A little more than 10 years ago, TLC’s Next Great Baker winner Lia Holter stood at a crossroads in her career. She could go to Las Vegas, New York, or New Jersey and work for famous baker Buddy Valastro, whose show Cake Boss put Carlo’s Bake Shop in high demand. Or she could stay in the St. Louis area and build her own brand, Made. by Lia.
Her boyfriend certainly wanted her to stay local, and Holter admits his marriage proposal tipped the scale toward St. Louis. She said “yes” and decided to invest in her own business and start a family who would later give her Florrissant bakery extra helping hands and fill the space with lots of love.
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“In 2018 is when I started really wanting to pursue my dream, which was opening my own storefront, and this building that is a block from my home happened to be for sale,” Holter reflects. “I had a daughter at the time who was only 2 years old, and then I ended up being pregnant–[but] not even knowing it [at the time]–when I was touring the space.”
Made. by Lia bakery opened in that space in August 2020 to a warm welcome from the community, with new and familiar patrons lining up outside to snag a signature sweet treat. Her business survived order cancellations and a delayed opening due to the pandemic, thanks in large part to a Kickstarter campaign that exceeded expectations and raised enough money to open the doors.
Behind the scenes, Holter baked, painted with a palette knife as her brush and buttercream as her pigment, managed the marketing and social media, washed dishes, and mopped floors till late at night. She could only afford to hire a couple people, but adrenaline and passion fueled the young mom to persevere.
“I remember just wanting to be at home, putting my kids to bed,” she says. “I would wake up and they’d be asleep, and then I’d come home and they’d be asleep. It was really hard, but also beautiful at the same time. Because [our home] is a 60-second walk from here, they’d come up and we’d have dinner together, at least. I have pictures of my daughter and I mopping together.”
Now, her bakery employs 25 people, many of them fellow working moms. “They work so hard,” Holter says. “I try to be as flexible as I can with, you know, some have to leave to pick up their kids or some come in late… I know how the struggle is. We kind of all feed off each other’s creativity, which is really nice, and we’ve become a family.”
Her family at home–husband Max, 8-year-old Ella, 5-year-old James, and 5-month-old Naomi–continue to support her by crunching numbers, operating payroll, adding stickers to boxes and bags, and in a myriad of other ways. Entrepreneurial Ella already has her sights set on taking over some day. Holter laughs, “She’s like, ‘Will it still be Made. by Lia when I run it?’”
Although Holter has always strived to prioritize family, she says it was the heartbreaking loss of Frances Sue, her unborn baby and third child, that changed the way she values time with her kids and husband. When she went on a brief maternity leave with her fourth child last year, she avoided the bakery entirely in order to fully focus on every moment she had with her newborn Naomi.
“Ever since I lost [Frances Sue], I feel like I had a total change in everything. It really has helped me grow as a mom,” she details. “The social media can wait–the post about a doughnut or whatever can wait–but when my kids are out of school at 3 o’clock, I try to be present with them.”
She’s shared the loss with social media followers, and that vulnerability has grown her support system and allowed her to support others. She posted about a visit to Forest Park on what would’ve been Frances Sue’s second birthday, their whole family smiling at the camera in front of a tree that Holter’s aunt and uncle planted in honor of her.
“It’s just been a great, peaceful place for us to go where we can honor her, celebrate her, and be together–just have a picnic and keep it simple for the kids,” Holter says, while also admitting the grief still stings occasionally. “We’re going to watch her grow in a different way. I don’t get to watch her grow like a child, but I will as a tree, you know.”
Whatever she’s doing, she keeps her faith and her kids at the forefront: “I really feel like God was turning our sorrow into joy by bringing us another life,” Holter says about Naomi. “My main thing with owning a business and having children is making sure that they feel that they have a part. …This is our family’s business.”
Expected to release in September, Holter’s new cookbook will feature recipes inspired by her kids, crowd-pleasers from the bakery, and her favorite treats to bake at home. “I like to make my recipes simple enough for the home baker, so they shouldn’t be too intimidating,” she hopes. “I want [to share] recipes that people would look back on and make time and time again.”
Holter partnered with AB Mauri North America, a food company headquartered in St. Louis, to create the book with numerous recipes featuring the company’s Fleischmann’s Yeast. Her brother-in-law Dawson Holter is shooting the photos, and local publisher Reedy Press will bring it all together.
“We looked at some of the imagery last week and looked at some of the recipes, and it’s fantastic,” says Rick Oleshak, AB Mauri’s vice president of marketing. “There’s a lot of stuff relating just to her. There’s other parts that relate to Fleischmann’s Yeast, but she uses our product in her bakery and she always has, so it’s a genuine relationship.”
Holter agrees; she was an AB Mauri baking ambassador from 2015 through 2018 and recalls feeling like “a kid in a candy shop” working in their industrial kitchen and growing her brand with the company’s support. Oleshak says AB Mauri is proud of how her career has blossomed.
“She could have taken this business anywhere, and she said, ‘No, I’m going back to my hometown,’” Oleshak says. “The things we like about Lia are she’s got a wonderful attitude, a zest for life, is very family focused, and does things the right way.”
