Feb. 4, 2020

A family-owned bakery that specializes in decorated cookies is taking over the Smallcakes location downtown.

Twisted Sisters Sweetz will begin remodeling the space soon, giving it a “1950s vibe” and hopes to be open in mid-March, said Nikki Wallenberg, who owns the bakery with her sister, Dana Johnson, and her mother, Valorie Johnson.

“We’ve been renting a kitchen and have been looking for a storefront for a while,” Wallenberg said.

“We fell in love with it,” she said of the former Smallcakes Cupcakery & Creamery space at 317 S. Phillips Ave. “We love downtown. It’s the perfect size for a startup place for us.”

The bakery will sell “cupcakes, custom cakes, cookies, decorated cookies, a cookie/dessert type of bars, macarons, a bunch of different treats,” Wallenberg said.

“I make every single thing from scratch,” she said. “And it’s made with love.”

Wallenberg started baking as Nikki’s Dream Cakes more than a decade ago, and her family joined the business as it grew through word of mouth. It became Twisted Sisters Sweetz in 2013.

In their new home, the kitchen and display cases will fill much of the small space, but there might be room for a few people to sit and enjoy a cup of coffee and a treat in front of the bay window.

Wallenberg envisions having a couple of tables and chairs outside in warmer weather.

There won’t be room for the bakery’s cookie-decorating classes, which it offers almost every Saturday. Those will continue to be held at the Ellis Road Sanford Wellness Center, she said.

“We have people coming from Minneapolis, Rapid City, Nebraska, Iowa. We even had someone come all the way from Kansas City.”

The women haven’t determined hours yet, but they’re leaning toward 10 or 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and a few hours on Sunday.