Local ‘cookier’ wins $10,000 on Food Network, gives money to parents
Dozens of people lined up Saturday just before 9 a.m. at Camellia Coffee Roasters on R Street in Sacramento to buy Lisa He’s holiday-themed cookies. About an hour passed before every treat on, under or behind her small table had been sold.
He runs a part-time baking operation out of her home in Rancho Cordova called Borderlands Bakery and was recently featured in the Food Network’s “Christmas Cookie Challenge.” He appeared on the show’s Dec. 3 “Christmas Comes in All Sizes” episode, where she beat out four other competitors for the $10,000 prize with her vanilla spice nesting-doll inspired snow flake cookies and pop-up Christmas village made out of orange cardamom roll out cookie and toasted sesame seed shortbread.
“Stressful and exciting all smashed together at once,” He said of her appearance on the holiday cooking show. “It’s been crazy in a really, really, really good way. People are coming out, they’re hearing about the things that we do and they’re very excited about the cookies.”
Wendy McDonald and Louise Arias were among the many patrons waiting in line to buy cookies before He’s pop-up store opened. McDonald and Arias, who jointly own their own cookie business called MA Custom Cookies in Gold River, said the cookie community is tight-knit and they wanted to show out for another local baker.
“We wanted to support her because we are so amazed by her work,” McDonald said, adding that they are excited to see what she does. “We aspire to be like her.”
He started her business about two and a half years ago, but said she has been baking for 12 years and decorating cookies for four. She also makes other desserts, such as French Macaroons and cakes, and customers can even sign up on her website for private classes, cookie business consultations or to purchase downloadable recipes.
“Totally self taught. Never took a class by the way, ever – YouTube, Instagram,” He said. “And the key is really experimenting and doing it as much as you can. There’s no short cuts.”
He appeared in the pilot episode of Netflix’s show “Sugar Rush” earlier this year, but was bounced in the first round when her lychee-and-sparkling-wine cupcakes received a flat reception. Food Network contacted He after finding her Instagram page, He told The Bee in November, where she then had more than 55,000 followers. Borderlands Bakery’s Instagram boasted about 73,000 followers as of Saturday afternoon.
She can actually tell when the reruns of the Food Network show are airing because her Instagram account starts “going, going, going,” He said. People have also been signing up for the Borderlands email subscription to get notifications about when things happen.
He started doing doing pop-up stores late year for the major holidays, she said, adding that Valentine’s Day has the second largest sales after Christmas. These make-shift stores at local businesses in Folsom and Sacramento do really well, He said, but the last two they she has had have sold out.
“So this Christmas was particularly challenging. The demand, I mean, was through the roof,” He said, adding that she has to tell people all the time that she just can’t bake anymore. “You do it at night, you do it when other people are sleeping, and if you want it badly enough, you work hard enough, you can do it. But you have to give something else up.”
Anissa Branch and her family waited in line at He’s pop-up store Saturday morning to buy cookies. Branch said they had been up late flipping through channels when they saw He’s appearance on Food Network. Being from Rancho Cordova as well, Branch said they were cheering for her.
“So I got every body up this morning,” Branch said of finding out that He would be doing a pop-up store that morning. “I was like, ‘Come on let’s go get some cookies.’”
Orders have even come in from abroad, He said, which she describes as “insanity.” Borderlands Bakery operates under California’s Cottage Food Law but cannot ship its goods. She would have to switch over to a commercial space and He, who works full time as a product manager for a software company, says she just isn’t there yet.
“I’m getting requests for custom orders for next year, classes,” He said. “So it’s been very overwhelming ‘cause it’s just one person.”
But He said she won’t be using her prize money to expand her business. Her parents were scammed out of their life savings earlier this year, so He is giving the $10,000 them.
“Baking is one of those things where when you’re growing up, people in your household are like, ‘Don’t go into baking for a career because you’re never going to make money,’ ” He told The Bee in November. “Now I’m using baking to try to help my parents get back on their feet.”
Over the next year, He said she is going to pivot her focus a bit more to education and being more involved in the cookier community. She wants to create more digital content to share tips, tricks and techniques to help people around the world learn how to decorate sugar cookies and is even considering maybe writing a book.
“Decorating cookies are like the Tesla of cookies. They take so much work, a lot of time, and a lot of people feel like it’s just a cookie. And in a way it is – it’s just a cookie, it should taste good and make people happy,” He said. “But they’re also little works of art. So I’m trying to get out there and educate people about how much time and effort cookies take.”
This story was originally published December 22, 2018 at 4:42 PM.