Bliss Bakehouse Gluten Free

04/17/2026

A reminder that we

WILL NOT BE AT THE CNY REGIONAL MARKET TOMORROW (Saturday, April 18)!

We're loving our time together in London!!!! 🤩🤩🤩

04/17/2026

This hits a nerve (pretty sure most of my fellow bakers have had these thoughts lately).

I had a brief moment last week when I thought "I really just can't do this anymore". The costs are KILLING us.

Despite my prices being "high", I've actually opted to keep my prices in line with other local bakers who are NOT gluten free. There's a price point at which you lose your market. ESPECIALLY in today's economy.

I recently raised my prices a quarter. That amounts to an extra $.12 per cookie. It doesn't near cover the actual increase in my ingredient costs. But it helps a bit.

Last week, I was crushed to see yet another major price increase in my ingredients. One of my flours jumped to $4.50 per pound about a month ago. This week, it jumped again to $6.75 per pound. And that was after much research. For reference, I paid $.89 per pound in 2022, $2.50 for this past year. Up til the current $6.75. And I need it for my flour blends. I can't just swap in something else. I spent 2 year developing my flour blends.

Sadly, we are now paying triple (and in some cases, quadruple) what I paid for my ingredients in 2023. Between raised prices and reduced amounts in packaging (the four pound bags of sugar! 🤦‍♀️), I'm now spending $12.50 in chips for each batch of cookies. Three years ago, I could find good quality chips wholesale for $4.

Yet I cannot raise my prices more than incremental amounts or risk losing business. The ingredient companies can raise prices and we still need what they have. But those of us at the end the chain selling little luxuries? If we raise our prices, our customers can just decide they don't need (or can't afford) treats.

And there's only so much we can do to reduce costs without truly cheapening a product. Or selling a smaller object for a higher price (agajn....the four pound bags of sugar!!!)

So on behalf of all the food service industry, I ask you to keep an open mind when you see price increases. To keep those little local businesses in your thoughts. We're drowning these days!!!

It makes a gal want to throw in the towel sometimes. But I'm not there yet! 😉😉😉

I’m going to be really honest today. I’m not looking for sympathy I’m looking for change.

I’m angry. I’m sad. And I’m trying to hold it together behind the counter while seeing faces we’ve known for 10 years walk through the door. I’m sorry I did not have the strength to talk to most of you.

This was never about lack of support.
You showed up. You always did. You stood in queues, you brought your friends, you celebrated your birthdays with us, you made us part of your life for a decade. That was never the problem.

The problem is trying to exist in an economy where people can barely afford to treat themselves anymore. Where every single cost goes up — ingredients, rent, electricity, fuel levies, packaging, wages — and somehow small businesses are just expected to absorb it quietly, smile, and keep going.

“Just put your prices up.”
“Just adapt.”
“Just work harder.”

Someone said it was our own fault for not changing our recipes! We are working harder. We are doing everything we can. We sold donuts in Bunnings Car Parks during Covid, we know how to adapt. And still… it’s not enough.

And the hardest part?
Standing here, smiling, making coffee, handing over your pastries, saying “have a great day” — while inside you’re carrying the weight of staff, rent and bills… and the very real fear of losing something you’ve built your life around.

We are trained to say we’re fine.
We’re often not.

So please — and I mean this with everything in me —
go and support your local small businesses if you can.

Check on the owners. Actually check on them.
Ask them how they’re really doing.

Because behind every “we’re good!” is often someone who hasn’t slept properly in weeks.

Fight for the little places. The corner shops. The bakeries, the cafés, the florists, the tiny stores that make your suburb feel like a community instead of just a postcode.

They are disappearing. And it’s not because people don’t care.

It’s because the system makes it almost impossible to survive.

We’re here today.
We’re baking as long as we can.

Come by, say hi, give your favourite spots a bit of love — not just us, all of them.

Because once they’re gone…they’re gone.

04/16/2026

WE MADE IT OFFICIAL!

