Many people in Ellsworth and the surrounding area are familiar with the delicious and detailed cookies baked by Josie Erlandson of Frosted Haven. Her next adventure, Marlee’s Bake Shop, is set to open on Friday, June 27.

Erlandson is opening a food truck, which will be parked for its grand opening debut in front of Brush Strokes/East End Gifts (273 N. Morse St.) in East Ellsworth during the Cheese Curd Festival this weekend.

“We are not technically affiliated with the Cheese Curd Festival, but we’re kind of in the middle of everything,” Erlandson said. “I thought it would be a pretty good time to do my grand opening.”

Erlandson had been looking to expand her baking business to more than the Frosted Haven cookies line by opening a storefront in Ellsworth. Unfortunately, she had little luck in finding a suitable space.

“Every single thing that looked like it was going to work, it fell through. God was trying to tell me something else I think,” she said.

She soon learned a family in Ellsworth had their food truck trailer for sale. It was the perfect fit and even came equipped with a mini donut maker.

“Who doesn’t love mini donuts?” Erlandson joked. “My thought was to have my baked goods in the trailer, but I have to wait for my commercial kitchen in my basement to be finished.”

The menu at the grand opening will include mini donuts, dirty sodas and hard scoop ice cream from two University of Wisconsin creameries.

Erlandson originally saw dirty sodas on Pinterest and learned they are “super popular out West.” Dirty sodas have a base, like Coke, Root Beer, Dr. Pepper, or Sprite, flavored syrups and a dash of cream or half and half. According to Redstone Foods, the term “dirty soda” came from Nicole Tanner, the founder of a western soda shop chain called Swig.

“This trend took root in Utah, where a significant portion of the population belongs to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, whose religious practices often exclude alcohol, and hot beverages like coffee, and tea,” Redstone’s website states.

Erlandson is sourcing her ice cream from Babcock Creamery at UW-Madison and Falcon Creamery from UW-River Falls. This enables her to provide a variety of unique flavors from local businesses.

“I was looking for a Wisconsin-based company that I could source my ice cream from,” Erlandson said. “After talking to my aunt who lives in Madison, I learned about ice cream made on the UW-Madison campus. It’s kind of a cool story about a chemist who came over here and was kind of pivotal in the ice cream production process. They do wholesale, which is awesome.”

Some Babcock Creamery flavors to look forward to at Marlee’s Bake Shop: Orange Custard Chocolate Chip, Strawberry Pretzel Dessert, Blueberry Swirl and Blue Moon.

Erlandson will also sell ice cream made at Falcon Creamery; she says their vanilla is “amazing.” Diners can look forward to ice cream nachos made with waffle cone chips and different flavored floats.

“I’m scared and excited,” Erlandson said. “It will be nice to see familiar faces (visit at the grand opening). It will make me feel more comfortable.”

This summer, she plans to take the food truck to festivals but hopes to find a semi-permanent spot to park it. She hopes to have her baked goods for sale in the truck by the end of August.

“We are keeping Frosted Haven as a line of products within Marlee’s Bake Shop,” Erlandson said. “The world is my oyster, as far as all the stuff that I can’t do yet that I’ve been dying to make.”

The commercial kitchen is nearing completion, which means she will soon offer products such as specialized Rice Krispie bars, cookies with fruit fillings and toppings, fruit pizza, pumpkin bars, dessert shooters (kind of like a layered cake in a cup) and more.

The inspiration behind Marlee’s Bake Shop is her and husband James’s daughter Marlee May, who died in February 2018 after battling Alveolar Rhabdomyosarcoma, a soft tissue cancer that spread to her brain. She was just 2 years old. However, she lived a full and impactful life, following her dreams to complete her bucket list, touching the hearts of all who knew her.

“Ever since Mar was sick and the community helped us, I’ve wanted to give back and memorialize her in some way. But I didn’t know how to do that. This can be the way that I attempt to give back,” Erlandson said. “I’ll never be able to repay everybody, but this will be my way of giving back to the community.

“While Marlee’s Bake Shop started purely as a business endeavor, it kind of shifted. It can be business, but it can be in her memory too.”

Erlandson wants people to remember how happy Marlee was all the time and how much joy she brought to those who knew her.

“That is my goal with Marlee’s Bake Shop,” Erlandson said. “I just want to make people happy. It’s very simple, but if I can make a living off of making people happy, that is what I want to do.”

Erlandson admits it’s tough that she doesn’t get to hear Marlee’s name much anymore. As the years go on, she hears it less and less.

“I want to call it Marlee’s so I get to hear it all the time,” she said. “It’s associated with something good. I think sometime people are very cautious about bringing her up because they don’ t want to hurt me. But I think about her all the time already. It’s a really common thing with people who have lost anybody important to them, it’s that worry that they’re going to be forgotten. As long as I get to hear her name all the time, she’s not going to be forgotten.”

A poster will be placed on Marlee’s Bake Shop, telling people all about Marlee. In a way, people will get to meet her.

Marlee’s brothers, Boone and Axl, are also in on the family business. They will be in charge of taking care of the gumball machines.

“I want to instill that entrepreneurial spirit in my kids if that is something they want to do,” Erlandson said. “Let them know you can make money at something you love. They see all the work that goes into it. They know I stay up late doing cookies.”
Boone even accompanied Erlandson on her trip to Madison to get their first batch of ice cream. He was able to taste it and tour the facility.

To follow Marlee’s Bake Shop, find them on Facebook.