What Micro Bakery Girl Is
Micro Bakery Girl is an educational brand founded by Jess Stewart that helps women start and run legal, home-based micro bakeries.
The brand focuses on cottage food laws, pricing, simple systems, and sustainable, small-scale bakery businesses designed to fit real life… not burnout, storefronts, or unrealistic growth expectations.
Micro Bakery Girl exists to document what starting a micro bakery actually looks like, and to make the starting line clearer for people who already love baking but don’t know where to begin.
Founder & Micro Bakery Girl: Jess Stewart
Hi, I’m Jess, also known as @MicroBakeryGirl, and I help women turn their love of baking into a cozy, home-based micro bakery they actually feel confident running.
If you ever love baking too, like really loved it, you’re in the right place.
And on this page, I’ll spend just a moment or two introducing myself.
To start, I always been a baker at heart.
Not in a “one day I’ll open a bakery” kind of way, but in the way where baking is just… how I show love, make people feel welcome, calm myself down, and connect with the people around me.
One of my favorite memories is meeting my husband’s parents for the very first time. Instead of bringing wine or flowers, I showed up with cookies.
Actually… way too many cookies.
I tested nearly twenty different chocolate chip cookie recipes. I kept changing tiny things, a little more brown sugar, a little less flour, a different bake time, until they tasted just right.
I packed them up, brought them over, and hoped they’d feel what I meant.
They hugged me the second I handed them the box.
And I remember thinking, yeah… this is why I bake.
Because baking does something special. It brings people together in a way that almost nothing else does.
Before Micro Bakery Girl…
I never worked in food.
I didn’t go to culinary school.
I didn’t grow up dreaming of owning a bakery.
I had computer jobs. My most recent was in graphic design. It was a good job, honestly. I was capable. I was doing well. I was grateful.
But something still felt off.
I wasn’t miserable… I just wasn’t fulfilled. And I couldn’t quite explain why.
I wanted more creativity in my everyday life. More meaning. More presence. Something that felt like me.
One of the side projects I worked on was a food blog called Fable & Feast, where I made recipes inspired by the Harry Potter movies (yes, I’m a nerd and fully own it). It was cozy and whimsical and creative, and I loved it.
Here’s some of my favorite recipes and pictures from that blog:
But as much as I loved it, I just didn’t see how it was possible to turn that little blog into an actual career.
The moment it all clicked…
Then one day, scrolling Instagram, I started seeing women baking from their home kitchens.
Bread. Cookies. Brownies.
Tiny businesses run from kitchens that looked a lot like mine.
And I remember thinking, wait… I could do that.
And I ran straight to my husband, phone in hand, and yelled, “Babe! Babe! This! This Is what I want to do!”
At first, he looked at me like I was a little crazy, but the more we talked, the more we realized it would be absolutely perfect for me.
Sure, it might not big, fancy bakery with a neon sign out front.
But the idea that I could run a cozy, home-based bakery that let me bake, connect with people, and make income doing something I already loved… was just so exciting.
And also completely terrifying.
Starting from scratch…
When I started my own micro bakery, I didn’t have a roadmap.
I had questions. Constantly.
What should I sell?
How do I price things?
How do people order?
How do I get customers who want to order?
What if I mess this up?
So I started figuring it out one step at a time.
I researched cottage food laws.
I tested menus.
I priced things wrong, then fixed them.
I built systems slowly.
I learned by doing, and yes, by making mistakes.
And eventually… my bakery The Little Loaf started selling out, consistently.
Which leads us to today…
As my bakery grew, my DMs and emails filled up.
Women asking:
“How did you do this?”
“Where do I even start?”
“Would it be okay if I did exactly what you’re doing?”
And that’s when it hit me.
So many women love baking.
So many women dream about doing something with it.
And almost all of them are stuck before they ever begin, not because they aren’t talented, but because the starting line feels confusing and overwhelming.
That’s why I created my flagship program, The Micro Bakery Business-In-A-Box.
Which helps start beautiful home bakeries every single day, by simply modeling mine.
What I believe about micro bakeries
I believe micro bakeries are one of the most beautiful kinds of businesses there is.
They’re not about scaling as fast as possible or doing things the “big” way.
They’re about building something that actually fits into your life, not something that takes it over.
I believe you don’t need a storefront to be taken seriously.
You don’t need fancy equipment.
You don’t need a culinary degree.
And you definitely don’t need to burn yourself out to prove you’re “legit.”
A micro bakery can be small on purpose.
It can live in your home.
It can work around your schedule.
It can grow slowly and intentionally.
It can serve your community without trying to reach the whole internet.
I believe food made by hand carries something extra with it.
Care. Presence. Intention.
People feel that, even if they can’t quite explain why.
And I believe women, especially, deserve businesses that honor both their creativity and their capacity.
Ones that allow space for rest, family, softness, and seasons of life, without giving up the ability to earn real income.
Micro bakeries don’t all have to look the same.
Some stay tiny forever.
Some grow into something bigger.
Both are amazing.
What matters is that you get to choose.
At the end of the day, I believe micro bakeries are about more than bread and cookies. They’re about building something honest, nourishing, and sustainable, for the customers you serve and for you.
Who this is for
If you’ve always loved baking…
If you’ve wondered whether it could become something more…
If you want flexibility, creativity, and income without burning out…
You’re exactly who this is for.
You don’t have to out and build a bread empire (unless you want one).
You can simply build a small, local, home-based business that has your name on it.
So… welcome 🤍
If you’re here, there’s probably a reason.
Maybe this idea has been sitting in the back of your mind for a while. Maybe you’ve been waiting for someone to say, yes, this is possible.
So here it is.
You’re not late.
You’re not behind.
And you don’t have to figure it out alone.
I’m really glad you’re here.
– Jess