We are now officially signed on and paid members of Shared Kitchen Ithaca! Which means we'll be bringing back some of our favorite offerings, like crazy pizzas and flatbreads (we're now in love with our Brie and Black Raspberry Flatbread!), Mac and Cheeses, hot sandwiches and pockets, cheesecake, and more!

We're hoping to be able to finish paperwork and gain approval from Tomkins County Health Department later in the month!

Once in, it'll take some time to acclimate ourselves to working out of a new kitchen (with new equipment and ovens) and to titrate my recipes to work in commercial ovens. But we're excited to get things going and bring our products back!

We plan to start right in with our pizzas and flatbreads. From there, we will--as we did when we had the bakery--do pop ups for different options!

And in the meantime, starting the week of April 25, we'll be introducing our Drop Cookie/Brownie Flour Blend and Drip Cookie Blend (so you can make your own favorite cookie recipes at home!)!

04/15/2026

April 15
For the last three years, this date held much pain.

(And a warning--this post is long! ADHD Girl makes a short story long! 😊🤣 But I've heard many of you share your stories to give me strength, so I'll share mine. I am amazed and in awe of so many of you!!! You got me through some rough times!!!)

BUT today, I choose to take back this date to make it something wonderful moving forward!!! 🩷

Those of you who've been with me for the long haul will rember that April 15, 2023 was the day I turned in the key to my retail space--my beautiful thriving bakery--closed at the height of my business! Many of you have only recently found us and may not know that we've been around for almost 10 years AND had a bakery!)

I had signed a three year lease and had just begun my third year and I was not only ready to sign a lease for more years, but debated taking the newly empty space next next door and adding seating!

I had made back the cost of our build out and were finally at the point of making a profit. We had lines out the door and frequently sold out.

But the landlord had become increasingly unpleasant. Small digs became frequent, there were increases in portion of the property bills, poor care taken of structural issues, followed by refusing to include my business in the larger property advertising. Denial of roadside signage (as he added huge signs and a giant beer can and beer tap to the roadside view for other businesses on the property). Didn't include us in the site wide events. He finally came to me in late January and said "I don't want you here. Your business is a waste of my space. I could have a real restaurant here that would be more in line with the property's vision" (the new beer tasting room had become the "anchor tenant" and my pink and flowery gluten free bakery apparently wasn't what he wanted).

I could have fought to stay through the end of my lease. And the lawyer I spoke to said I'd likely win. But the negative energy had been growing for months. I opted not to stay where I wasn't wanted. I decided this would be my chance to upgrade into full restaurant space! I began looking for new space, but unfortunately, post Covid dark days, tons of new restaurants popped up and there was no appropriate space to be found I'd been sick (Lyme, and also later diagnosed with toxic mold in my system). So I decided to wait for a perfect space (and allow for some time to heal).

So I moved everything from the bakery--my counters, my equipment, my supplies--- to my home in Manlius with the intent of re-opening--bigger and better!

On April 15, I cried as I took down the last of my signage, left the key on the counter, and locked the door one last time.

I went home to crawl into bed. I was devastated emotionally and just plain exhausted from moving. I'd tried to hide being sick during all of this (I'd later find out Id had both Lyme and toxic mold). But in that moment, I thought I might need to lay down and sleep for a week!!!!

But I received a call that Natur-tyme (a favorite store that prior to my bakery, had wholesaled my items) was closing. It was more than my heart could bear on that particular day. I was heartbroken for both of our businesses. Too much sadness in one day.

But there was more to come that day.

Four hours later, I found myself sitting on a bench next to my husband as he told me he wanted a divorce.

He chose that day --April 15 (the day I closed my dream bakery) to tell me he wanted to end a 28 year marriage.

I found myself wondering what I'd done to deserve such bad karma. Everything devolving in one day.

And so I went home and told my kids. One of the hardest things I've ever done. I could never have imagined the way they'd look at me. I wasn't completely shocked when he'd asked for the divorce. Neither of us had been truly "happy" for a long time (if ever). But the shock and surprise, anger and sadness in my kids eyes? Broke my heart. I wish I could go back and do many things differently in that moment.

April 15 was a horrible and cruel and demeaning day.

