Happy Belly Bakery
When baker Lynn Szymkowski-Fish’s phone started blowing up early one June morning, she didn’t realize at first what all the text messages were about. Then she found out that movie star Alicia Silverstone had just featured Szymkowski-Fish’s cookies on her Instagram feed.
Szymkowski-Fish and her family had recently attended this year’s VegFest, where Silverstone was the keynote speaker and Szymkowski-Fish’s teenage children had insisted on presenting the Clueless actor—and renowned plant-based advocate—with a sample of the Happy Belly Bakery cookies. It was the best accidental marketing campaign they could have hoped for. Silverstone posted videos of herself and her young son, Bear, trying the cookies, tasting and rating all four flavors of the paleo, gluten-free and vegan treats.
"They kept coming back to the ginger pecan,” says Szymkowski-Fish. It was, however, Szymkowski-Fish’s children’s reaction to the shout-out that really made her day. “I have all sorts of new ‘street cred’ in their eyes,” she says. Fittingly, Szymkowski-Fish’s blended family of five have always had a hand in her bakery business. She started out nine years ago experimenting with a paleo diet for health and well-being reasons. Her children were, initially, furious.
"There was no more pizza, no more bagels with cream cheese,” says Szymkowski-Fish. “My kids were not happy.”
After trying a lot of what was on oer on the gluten-free market, Szymkowski- Fish and her family were disappointed, so the chef turned her hand to trying her own recipes. “I would spend all night figuring out how to make a decent muffin,” she says.
When she finally hit upon a recipe her children loved, they were so impressed they implored her to open her own paleo bakery. Now Happy Belly Bakery is a regular feature at the Royal Oak farmers market, where Szymkowski-Fish has a strong following for her cookies, protein bars, focaccia and granola.
She credits her initial customer base with her success, explaining that when she started out she would make mistakes within the strict parameters of paleo baking. Her patrons were quick to point out any flaws.
“My first customers schooled me hard,” Szymkowski-Fish says. "They were mean, they were critical, but it was the best thing I could have hoped for.”
Now she usually has a line waiting for her at the market, and her cookies are still one of her biggest sellers.
“My favorite is the Double Dark Chocolate Cherry Bomb cookie,” she says. “I use Michigan cherries for that texture change.”
Despite her success in the paleo world—and her commitment to the diet before the concept really took off in Michigan—Szymkowski-Fish argues that it is a trend that will likely dip in popularity in the future.
“I think in the next five years something else will capture the mainstream,” she says.
Her tip? Vegan food. She believes the focus on locally-sourced, meat-free diets will only become stronger and that vegan culture will continue to grow in Michigan and beyond.
“If you’re not offering vegan options, then you’re hurting yourself as a business,” she says.
Clearly, after the Instagram success she’s recently received, Szymkowski-Fish is not the only one who thinks so.
