Small food makers in and around Minneapolis and Saint Paul, most of them cooking and baking at home: cakes and cake pops, sourdough, Sunday plates, empanadas, hot sauce and kombucha. What each one makes, and how to reach them.
Jump to: Custom and celebration cakes 9 · Cookies, bars and shortbread 9 · Pickles, ferments, sauces and pantry 7 · Sourdough and bread 6 · Plates, platters and Sunday dinners 6 · Cake pops and cakesicles 4 · Empanadas and handhelds 3
Cakes are quoted rather than listed, because the number depends on size, servings and how much of the design is made by hand. Give the date, the number of people and a budget in the first message and you will usually get one reply instead of five.
Jamie bakes for a Saturday farm stand at Rice and Demont in Little Canada, Minnesota, open at 9am until it sells out, with weekly menus of oatmeal creme pies, puppy chow and toffee pretzels. She also takes pre-orders and custom birthday and graduation cakes.
Oatmeal creme pies · Custom themed cakes · Puppy chow
Custom cakes for gender reveals, breakups, and "RIP 20s" birthdays, plus themed designs like tarot and Hannah Montana. Lo bakes from her home kitchen in Minneapolis and takes orders through Instagram messages.
Hannah Montana themed cake · Breakup cake · Gender reveal cake
Designs wedding and celebration cakes across the Twin Cities, where Megan works in wafer paper florals, vintage piping and tiered layers up to four sizes, then sets each cake in place at the venue herself. Orders for 2027 dates open on Labor Day.
Wafer paper wedding cake with orchids · Vintage-style piped wedding cake · Four-tier cake (4"/6"/8"/12")
Heart-shaped and round 8-inch cakes finished with edible image sheets, bows, gold pearls and plenty of glitter, plus cake pops by the dozen. Daysi is cottage food licensed, takes orders by DM a few weeks ahead, and arranges pickup between Minneapolis and Edina.
8 inch cake (July promo) $40 · 6 inch cake · Vanilla cake pops (dozen)
Posted prices from $40
Every cake here is made without eggs, from fondant figurines for first birthdays to a monogrammed wedding tier. Baking from Shakopee, Minnesota, she also sends out dessert cups, cookies, donuts and naturally leavened sourdough in lemon blueberry and double chocolate.
Custom theme cakes · Cookie Monster baby shower cake · Double Chocolate sourdough loaf
Bakes custom cakes in Saint Paul, Minnesota, with seasonal flavors like lemon blueberry and strawberry matcha chiffon, plus hosted cake decorating events at La Delicious Bread. Sarina trained through the pastry program at Saint Paul College; orders are currently paused.
Lemon Blueberry cake · Strawberry Matcha cake · Heart cake
Everything comes out of a Minnesota cottage kitchen without gluten, dairy, egg or dye, sold from a bus that took three months to hand-paint. Cake pops and the vanilla Daisy Cake with raspberry marshmallow fondant are at the Midtown Farmers Market on E Lake St, Saturdays 9a-1p.
Daisy Cake · Cake pops · Pancake mix
Vegan cupcakes, cookies, brownies and layer cakes from Jessi's cottage kitchen in Mounds View, Minnesota, from Boston creme pie cupcakes to chocolate ganache drip cakes, with gluten-free options and custom orders taken by DM. She also bakes birthday cakes for For Goodness Cakes.
Chocolate ganache drip cake (6 inch, three layer) · Pistachio white chocolate Frankenstein cookies · Boston Crème Pie cupcakes
Half and full dozen cupcakes come from this Chaska, Minnesota cottage bakery, in flavors like salted caramel, red velvet, peanut butter cup, lemon and the graham-and-marshmallow I Want S'more. Cookies joined recently with The Golden Hour, sold six to a pack; orders are placed by DM.
Strawberry shortcake cupcakes · Lemon raspberry cupcakes · Churro cupcakes
From single-flavour batches to royal icing sets decorated for a shower or a graduation. A custom set needs more notice than a plain dozen.
Stuffed cookies in flavors like fluffernutter, cookies n cream and pistachio come out of this Minneapolis kitchen, along with cupcakes and mini loaf cakes. Catch them Tuesdays at the Champlin Market and Thursdays at the New Hope Farmers Market, with vegan and sugar-free options.
