at a young age as the child of small business owners.
His parents, Greg and Peggy Floyd, he said, own a pickled vegetable business that began as an organic mushroom farm in Beaver Dam 35 years ago.
“They started (the business) the year I was born,” the now 28-year-old said.
Originally named Gourmet’s Delight, the business was rebranded as Forest Floor Foods in 1996 – launching three pickled mushroom products developed from family recipes.
After graduating from St. Mary Springs Academy in Fond du Lac, Floyd said he moved to Montana to further his education, learning about photography, film and marketing.
“Then I came back and decided to work for (my parents),” he said. “It’s a small, family-run business, and I wanted to see if it was something I wanted to do. I had that itch to start my own thing.”
In addition to his experiences growing up, Floyd said he learned a lot about business, marketing and logistics on his own.
“I read a lot of books and listen to podcasts, and I like to learn,” he said. “There are countless sources of information easily obtainable out there, and if I get my mind on something, I’m good at learning as much as I can.”
Getting things started
Floyd said he experimented with recipes and sourcing premium ingredients – including butter, cane sugar, real chocolate, real vanilla extract and high-quality flour.
Each batch, he said, is preservative-free.
Floyd said he uses the commercial kitchen at Forest Floor Foods to make the dough and had to buy an industrial mixer, a freezer “the size of a shipping container” and a piece of equipment from England that forms and rolls dough.
Cookies, he said, are packed in insulated containers for shipping.
“I had to buy a lot of equipment, and I underestimated that when I was starting, but it’s part of the learning process,” he said.
Floyd said he recently hired a production manager to oversee the operation and is working with a third-party logistics company for improved quality and efficiency.
“They’re experts in cold-chain shipping,” he said.
In addition to the original chewy chocolate chip recipe, Floyd said Ike’s Bake Fresh offers white chip macadamia nut, peanut butter chunk, peanut butter swirl and double chocolate white chip flavors in complete kits and refill pucks.
Found success
With his marketing knowledge and background in film and photography, Floyd said he created and built his e-commerce site and handles all the marketing, including social media.
“It’s a huge cost savings to do it yourself,” he said. “But one of the scariest things starting is realizing I have this product, but is anyone going to buy it? And then how can I scale up and work efficiently?”
Luckily, he said, the response has been phenomenal.
“It’s a higher-priced cookie, but people buy it and come back,” he said. “We have more than 300 5-star reviews, and some people order $100 worth a month, every month.”
Floyd said if he had any doubts about the potential success of his venture, his mother did not.
“She insists her cookie recipe, which she developed with a friend as a young girl, isn’t any better than anyone else’s – rather, the key is serving them warm and fresh,” he said.
Peggy said her kids’ friends also enjoyed her fresh-baked cookies.
“The kids’ friends would say, ‘Mrs. Floyd’s cookies are the best,’ and I would say, ‘no, they’re just fresh,’” she said. “Ike got that into his head.”
Peggy said her son’s determination propels him.
“If he’s going to do something, he’s going to do it right,” she said. “He’s insistent on doing things properly, and we don’t doubt him. If someone has a dream and they have the drive, it can be a reality. Dream, drive, reality – we always say that in our family. When my kids are going to do something, I say go for it.”
Ike’s Fresh currently ships anywhere in the U.S.
Floyd said he hopes to someday expand to a storefront.
“I would like to open a bunch of stores, but we’ll start with opening one store and figure out the best model,” he said.
