9 — Wednesday, March 4, 2020 — North Pointe
LIFE IMANI IN THE MIX: STUDENT SELLS HOMEMADE SWEETS By Hayley Zalewski, Victoria Wittenberg & Robert Maddox DISTRIBUTION MANAGER. INTERIM BUSINESS MANAGER & STAFF REPORTER
PHOTO COURTESY OF IMANI CRUTCHER
FROM A MOTHER'S PERSPECTIVE| Junior Imani Crutcher often spends early mornings and late nights preparing her cookie dough for orders. Most days, she will have to wake up early before school to prepare her ingredients, and then will hand deliver her finished product to her customers after school. “I want to make everybody feel happy and satisfied,” Crutcher said.
Junior Imani Crutcher has found the perfect way to turn her favorite hobby into cash and create her own cookie business: “Imani in the Mix.” Crutcher kick-started her own cookie business during the summer of 2018 and has been baking and expanding ever since. “(Imani in the Mix) is basically just a cookie business,” Crutcher said. “You know, I bake and one of the things we really want to focus on is (reminding) you of back home. I just bake cookies and that’s pretty much it.” Crutcher learned all her tips and recipes from her family. According to Crutcher’s father, Fred Crutcher, he and his daughter share the same motive of recreating the familiar tastes of home. “My inspiration came from actually my mother and my grandmother who are both deceased,” Crutcher said. “And it came about because I was looking to copy some
of their recipes and some of the things that used to make for us as kids and throughout the years, and I felt that nobody could ever match that.” For Crutcher, her fathers’ own experience has helped her create her online bakery. Her parents’ entrepreneurial background has motivated and assisted Crutcher in making her dream of owning a bakery a reality. However, as both a young entrepreneur and a full-time student, Crutcher says it can sometimes be difficult to find balance. “A lot of times, because I’m so busy, I’m usually up late nights (and) early mornings baking,” Crutcher said. “I usually bake on the weekends, but sometimes it’s hard to find time, especially if I have a lot of orders. It’s hard to find time to actually bake because usually it’s really late and I’m doing it for hours.” Sophomore at Lakeshore High School and customer Kevin Dudek loves the flavors and variety that Crutcher offers on her site. “(The cookies) are pretty good,” Dudek said. “I’d definitely recommend them to...
friends and stuff, but also knowing that they are handmade makes it even better than the sugar cookies you buy at the store.” In the future Crutcher hopes to be able to add many more types of cookies and continue to reach people with her baking. “I have already expanded outside of the state,” Crutcher said. “There was even one lady who ordered some from Canada, who was like my cousin or something. I just want to... keep expanding and to just get better.”
Crutcher's cookies can be ordered through her website, www.imaniinthemix. com, which can be scanned through the QR code above.
