The Journey to Daisy Bakes

Early Baking Days

I started baking back in middle school. My dad was a single parent, and it was the seventies — a time without endless cookbooks or YouTube tutorials.The only thing I really knew how to make were Toll House cookies, so that’s where it began. My dad was a chocoholic, and I figured dark chocolate chips were the way to his heart.

Baking for Family and Friends

I grew up in New York and attended George Washington University in D.C. Life took me through Virginia, where I started my family. After a divorce, I remarried in 2006, and we blended our families each having 2 children - ages 3, 4, 6, and 7 at the time. Between school and sports, our house was nonstop, but we made it work.

When I had kids of my own, the focus naturally shifted toward cakes because, well, birthdays. With four kids, there were a lot of them.

I never got into fancy decorating, but they always tasted good because they were always homemade. My dad’s favorite, though, was flourless chocolate cake. I found a recipe years ago that I made for all our family gatherings.

As life went on, cookies became my go-to. They were easier to share. I made chocolate chip, oatmeal chocolate chip, sugar cookies for the holidays — always something coming out of the oven.

Life in Savannah and Looking Ahead

The kids are grown now and scattered across the country, but they’re still close, and whenever we all get together, I bake. This past summer, we gathered in Maine for a family trip, and I literally packed a suitcase full of baked goods to bring along. No one complained.

We eventually landed in Savannah after my husband, Kelly, pursued his master’s in painting at SCAD, and we’ve now been here for four and a half years. Savannah feels like home — and it’s where Daisy Bakes truly came to life.

Discovering Sourdough and Signature Cookies

About four years ago, I started baking with sourdough. I had no idea it was even a trend — I’ve never really been a trendy baker. It just made sense to use up extra starter and cut back on waste. I quickly discovered that sourdough gave my cookies this amazing texture and extra depth of flavor.

Then came the homemade caramel and butterscotch. One day I folded caramel into my chocolate chunk cookies, and it was absolutely delicious. That turned into my signature cookie — one so good I decided to name it "Keeping Up with the Joneses" because everyone wants one. Each cookie weighs over a quarter pound and is about five inches wide… too good to share, honestly.

I am currently working on a gluten-free and dairy-free version of my signature cookie so that everyone can enjoy them.

Launching Daisy Bakes

Daisy Bakes came about completely by chance. Kelly works at Savannah Magazine, and now that our kids are grown, I have more time to bake. I’d send cookies in with him to share at the office — tiramisu cookies one week, chocolate chunk the next.

One day, one of his coworkers told him it was the best cookie she’d ever had. Soon after, I was invited to create a cookie for Savannah Magazine’s “Best Of” party. The theme was a 1935 speakeasy, so I did some research on popular flavors from that era: coffee, bourbon, and butterscotch.

That’s how I came up with Bootleg Butterscotch — an espresso cookie swirled with homemade bourbon butterscotch and finished with a smooth butterscotch ganache and a touch of edible gold. I baked 200 of them — which meant 400 total cookies for the sandwiches — all in my tiny kitchen. They were a hit, and the response from that night made me see baking in a whole new light.

The invitation coincidentally came just after I’d returned from a baking class in Cheltenham, England, taught by Giuseppe, one of the Great British Bake-Off winners. That trip reignited my love for baking. I hadn’t planned to start a business, but Daisy Bakes was born naturally from that passion.

About the Baker

Baking has always been how I connect, celebrate, and share joy. What started with a simple Toll House cookie has grown into Daisy Bakes. The daisy stands for happiness, simplicity, and new beginnings—qualities that inspire everything I bake. Life is short. I want to live my life fearlessly and help make people happy. As Ina Garten once said: "You can be miserable before you have a cookie and you can be miserable after you eat a cookie, but you can't be miserable while you're eating a cookie".