Because you can’t eat flowers.
That’s Christina Gumpert’s motto, a statement never more evident than when you step through the door of her new Mesa storefront, Hot Cookie.
The small-business owner is watching over a hulk of a mixer combining 12 cups of butter and 12 cups of sugar, ingredients that will make an army of butter cookies later in the afternoon.
Since the Internet lacks an application that can translate olfactory sensations, you’ll have to imagine how heavenly the batter smells wafting out the store’s open front door. People stop in to grab a cookie or two, and Gumpert offers an after-school special of a cookie and milk for students, or adults, who wander in.
But Gumpert’s main business plan has always been selling the cookies as gifts, packaging them by the dozen in paper and ribbons, and having them delivered.
“It’s a great business thank you, instead of flowers, which could be kind of weird in some cases,” she laughed. “They get the cookies and they share them with the office.”
Hot Cookie’s new storefront at 2018 Cliff Drive opened in late January, although Gumpert has been selling the treats online since 2004. “It got busier and busier and busier,” she said, and knew she needed to make the transition to her own space from a rental kitchen.
“I always knew I wanted to own my own business,” she said. “I just didn’t know what it would be.”
Gumpert has a knack for desserts, borne out of the fact that her mom would never let her make dinner growing up, but would put her in charge of desserts for her family.
Cookies seemed like a natural choice. Gumpert said she’s constantly adding new flavors to her classic lineup of cookies, which include butter, peanut butter chocolate chip, oatmeal chocolate chip, peanut butter, chocolate chip and oatmeal raisin.
She’s also been known to work up batches of brownies, lemon bars, seven-layer bars and caramel apples during the summer.
Christmas and Valentine’s Day are big sellers, and she and one other employee work together to fill orders.
People do come in to buy individual cookies, but Hot Cookie gets most of its business from online orders, and delivers for $10 anywhere from Goleta to Carpinteria. It also ships all over the United States.
“It’s more of a gift-giving experience,” she said.
She packages it that way, too. “I try to make it really cute and handmade and heartfelt,” she said. She also does cookies for weddings and themed parties, “where I can be creative,” she said.
Click here for more information about Hot Cookie products or call 805.564.2397.
— Noozhawk staff writer Lara Cooper can be reached at lcooper@noozhawk.com.
