Finnley Bonfig ’26 started Flour Power, her online bakery, at 12, but she’d been baking long before that. She’s made all her family’s birthday cakes since she was seven.

Now, she bakes cakes, macarons, pies and other desserts for family and friends. She also receives orders for birthdays, holiday work parties, farmers markets and even some family weddings. She makes two to four cakes each month, earning between $50 and, at one point, $400.

“So Flour Power started off as just a hobby, and I was like, ‘Oh, I’ll just make a couple of extra dollars.’ My grandma used to own a cake business, and so when she retired, she gave me all her stuff. So I was like, ‘Okay, let me get after this.’…So I started Flour Power Bakery,” Bonfig said.

Her grandma also baked cakes out of her home. Initially, she baked for a little extra money to support her family, but once she got more orders and made more profit, she quit her day job to pursue it. Using recipes from her mother, Bonfig’s great-grandmother, she baked over 5000 cakes.

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Courtesy of Finnley Bonfig

"Finnley has wanted to be a baker ever since she was little. When she would come visit we would bake cookies, cakes, brownies and all kinds if things...Today, she still lives to bake and actually does many cakes for friends and family...She is a top notch baker!!" her grandma said in a text.

Flour Power was made possible by Bonfig’s family, from her great-grandmother to her parents. Due to her age, it was hard for her to seem legitimate when she started.

“When I started, I was 12. The problem is, when you’re 12 years old, nobody wants to buy stuff from you, because you’re 12 years old. And now I’m 16, almost 17, and it still is a struggle…it’s just hard to start [a business] when you’re a teenager because nobody believes that you can do anything when you’re a kid,” Bonfig said.

People assumed her parents made the cakes, so in the beginning, her mom was the face of Flour Power. She didn’t say she baked them, but she marketed and advertised the business for her daughter. She would show pictures of Bonfig’s cakes and set up orders with friends and co-workers. Customers were doubtful, but after trying their desserts, they were pleasantly surprised. 

In addition to setting up orders, her parents helped fund, organize and support the business. Bonfig couldn’t legally work until she was 15, so until then, her parents paid for ingredients and offered their kitchen for seven or eight hours at a time. In fact, her dad came up with the name ‘Flour Power.’ 

“I could tell [my dad] that I was gonna drop out of high school and do whatever I wanted to do, and he’d be like, ‘Yeah, go, you got it.” And don’t get me wrong, my mom helps me organize my orders. My parents are a huge support in my baking business…they have never had a single doubt that I couldn’t do this,” Bonfig said.

As the business evolved, her mom signed it up for farmers markets over the summer. This year, she had a booth at the Coralville Farmers Market for nine weeks. The hours of work preparing for the farmers market and the time spent on any order can be hard to balance, but it’s worth it in the end. 

“[The Farmers Market] got kind of overwhelming sometimes, but it’s so gratifying to have somebody look at something you made and be like, ‘I will pay money for this,’” Bonfig said.

Aside from school, Bonfig also debates and works at Tribute, a local restaurant. With a packed schedule, it can be easy to get burnt out: “A while ago I [lost] a love of baking, because I was so overwhelmed with school and all this stuff, and it just seemed like a chore. But then I started getting more [customers] who would just trust me to do whatever I thought would look good. And so kind of brings it back, like ‘Wow, I actually enjoy doing this. This is what I want to do, and I love this.’”

Baking is a creative outlet for Bonfig. Her favorite orders are ones with little instruction and free rein. “My favorite part about baking is, like getting to be creative…If I get to try something new that I’ve never done before and it works out, that’s the best thing in the whole entire world.”

Although she knows it’s a hard industry, she’d love to be a baker. “I find so much joy in it, and it’s my favorite thing to do, but being a professional baker is very difficult because there’s so many people that want to do it that it’s hard to sustain a professional business.”

Bonfig takes orders at [email protected], or any of her personal handles. Flour Power can also be found on Instagram at @flourpowerbakery08.