The last three years have a blur of shedding my old life and trying to find my new one. Clearing out and selling our family home of 20 years, moving into the house I had grown up in. It had been mostly empty for three years. My Father passed away-- in the kitchen, my Mother (who had dementia at the time) came to live with us. For four years, I avoided even driving by that house. The ghosts (figurative, not literal) were just unbearably painful. So much sadness there. It hurt to think about it.

But that was to be my new home.

I didn't really understand when people say "It takes time to heal". That it takes--needs-- years to parse out and process grief. That just because you moved on, your body doesn't necessarily feel safe. Or peaceful. Or happy. Or anything at all much of the time. I berated myself for not being more evolved, more enlightened, happier. It took some time to understand how trauma embeds itself in the very cells of our body. Not just thoughts. Changes to our DNA.

For the next two years, April 15 hit me like a sucker punch. A stark reminder of everything I lost. And a deep inner questioning of my value and self worth.

Despite the bank statements that would show anyone that my business had been booming, I had closed and never reopened. So it felt like failure. Looked like failure to the public.

The divorce and subsequent need to empty our house of 20 years (PLUS 1600 square feet of bakery) took all my time for almost a year. About a year earlier, I was diagnosed with both Lyme and toxic mold (many of you will remember how badly I struggled with my health during the last year I owned the bakery, but in all honesty, I'd been sick for years before that). I struggledwith my lack of ability to do just aboutanything. I felt useless. Felt like i failed in my marriage . What was wrong with me?

And I learned that the business of divorce is an experience I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy. I was naive. I thought I'd have an amicable, easy divorce.
I learned my lesson.

But year three? Bring it!!!
I'm ready to move on!

My brain and my body have finally done some processing and some healing. More to go, but I'd like to believe the worst is over

I let go of the past. Threw away that which tied me to the sad years and in doing so, found freedom.

I let go of believing that I was unworthy because someone else didn't like me. I learned to stop looking for my sense of worth through anyone else's eyes. Never again!!!!

I learned to like me. To love this hot mess of a gal for all her gifts and her best qualities.
And that's enough! I'M ENOUGH! 😊🩷

I'm finally peaceful. Finding joy. Learning about friendship and love (because that little 26 year old girl knew nothing before saying yes to an engagement ring! Who thought i was grown up enough to make any life decisions at that age???).

I love the new space my business holds in my life (more about that next week!!! Exciting news!). I get to do what I love! I miss having retail space bitterly, but I love the flexibility my job allows when I want to spend time with friends or travel. Life needs balance. And the food service industry doesn't allow for much else!

And the house I used to dread entering has now become a warm home and the place I feel happy. My kids have helped make living here magical. I know they'll likely move on soon, but for today, I'm loving every single minute of my time with them. I now truly understand the meaning of "bliss".🤩🤩🤩🤩

My parents would be so happy to know we've found joy in this house. I'm wildly grateful every day that I had a soft place to land. It's been like one last hug they left us. It was incredibly lonely stepping into this new phase of life all by myself, but they left their mark (and I'm pretty sure they've sent signs that they carried me through all this!) 😊🫶

I'm still fighting Lyme and a different round of toxic mold (the contractors at my new home cut the main water line and, well, water has a mind of it's own...) and it will take years to slowly undo the damage mold does to the entire body and all it's systems. But I'm healing.

And I'm better now than I've been in years. And I'm on track to find "healthy"!!!!!

I've been SO lucky to have held on to the wonderful friendships and customer connections from the bakery years (yes, Barb! You top the list! From customer to staff to wonderful friend! 🫶🩷)! I am blessed indeed to know each of you!

So instead of dreading this day and crying, I chose a different path. JOY.

I just checked in to my flight to London. A bunch of crazy wonderful coincidences fell into place to make this day the beginning of a magical trip for Finn (my daughter--the one whose cheerful face is at our table on Saturdays) and I. Her favorite musical. My favorite musician. BESHERT ("meant to be"). All in one sweet weekend!!

So I reclaim this date and I go into this next year with joy!

And if any of you are struggling and wondering if it gets better (like I was for the last three years)?

