“When I started Frosted Haven, I sort of centered it around my daughter Marlee. A haven is more of a getaway, but I thought it meant heaven.”

And that’s exactly what Frosted Haven is, a cookie heaven, or a little getaway. Owner/baker Josie Erlandson and her social media guru Nadia Sigler have branded her cookie business to be heavenesque and calming, with little bits of Marlee May’s memory tied in.

Marlee May, the daughter of Erlandson and husband James, died in February 2018 at the age of 2 from Alveolar Rhabdomyosarcoma, a soft tissue cancer. She was the epitome of living with true joy and happiness and enjoyed baking with her Yaya.

“I always baked with my mom, but in 2019 I did a cookie decorating class in Rochester, Minn.,” Erlandson said. “She (the teacher) was a real estate agent and she gave up everything: Her resources and her recipe and she set us up to build a business if you want to.”

She learned all about royal icing, outlining, flooding and how to make the icing consistent.

“Once you get the consistencies down, once you kind of get that, it’s easier and you get a feel for how it works,” she said.

Erlandson posted pictures of her cookies from that class on Facebook and people immediately started asking her if she was taking orders. She hadn’t been planning to but decided to give it a try. Her business has been growing ever since. She is also a full-time legal assistant at a firm in River Falls, where she met Sigler, of Ellsworth. After talking cookies over lunch many days, they decided to join forces, with Sigler helping her with promotion, videos and social media posting.

“We worked together as legal assistants at the law firm,” Erlandson. “I was actually fundraising for the marathon (she ran in the New York City Marathon in 2022) and I started selling cookies to fundraise. Once it started getting really big, we started talking.”

Sigler said she grew up using social media, so it comes naturally to her. She enjoys putting together videos of Erlandson baking and decorating. The pair complement each other well, as Erlandson doesn’t know as much about social media as she would like.

“We’re both really artsy and our tastes are really similar,” Erlandson said. “I think we knock it out of the park with our branding. I think our branding really sets us apart and how we present ourselves.”

Siglar now works at Musty Barnhart as the office administrator. She also handles their social media accounts.

“It’s just a lot of consistency about posting,” Sigler said. “It’s crazy how many more views videos are getting if we post one each day.”

This month Frosted Haven has been showcasing “25 Days of Christmas Cookies” videos. Erlandson said people tell her that watching her flood cookies and decorate them is “therapeutic and satisfying.”

Erlandson sticks with a basic sugar cookie recipe with an almond royal icing. She’s been thinking about branching out to other flavors but said it’s hard to make the jump. It would take a lot of planning and keeping extra ingredients on hand.

“I love to bring cookies to everything,” Sigler said. “When you see a cookie like that, you think it might not taste good, but Josie’s taste so good. I encourage people to eat one. They taste as good as they look.”

Sigler helped her fulfill Thanksgiving pre-orders for cookies because the number of orders she received “was insane.” They baked and frosted 240 cookies in one night.

“There were some all-nighters,” Erlandson said. “November was nuts.”

On average she receives about 10 to 15 orders per month. About 90% of people give her a theme and colors and let her come up with her own designs. She loves the creative freedom, because she sees decorating as a form of art.

“A few want really specific designs,” Erlandson said. “But doing your own design is so nice because it gives you some freedom and it’s your own art. I like when people send over Pinterest pictures for inspiration to get a feel for their general style.”

As for the future, both women think they have the potential to be really big. They just have to figure out the transition in getting there.

“You really have to be dedicated to put in really long hours for a really long time,” Erlandson said. “And stock up on your equipment. I did buy some equipment to do a commercial kitchen in my basement someday.”

Frosted Haven currently operates under the cottage food law, meaning she can’t make anything that’s not baked unless it’s in a commercial kitchen. Someday, she would like to market cocoa bombs, cakes, and other items. That is on the long-term goal list, along with offering classes.

Erlandson is planning to offer Super Bowl and Valentine’s Day pre-order deals. You can contact Frosted Haven on their website at frostedhaven.com or follow them on social media:

Instagram – frosted.haven

Facebook – Frosted Haven

Tik Tok - frosted.haven