Behind the Baker
Hi, my name is Jennifer Balon and I'm the owner of Dotty's Bakery. I'm a recent graduate from Loyola University Chicago. At Loyola, I participated in the Women in Business, LUC Habitat for Humanity, and Alzheimers Buddies organizations. Outside of school, I create digital content for small businesses, volunteer with As Good As Gold Dog Rescue, and work part-time at Lululemon as an experiential educator.
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I started my baking career off with the good ol' Easy Bake Oven and gradually made my way up to a convection oven. My mom, grandma, and I would always make so many different types of cookies during the holidays. When my grandma had passed away, I lost my passion for baking as it just was not the same without her.
Before Loyola, I was in nursing school at UIUC. The program was strenuous and caused me a lot of anxiety. As I moved away from the nursing program, I noticed I still carried some of that anxiety with me. I found baking as a way to help destress from homework and tests.
I started making loaf breads, then gradually progressed to developing base cookie recipes. My family couldn’t keep up with everything I was making and quickly ran out of room in the refrigerator. This then lead me to start a company to share my creativity and creations with my community.
I started this company in honor of my grandparents. My late grandpa had Alzheimer’s disease and my fraternal grandma is currently suffering from it was well. I never got the chance to know my grandpa on my mom's side, but I was told he was an amazing guy. His nickname for my grandma, who got me into baking, was ‘Dotty’. As she was the one who inspired and fueled my passion for baking, I thought that the name would be fitting for my company. I hope to continue on the positive impacts they had on all their children and grandchildren by putting smiles on peoples face with my tasty treats.
For the 2022 holiday season I decided to sell loaves and cookies on the neighborhood facebook pages to raise money for Alzheimers disease. At first we got a few orders here and there. After saying a prayer, we had over 20 order by the end of the day. Within a week, we raised over $500 towards the cause.
The work of God in all of this is truly amazing and I can’t wait to see what He has in store for us.