It gets SO MUCH BETTER! 🫶🩷😊

04/11/2026

On the way with fresh donuts!!! Will be there by 9:15!

CNY Regional Market
C Shed (look for the pink tablecloth!)

04/11/2026

I'd like to take a moment to address some apparent confusion.

I received a couple of email messages this week--one disappointed, one angry. While I wrote back quietly and looked to resolve the issues directly, both suggested I share a bit more publicly so as to avoid any future confusion.

Many of you were aware that Christina (from Nonna's Kitchen and Crafts) shared a booth during the winter season. What better than two gluten free bakers in one place?!? 🤩

I realize now that some didn't realize we were still sharing.

While Christina opted not to rent a booth for this portion of the season (January til May), I offered to give a piece of my space to her--which not only gives all of our customers extra options, but gives her customers the opportunity to get exactly what they desire! No one needs to be disappointed when they can't get what they want!!!

My apologies if neither of us made it well enough understood last week that there were two distinct bakers at the table with two completely different sets of options, recipes, and ingredients. Christina is able to meet some of the dietary needs that I'm not able to offer, and that's a huge plus! But I realize having two sets of options was potentially confusing!

From now til May....We will likely both have our wares at the table. Christina's products will be at the far left of the table. Mine will be spread over the rest of the table. My items will ALWAYS bear my bright pink label so they're easy to find. If you want my items, look for the pink circle! And if you want Christina's items, look for her label!

I'm sorry if anyone was confused.

And I hope none of Christina's regular customers felt duped or disappointed by getting my items.

For the rest of the season, we'll do a better job delineating our items!

You are in very good hands regardless of which baker you choose! 🤩🍪🫶🩷

04/10/2026

Spring colors! Needed some sun!

Frosted Sugar Cookies and Chewy Lavender White Chocolate!

04/10/2026

EXPERIMENTS IN MOCHI DONUTS...
Took a little while, but we got them!!!

Pon De Ring! 🤩🤩🤩

We'll drop them FRESH at the CNY Regional Market around 9 am tomorrow!!!

We'll bring Vanilla, Strawberry, Ube, and Matcha!

04/10/2026

Ask me how one of my favorite singers gets a photo in a feed about canceling next week's Market!

(Warning! Long winded post ahead! 😉 But I'm excited!)

BESHERT!
The Yiddish term for "meant to be".

Those of you who've been with us for at least a year know that last May, I took my daughter Finn (the shiny happy face that usually greets you at the Market) on a "once in a lifetime trip" to London to see her all time favorite musical (Starlight Express).

We had such an amazing time that our "once in a lifetime" trip turned into a "twice in a lifetime" the following September for her birthday. She was obsessed with Starlight Express.....and I was obsessed with her smile!!!! Although I'll admit I have my own addiction to the show now too! 😊!

In February, we learned that the show had decided to shut down permanently. A crushing blow. I asked Finn if she'd like to take one last trip to see the show. But the only weekend we could go (between our work schedules and my Italy trip) was the weekend of April 19. Closing weekend for the show. We decided the overwhelming emotional impact of closing weekend was possibly more than our hearts could bear, and we decided to just go with our happy memories.

BUT a couple weeks later, we heard that the show was to be extended by two weeks, so the date that worked out for us was no longer closing week!

I quickly began doing research on flights and hotels to see if a trip would be an option. Flights had gone up substantially and would have been somewhat painful. I decided to take a quick break from looking.

A few hours later, Facebook story let me know that one of my all time favorite musicians (Joshua Radin) announced his UK tour dates. I almost didn't want to look. With my luck, he'd be exactly where we were....a month later! 🤦‍♀️

But I looked. And not only was he playing near our hotel, BUT he was there the EXACT free night we had. In London!

BESHERT!!!!

I quickly went back to book the tickets and found the price had returned to the prices similar to a year before!

And on top of that...I booked our flight to leave on April 15. A tough date for me (I'll wax poetic about that later in the week). But this year, I'm taking back that date and instead of allowing it to remind me of sadness, I choose it to be my fresh start. Not a new chapter. A new book. The last three years were hard in ways I cannot describe. But I'm choosing to shed that piece of me and move on!