Pistachio cookie butter stuffed chocolate cookie · Chocolate chip cookie · Pistachio cookie
Out of a cottage food kitchen in Bloomington, Minnesota, Annie bakes custom decorated cookies ordered for bridal showers, baby announcements and birthdays, from Shrek designs to soccer themes. She also leads cookie decorating sessions for small groups.
Bridal shower decorated cookies · Baby announcement cookies · Bachelorette party cookies
Boo's Bakery MN sets up a weekend cookie cart on Glenbrook Ave S in Cottage Grove with almond sugar cookies, cookies-and-cream stuffed cookies, and Biscoff or s'mores cake pops. Custom decorated sets for baby showers and engagements are made to order; cash and Venmo taken.
Cookies & Cream Stuffed Cookies $4 · Birthday Cake Cookies $8 · Biscoff Cake Pops $3
Posted prices $3 to $8
February 2024 brought the first day of orders for this registered Minnesota cottage food producer in Minneapolis, whose s'mores cookie remains the top seller alongside Biscoff cookie butter, Cookie Monster, and the new banana bread chocolate chip, plus occasional custom cakes.
S'mores cookies · Biscoff cookie butter cookies · Banana bread chocolate chip cookies
Kelsey Endres bakes out of Minneapolis, bringing sour cherry almond buns, cardamom and cheddar dill buns, mini bundts and banana pudding cookies to the Northeast and Kingfield farmers markets. She also takes custom orders for vintage-style piped cakes.
Sour Cherry Almond Buns $5 · Cardamom Buns $5 · Cheddar Dill Buns $5
Posted prices $5 to $7
Kendra bakes hand-decorated royal icing sugar cookies from her cottage kitchen in Coon Rapids, Minnesota, along with bars, pies, brownies and sourdough. Custom sets have marked graduations and a Grandma Marathon finish, and her cookies and brownies head to Minnesota State Fair judging.
Custom royal icing sugar cookies · Graduation cookie set · Marathon finisher cookie set
Oatmeal creme pies and cookies come out of Mary Williams's Maple Grove, Minnesota kitchen every Friday and Saturday, with doors open from 9 a.m. until dark. Preorders are arranged through Messenger.
Oatmeal creme pie · Cookies
Dark chocolate and tart cherry shortbread is Evalyn's bestseller, alongside Earl Grey lemon bars of it and glazed ginger molasses cookies. She sells from Studio 272 at the Northrup King Building during Art-A-Whirl and Art Attack, takes custom orders by message, and packs shortbread boxes each Decemb
Earl Grey + Lemon shortbread · Dark chocolate + tart cherry shortbread (cherry bonbon) · Dark chocolate + pistachio + orange shortbread
Minneapolis, MN
Orders by message. @thecookiesandcafecitoco on Instagram.
Bakes Guava & Coco and Oreo cream cheese crumble cookies from a Northeast Minneapolis home kitchen, plus 12 oz cafecito lattes in miel and churro flavors during weekend porch pickup. Katie takes orders by message a day ahead and sells at the Mother summer market on North 2nd Street.
Cookie box of 3 $12 · Cookie box of 6 $10 · Cookie box of 8 $12
Posted prices $5 to $30
The jarred and bottled end of the trade: pickles, kombucha and kefir, hot sauce, jam, granola. Flavours turn over with the seasons, so the current list is usually the maker's latest post.
Brews organic kombucha in small seasonal batches, from Palisade peach in cans to a coffee version made with Café Palmira Vienna roast and apple made with SweeTango apples from a neighboring vendor. Found Saturday mornings at the Mill City Farmers Market in Minneapolis.
Colorado peach kombucha (cans) · Vienna Roast coffee kombucha · Sweet Tango apple kombucha
Weekend tables at the Northeast Minneapolis, Kingfield, and Richfield farmers markets are where this Minnesota cottage food granola maker sets out Maple Munch, Bear Bark, and free samples. Cooper's Crunchies, a $5 bag of granola made for dogs, rounds out the lineup.
Cooper's Crunchies dog granola $5 · Maple Munch granola · Bear Bark
Posted prices from $5
Every label is written out by hand, and the peppers ferment hard: Katrina makes Minneapolis hot sauces like Passionfruit Habanero, plus Fig Fresno and Jalapeño Limeade pepper jams, sold on Saturdays during residencies at This and That Gallery on E 25th Street.
