Flour, measuring cups and sugar fill the open spaces on the kitchen counter. She’s been baking for hours, but needs to bake double what she already has.

Freshman Finley Shadow has owned her own cookie business since seventh grade. She has sold over a thousand cookies to classmates and teachers.

“It’s been really encouraging to make my recipes as good as possible,” Finley said. “I love the satisfaction of working hard, and seeing people enjoy what I make. Food is my love language. I love seeing people love it just as much as I do.”

Finley started baking and cooking as a hobby in her early childhood, but it wasn’t until seventh grade when she started making cookies for her friends at school. Inspired by @identicalrecipes on social media, she would follow her recipes on Sundays when she didn’t have ice skating practice.

On Mondays, she’d bring cookies for her friends to school, and classmates began to approach Finley asking to try her cookies. She chose to bring cookies to school over other baked goods because they were easy to store and transport. Finley’s close friend Niki Tran Don was one of the first returning buyers.

“[Finley] would bring samples of her food to school,” Tran Don said. “She’d get them out at lunch. I don’t know what she put in those cookies, but I was addicted. I’d buy them every single week.”

In eighth grade, Finley made a TikTok account filming her cooking and baking — @finleyshadow — as well as posting her recipes.

A recipe that inspired Finley was a cinnamon cheesecake filling cookie by social media influencer @identicalrecipes. The cookie is made by freezing cheesecake filling inside cinnamon dough prior to baking. This was one of the first cookies she began selling.

“Because that recipe was so basic, [I figured out] I could put other stuff in [the cinnamon cheesecake filling cookies,]” Finley said. “As long as I used the dough recipe, I could add fruits and stuff, like sprinkles. I was really inspired by that.”

Along with the cinnamon cheesecake filling cookies, Finley’s popular flavors were chocolate chip cookies and snickerdoodles. Finley initially sold cookies by the batch, with orders placed using email, social media and through the phone — payment was required upfront, allowing her to calculate the exact amount of cookies she needed to bake.

But this year was different. Finley now makes cookies in large quantities to bring to school. Profits have increased since she started selling them individually.

“When I have free time in my classes, I never dilly dally or play games,” Finley said. “I get my stuff done so I can maximize how much time I have to bake.”

She has 1,821 followers and has over 111,000 likes. As of this year, Finley’s most popular cookies are her s’mores cookies.

The most difficult part of running her business is balancing baking with playing trumpet during the marching band season, working as an ice skating coach, student council, academics and family responsibilities. She is on hiatus until marching band season is over.

“There were nights where she was baking at one in the morning,” Finley’s mom Michelle Shadow said. “So we have to cut the cookies off for a hot minute. She can balance her time well, but she needs a break. Finley has a passion for money, and she is willing to work for it.”

Finley plans to continue baking for as long as there is a demand. She said selling cookies has helped her connect with her peers and learn about money and time management.

“I don’t bake for myself really,” Finley said. “I bake for other people, and when people give me parts of the cookies I make for them, I understand the hype.”

This story was originally published on The Hawk Eye on October 15, 2025.