Young Ontario Boy Turns Baking Hobby into Business

While many 12-year-olds spend their weekends catching up on sleep, a boy from St. Thomas, Ont., rolls up his sleeves for a busy day of baking, and it couldn’t be sweeter.

For the past two months, Liam Tait has been learning how to manage his own baking business, serving real customers, balancing books, and meeting deadlines.

His venture is called Liam’s Cinnamon Rolls, and it’s thriving.

“It’s been hard, but it’s been very fun,” Liam said.

This business began with a clear goal – a Lego set priced at an impressive $600.

“I had to find a way to earn money to get it, so I just started making cinnamon rolls,” he explained.

A simple side project aimed at achieving that goal quickly caught attention. Now, Liam and his mother are spending up to 10 hours each weekend crafting cinnamon rolls entirely from scratch.

Fresh out of the oven, these cinnamon rolls are being transferred out of their trays to cool before being iced. (Alessio Donnini/CBC News)

Even though orders were initially limited to close friends and family, within three weeks Liam was celebrating with his brand new Lego set while pondering what might come next.

“People kept being interested. It makes me feel really happy and excited [to see],” Liam said.

As interest grew further, it became clear that Liam’s Cinnamon Rolls could be more than just a hobby. That’s according to his mother, Angel Davie, who now operates the business in a fully certified commercial kitchen.

“This really took off … we started looking into kitchens; I got my [food handler training], and that’s how we ended up here,” Davie shared.

The venture quickly became legitimate and also provided a valuable learning experience for Liam according to Davie.

“For his first $600, I paid for all of the ingredients and things like that. When he said ‘Mom, I can keep making these,’ I said ‘Then you need to learn how business works,’” she noted.

Since then, Liam has taken charge of buying ingredients himself while using spreadsheets to manage orders and track stock levels.

“It’s really his business,” Davie stated.

Davie and Liam, wearing aprons and shirts made for the business hold a freshly iced batch of cinnamon rolls. (Alessio Donnini/CBC News)

Cinnamon rolls are simple until you have to make hundreds of them

Liam confidently claims that making cinnamon rolls is easy work; Davie generally agrees but adds that scaling it up requires time and planning.

The process starts with dough which they knead using a bread maker – saving some manual effort. By the time one batch comes out of the oven another goes in.

Cinnamon rolls being iced in the St. Thomas kitchen operated by Liam and his mother. (Alessio Donnini/CBC News)

“Every half hour there’s a double batch coming out; you just cut it, set it aside , and let it rise,” Davie explained. “Once it’s done rising , we roll it all out. Liam helps me spread the butter , the brown sugar , and cinnamon , and we roll it up.”

In the oven, the buns get brushed with a water-sugar mixture that keeps them moist while enhancing sweetness.

When they reach 190 F , it’s time for them to cool before receiving generous icing on top. It’s made using a classic frosting recipe with just a hint of cream cheese-though there’s also an option that’s dairy-free.

Although it’s quite time-consuming, Davie expressed her happiness in supporting her son as he thrives.

“I’ve watched Liam blossom. He’s become more outgoing. He’s quite content. Every time I read him feedback, hise face lights up. It’s [been] lovely seeing how supportivethe community is too,”Davie remarked.

“And for anyone listening , if you’re craving some cinnamon rolls, I happen to knowa 12-year-old who makes some pretty good ones.”

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