So this trip???

MEANT TO BE!

After all that, I decided to buy the "preshow" tickets to Joshua Radin's concert. Meet and Greet. If all these pieces had fallen together, then I decided to go all in (and after years of stage dooring with my kids at their favorite shows....I decided it was my turn! 😊). But sadly, the Meet and Greet was full. Oh well. 😭

A week later, my oldest came rushing in to tell me that the Meet and Greet had reopened! My kids knew I was disappointed to have missed the opportunity, so they had set alerts and knew places to watch that I didn't! (Have I said lately how much I love my kids?!?)

So....TICKETS PURCHASED.

Nothing has ever fallen into place so neatly for both Finn and I to have our hearts desires met!!!

So off we will go!

BESHERT!!!!!

I can't wait to see what this trip brings!

I always seem to find the lost and scattered pieces of myself on the road. Perhaps it's the change of scenery, perhaps the breathtaking views, perhaps it's time away from work that allows for introspection. And having the shining light of two musical opportunities full of wise messages and full of hope? EXACTLY what we need!

(Starlight Express is the epitome of finding your strength and learning life lessons. And Joshua Radin? His music was the unexpected friend who came and held my hand while I navigated rough times and spoke to me of love that could feel simple. Deep, connected, and full of joy. He set the bar high! 😊🩷 As his album says...One Day Home 🫶🥰).

So off we'll go! And it feels like magic!!!

So we'll be gone on Saturday, April 18 and back on Saturday, April 25!!!!

AND....

A few links to some of our favorite songs, just in case you want to experience a bit of our journey!

One you might recognize...

Joshua Radin. I'd Rather Be With You

https://youtu.be/o6tTY6691_8?si=MN-gpuUFxfr0xnHB

Joshua Radin Let Me Be Right

https://youtu.be/x9KLjh4QzxU?si=jlja2abBMZiLvO8E

I Do (Starlight Express)

https://youtu.be/SVYFz3fTNPM?si=dYzp_lgwDzBVfgfY

04/10/2026

MENU FOR SATURDAY APRIL 11
CNY REGIONAL MARKET
C Shed

Come stock up! We won't be here next week (see post later today for more information!)

COOKIES
2 Pack $5.75
4 Pack $8.75
Five Pack Cookie Flight $11

Triple Chip with Toffee and Smoked Sea Salt (Buttery brown sugar cookie batter baked with milk, dark, and semisweet chips, tossed with Toffee bits, and delicately sprinkled with Maldon Smoked Sea Salt)

Banana Pudding with Dulce De Leche (Soft banana cookie with white chocolate chips and hunks of gluten free vanilla wafers, filled with dulce de leche)

White Chocolate Lavender (Lavender cookie balanced with creamy white chocolate chips)

Double Butterscotch (A soft, slightly chewy butterscotch cookie studded with a generous helping of butterscotch chips)

White Chocolate Lemon (Tangy Lemon cookie with sweet white chocolate chips)

FROSTED SUGAR COOKIES (Price TBA)

BROWNIES/BLONDIES

Jaffa Cake Brownie (Our rich chewy brownie with a layer of orange marmalade and a layer of chocolate fudge and sprinkled with vanilla wafers)

Strawberry Fudge Brownie (Our rich chewy brownie with a generous layer of strawberry fudge baked right on top)

DONUTS

We're doing some experimenting today!!!
Might include apple fritters!
Flavors TBA.

And we are still baking! Check back later to see if we have any additions to the menu!

04/07/2026

What on earth is she making this time?!?
Any guesses?!?

I snapped the photo, then realized they looked to me like a room full of the Sesame Street Martians! 🤣🤣🤣

04/07/2026

Triple Chocolate Toffee Chip with Smoked Sea Salt!

A buttery brown sugar dough studded with dark, semisweet, and milk chocolate chips, sprinkled generously with toffee bits and sprinkled delicately with Maldon smoked sea salt! 🤩🤩🤩