Sweet success for young Ontario boy who started a baking business to buy a Lego set

While many 12-year-olds start their weekends sleeping in, a St. Thomas, Ont. boy spends his rolling up his sleeves to prepare for a full day of baking, and it couldn’t be a sweeter arrangement.

For two months, Liam Tait has been learning how to run his very own baking business, with real customers to serve, real books to balance and real deadlines to meet.

It’s called Liam’s Cinnamon Rolls, and business is booming.

“It’s been hard, but it’s been very fun,” Liam said.

The business, as Liam explains it, started with a tangible goal — a Lego set worth a whopping $600.

“I had to find a way to earn money to get it, so I just started making cinnamon rolls,” he said.

What started as a simple side project with a simple goal quickly began to attract attention, with Liam and his mother spending up to 10 hours per day on Saturdays and Sundays cranking out cinnamon rolls, fully from scratch.

Even with orders only open to close friends and family, within three weeks Liam was posing for a picture with his brand new Lego set, wondering what might come next.

“People kept being interested. It makes me feel really happy and excited [to see],” Liam said.

As interest continued to grow, it became clear that Liam’s Cinnamon Rolls had potential as a business. That’s according to Liam’s mother, Angel Davie, who now has the business set up in a fully certified commercial kitchen.

“This really took off … we started looking into kitchens, I got my [food handler training], and that’s how we ended up here,” Davie said.

With the venture quickly becoming legitimate, it also became a clear learning opportunity, said Davie.

“For his first $600, I paid for all of the ingredients and things like that. When he said, ‘Mom, I can keep making these,’ I said, ‘Then you need to learn how business works,’” she said.

Ever since, Liam has been buying his own ingredients, using a spreadsheet to manage the orders and keep track of his stock.

“It’s really his business,” Davie said.

Cinnamon rolls are simple until you have to make hundreds of them

Liam proudly says making a cinnamon roll is simple work, and Davie says she generally agrees. But, she says doing it on a large scale is a process that takes time and planning.

It starts with dough, which the duo uses a bread maker to knead, cutting out some of the manual labour. By the time one batch is out, another goes in.

“Every half hour there’s a double batch coming out, and you just cut it, set it aside and let it rise,” Davie said. “Once it’s done the rise, we roll it all out. Liam helps me spread the butter and the brown sugar and cinnamon, and we roll it up.”

In the oven, the buns are brushed with a water and sugar mixture to keep them moist and boost the sweetness.

When they hit 190 F, it’s time for them to cool before a generous portion of icing can be slathered on top. It’s a classic cinnamon roll frosting recipe, with just a hint of cream cheese — although a dairy-free option is available.

While it’s a time consuming process, Davie said she couldn’t be happier to be helping her son and watching him succeed.

“I’ve watched Liam blossom. He’s become more outgoing. He’s quite content. Every time I read him a review his face just lights up. It’s [been] quite nice to see the community too,” Davie said.

“And for anyone listening, if you’re looking for some cinnamon rolls, I happen to know a 12-year-old who make a pretty good one.”