
Photo courtesy of Meredith Rowlen Photography
Melissa Espinoza, owner of Cookies by Melissa, decorates a batch of cookies.
Melissa Espinoza has always loved to bake.
“I’ve baked my entire life, starting with an Easy Bake Oven back in the day,” she said.
But it really started to get real for her when she was pregnant with her first child in 2018.
“I always saw decorated cookies and wanted to try and make them for my own baby shower,” Espinoza said. “I took one class and then tried on my own. It was a disaster, but they tasted amazing, so I kept trying. I made them for every event and person I knew, and they kept getting better and better.”
Her cookie fame spread through social media and by word of mouth, and four years after that determined start, she’s running a busy business called Cookies by Melissa Espinoza.
“I love the freedom of being my own boss and running my own business at home,” said Espinoza, who lives in Eagle Point. “I can be a stay-at-home mom during the day and create cookies at night.”
She said her favorite part of what she does is seeing the joy her cookies bring to children and their families.
I know it sounds silly, but cookies can truly make an event and make someone’s day.
Melissa Espinoza
“I know it sounds silly, but cookies can truly make an event and make someone’s day,” she said.
They’ve been uplifting for her, too. When she was facing infertility, baking cookies was therapeutic.
“We have always had infertility issues — we had to do IUI (intrauterine insemination) with our first child,” Espinoza said. “After we had him, we did IUI again and had two miscarriages, so we went through IVF (in vitro fertilization) so we could do genetic testing and make sure we were transferring healthy embryos. The whole process was long and awful, to be honest, but running my cookie business helped me have an outlet and helped me give back to some women going through the same situation.”
She’s grateful to now have her twins, but she thinks often of women who are walking through what she walked through.
“I love to give away boxes of pineapple cookies — one of the symbols of infertility — to people struggling with infertility just as a little happy while they’re going through it,” Espinoza said.
She recently posted a photo of a set of infertility-related cookies on Facebook with the note, “IVF cookies always bring me back — praying for everyone going through it right now.”
She loves making themed cookies to give anyone in any situation a lift, from knee replacement surgeries to back to school to family members facing diabetes. She also makes them for any party from birthdays to showers to anniversaries.
“I always love making cookies for families through every event and every birthday,” Espinoza said. “It makes me so happy when I get to watch their children grow and get to make cookies for each birthday over the years.”
For more information on Cookies by Melissa Espinoza, find her at Cookies by ME on Facebook or cookiesby_melissaespinoza on Instagram.