SPC hot sauce, large 10oz bottle $15 · The HOG sauce, 5oz bottle $10 · Habanero Jam, 8oz jar $12
Posted prices $10 to $15
Saturday mornings at the Midtown Farmers Market on East Lake Street in Minneapolis, Sunmi pours small-batch water kefir in flavors like blueberry, yuzu and cardamom, alongside artisan tea cakes and fermented fruit syrups. Return an empty bottle and the next one costs less.
Fermented fruit syrups · Water kefir · More Than Lemonade water kefir
2025's Open Streets on Broadway was one selling day, rain and all, for this Minneapolis maker of flavor-infused dill pickles. Working under a Minnesota cottage food license, they're fixing up a mobile pickle truck to bring the snacks around the Twin Cities.
Flavor-infused dill pickles
Refrigerator dill pickles made with cucumbers, garlic, horseradish and hot peppers from home-garden and local farm harvests, plus pickled onions and carrots. This family-run Twin Cities operation sells Sundays at the St. Paul Farmers' Market in Lowertown.
Refrigerator dill pickles · Pickled onions · Pickled carrots
Blends flavored sea salts and sugars in south Minneapolis, from Lemon Basil Sel Gris to nasturtium salt, using garden herbs, foraged violets, and produce from local growers. Find the booth at West Side and Southwest farmers markets.
Chive Blossom White Tomato Salt · Nasturtium Salt · Lemon Basil Sel Gris
Bread is baked in batches, so what you can get depends on the week rather than on a menu. Ask what is coming out and when.
100 community loaves donated to food shelves and school programs since January, baked by Anna Cedar near 50th and Fremont in south Minneapolis. Menus drop Sundays and Wednesdays at 2pm, with wheat sourdough, herb focaccia and chili crisp, and pickups double as a casual hangout.
Classic Wheat Sourdough · I Gotcha Focaccia with Thyme, Rosemary and Sage · Cheesy Salty Herb Sourdough
Friday pickup runs in Midway, Saint Paul mean chai cinnamon rolls, brioche buns, chocolate chip zucchini bread, and scone-cookie hybrids from Megan's home ovens. Menus post each Sunday, orders close Tuesday, and the backyard shed opens on pickup day with extras.
Black Forest Brownies · Peaches and Cream Muffins · Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
Gluten-free hamburger buns, focaccia, scones and biscotti come out of Chris Haskett's home kitchen in Golden Valley, Minnesota. Orders run on a monthly drop schedule, with a menu posted ahead of each deadline and pickup a few days later.
Gluten free scones · Gluten free biscotti · Gluten free focaccia
Katie bakes from home in Blaine, Minnesota, stocking a weekend bake stand with sourdough bread, bagels, English muffins and cinnamon rolls. She takes custom orders for cake pops, sugar cookies and cupcakes, and sells at the Ham Lake Farmers & Artisan Market.
Snack mix $6 · Sourdough bread · Sourdough bagels
Posted prices from $6
Barb and Keeley run a Saturday morning bread cart on Arnold Palmer Drive in Blaine, Minnesota, with sourdough loaves like jalapeño cheddar, kalamata olive Parmesan and onion swiss, plus Keeley's cookies. Direct orders are baked fresh and ready within 48 hours.
Organic sourdough classic loaf · Rosemary garlic asiago loaf · Jalapeno cheddar loaf
A home bakery in Mendota Heights, Minnesota turning out fresh challah, breads, bagels and celebration cakes, with gluten-free and egg-free options on request. Orders are taken directly for local pickup.
Challah · Round holiday challah · Bagels
Cooked food sold by the plate, usually announced ahead and made in one batch, so the order window is real: when a batch is gone it is gone. Watch for the preorder post.
Cooks Jamaican plates like red snapper and oxtail at pop-ups on 919 Dale St N in Saint Paul, open most every other weekend from noon to 5. Also caters, and sets up at neighborhood events like the Rondo block party.
Red snapper fish & oxtail meal
Jada Baker cooks limited-run Sunday plates for the Twin Cities, from hibachi fried rice with wings and yum yum sauce to steak bites with loaded mashed potatoes, all preordered by DM with pickup or delivery. She also caters small events and puts out seasonal Valentine's and Easter treat menus.
Sunday hibachi plate $25 · Weekend special meal $10 · Easter treat lineup
Posted prices $10 to $25
Pickup in Minneapolis or Uber package delivery for plates from Razynae, a self-taught chef whose menus rotate from oxtails over rice and baked mac to loaded jerk Philly cheesesteak fries and preorder birria pizza. Catering and private chef bookings are also taken.
Spicy bowl $25 · Loaded Jerk Philly Cheesesteak Fries with pop · Better Than Sex cake jar
Posted prices from $25
$22 Sunday platters in Minneapolis, preordered ahead: rasta pasta with blackened chicken, garlic knots and corn, or stuffed blackened catfish with candied sweet potatoes and baked mac. Flavored lemonade, homemade cookies and $10 kid plates show up some weeks.
Kids platter (4 wings with two sides) $10 · Stuffed blackened catfish with choice of two sides · Flavored lemonade
Posted prices $10 to $22
Spicy bowls sell out by the batch here, with a call-ahead number posted the moment they're ready. Angela Avent cooks fish and chicken baskets to order in North Minneapolis, announcing each drop and pickup time as she goes.
Spicy bowl · Fish basket · Chicken basket
Sisters in Minneapolis cook pork-free Krazy Bowlz loaded with chicken, beef sausage and peppers in flavors like O.G. Dirty Hot and Cajun Lemon Pepper, plus Cheeto boudin balls, loaded cheesecake bowls and smothered chicken plates. Black-owned, made in limited batches for pickup.
Krazy Bowl - Chicken + Beef Sausage $15 · Krazy Bowl - Seafood $20 · EVERYTHING Bowl $25
Posted prices $15 to $35
A party order more than a pastry: cake and frosting shaped by hand, dipped in chocolate, decorated one stick at a time. Most makers take custom shapes and colours for a theme, which is work that needs notice.
Bakes egg-free cake pops and cookies as a Minnesota mother-and-daughter team, with flavors like Banana Pudding, Circus Animal and Cookies & Cream sold for $3 at a self-serve cart on 7th Ave S in South St. Paul. Custom orders and local pickup are also available.
Banana Pudding cake pop $3 · Cookie Monster cake pop $3 · PB Cup cake pop $3
Posted prices from $3
Pop-ups in New Brighton, Minnesota are where Judy hands over her cake pops, each one dipped in chocolate and decorated by hand. Flavors rotate through mint Oreo, cookie dough, double chocolate and peanut butter cup, with custom orders taken by direct message.
Double chocolate cake pops · Mint Oreo cake pops · Cookie dough cake pops
Janet makes cake pops after her kids are in bed and sets them out in a stand at her Blaine, Minnesota home, with flavors like Thai tea, strawberry jasmine milk tea and raspberry red velvet. Custom shaped orders go through DM, by the dozen with a 50% deposit.
Mystery dumpling cake pops $3 · Custom shaped cake pops · S'mores cookies
Posted prices from $3
Bakes cake pops out of a cottage kitchen in Champlin, Minnesota, where Gina works as a nurse and mom between batches. Flavors run to strawberries and cream, cookie dough, and birthday cake, sold for $3 each at a grab-and-go cart on Yukon Ave N, plus custom and pan dulce sets.
Strawberries & Cream cake pop $3 · Cookie Dough cake pop $3 · Birthday Cake cake pop $3
Posted prices from $3
Filled, folded and fried or baked, sold by the piece and often by the dozen, sometimes frozen to finish at home.
Crab rangoon empanadas made with real crab sit alongside wagyu beef and chicken longanisa versions, each Ilocos-style and filled with papaya and egg. Anika cooks from her Eden Prairie kitchen and takes Twin Cities preorders through her socials.
Wagyu beef empanada · Chicken longanisa empanada · Crab rangoon empanada
Third-generation Colombian empanada makers whose family recipe dates to 1975, now running a food truck around Minnesota with arepas, chorizo and fusion fillings. Find them Saturday mornings at the Stillwater Farmers Market and at Lift Bridge Brewery, plus catering and frozen orders.
Colombian empanadas · Frozen empanadas for pickup · Arepas
Late-night snacking and weekend pop-ups in Minneapolis, where Madeline Cruz fries Dominican-style empanadas filled with beef, chicken and jerk chicken. Local orders are taken directly, and dirty sodas like Island Cream are being tested as a pairing.
Beef empanada · Chicken empanada · Jerk chicken empanada
What these sellers have actually posted for it, in their own words:
Seasonal work books out first, so this is the part of the year to ask early rather than to ask around.
Selling food made in a home kitchen is legal in Minnesota under the cottage food law, Minnesota Statutes section 28A.152, and the shape of it is simple: shelf-stable food only. The law permits food that is "not potentially hazardous", meaning acidic (pH 4.6 or below) or dry or sugary enough (water activity 0.85 or less) that bacteria cannot grow in it, plus home-canned pickles, vegetables and fruits that meet the same acidity test. Breads, cookies, cakes that need no fridge, granola, jam and pickles live inside that line. Meat, dairy, cheesecake and anything else that needs refrigeration live outside it and require a license, whoever makes them, and whether a given sauce or ferment clears the acidity bar is a fact about that jar, not about the category.
Every seller under this law registers with the state each year: free with gross sales of $7,665 or less, $50 above that, with a food safety course either way. Sales are capped at $78,000 a year, a limit the legislature raised from $18,000 in 2021. And the label has to tell you what you are buying. The wording is set by the statute, and this is it:
These products are homemade and not subject to state inspection.
That sentence is not a warning about the seller. It is the deal: no license, no inspection, no commercial kitchen rent, and in exchange a registration, a cap, and a label that says so, on the jar, on a placard at the stall, and on any website taking the order.
They cannot post it to you. Minnesota cottage food may be ordered over the internet, but the person who made it must hand it to you themselves, at their home where local rules allow it, at a market or community event, or at an agreed meeting point. Mailing it or sending it by courier is not permitted, home-canned goods may not be sold outside Minnesota at all, and nothing under this law may be resold or put on a store shelf. The legislature has already changed the shipping rule, but not yet: from 1 August 2027, cottage food will be allowed to go by mail. Today, expect to collect. One genuinely Minnesotan footnote: home-baked dog and cat treats have their own statute, and those may be shipped right now.
The hot food on this page is a different lane. Cooked plates, wings, hot empanadas: food that needs temperature control is outside the cottage food law entirely, and selling it runs under other rules, licensed kitchens, food trucks, caterers and the like. Both lanes are real ways Minnesotans sell food; they are just different paperwork. As with everything on this page, we describe what the law asks of sellers. We have not checked any individual seller's compliance and we are not in a position to.
Sources: Minn. Stat. 28A.152 (2024 edition, the version in force), Minn. R. 4626.0020, Laws 2025, ch. 34 (the 2027 changes), Minn. Stat. 25.391 (pet treats), and the MDA registration and guidance pages. Read on 23 August 2026. The $7,665 fee tier is the MDA's inflation adjustment of the statute's $5,000 and moves without the statute changing.
Not better or worse, different in ways that decide whether one suits what you need.
| Home kitchen (cottage) | Licensed food business | |
|---|---|---|
| Inspection | None, and the label has to say so | Licensed and inspected |
| What they can sell | Shelf-stable food only | Anything, hot or cold |
| Scale | Capped at $78,000 a year | Uncapped |
| Getting it | In person, from the maker, in Minnesota | Counter, delivery or post |
| Prices | Mostly quoted per order, 14 of these 44 post any price | Listed on a menu |
| When | Made to order or in batches | Made daily, ready when you walk in |
| Who you talk to | The person who makes it | Whoever is on the counter |
Every food listing we hold in the Twin Cities metro is on this page: 44 sellers, 26 of them in Minneapolis or Saint Paul proper and 18 in the towns around them, each card saying which. Another 5 Minnesota food sellers sit out past the metro, from the northwest lakes to the Wisconsin line, and they are on the Minnesota page instead. 5 more are in the directory without a town we can name, and a guide that cannot place a seller should not guess. Compiled on 19 August 2026 from what these sellers had already posted publicly, and rebuilt from the directory every time this page loads, so a seller who has claimed their page shows as taking orders rather than as a page we made for them. 313 products are listed across the 44, in their own words, and the most recent seller here was added on 24 September 2026. Nothing here is ranked, nobody paid to be included, and nobody can.
Nothing here is ranked, so the choosing is yours. Four things on this page are worth reading as signals, and all four are visible on the cards above.
The list is built from public posts, so we will have missed people. A shop on Nilfpay is free to run and takes a couple of minutes to set up, link included. Buyers pay a 4% service fee, 50¢ minimum.
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