Oakland family launches cookie business

Oakland’s Matthew Sutton started baking cookies with his mom around age 4. 

“We were always in the kitchen baking, and it’s one of my fondest memories of my childhood growing up,” he said. “It’s something that always brought the family joy.”

When his daughter, Emma, was about 4 years old, she started taking an interest in baking. 

Seeing her father do it all the time, she wanted to do it, too. 

“She’ll help stir the ingredients, she helps scoop, she gets flour all over the place, and then we clean it up,” he said with a smile. “We started out with pancakes. … She absolutely loves to eat chocolate chip pancakes and asked if she could help randomly one day. We started having her help every weekend.” 

It then progressed to cookies. 

Watching Sutton bake cookies for his real estate clients, Emma quickly became interested in helping. 

Sutton saw no harm in having Emma help him with his cookies, so she did just that. 

They cherish the moments they spend together in the kitchen. 

To Emma, that’s her favorite part about baking. 

One day, while she was playing restaurant, she asked Sutton if they could open a cookie shop together. 

While it didn’t happen right away, Matthew and Megan Sutton made Emma’s dream come true. 

In April, the family opened the Melted Morsl, a cookie delivery business. 

RUNS IN THE FAMILY 

For the Suttons, baking cookies is more than just baking cookies. 

It’s a family tradition. 

Matthew Sutton grew up baking with his mother, and after she died, it was his way to keep her legacy alive. 

“Cookies are a way for me to hold on to my mom,” he said. “My mom was a pivotal figure in my life. Every time I bake a cookie, it kind of connects me with her. It’s one of those things where I don’t think I’ll ever stop, because that’s how I remember her, and being able to pass that along to somebody else is pretty terrific in itself.” 

He is beyond happy his now 7-year-old daughter is interested in baking, just like him and his mother. 

Megan Sutton said she often comes home from work to find Matthew and Emma Sutton baking cookies in the kitchen. 

“I just love seeing the connection between him and her, and I love how happy it makes her,” she said. 

The recipe the Suttons use to bake their cookies is the same one Matthew Sutton’s mother used, making it all more meaningful. 

“Instead of reinventing the wheel nine different times, we’ve taken my family’s recipe and just changed it here and there to get different flavor profiles,” Matthew Sutton said. 

The Melted Morsl menu rotates weekly with three cookies per week. 

The cookies are $5 each and made to order, with lots of love and thought behind it. 

“I don’t want to give anyone a bad product or a stale product where it doesn’t really represent what we do,” Matthew Sutton said. “I bake them the day the (clients) are going to get them, so they’re as fresh as possible. … It’s nothing a shot of espresso and some music on the background can’t fix.” 

And although the Suttons never thought they’d have a cookie business, they are excited they do. 

It’s not just putting smiles on people’s faces but also teaching Emma valuable lessons. 

“She definitely has the manager vibe down,” Matthew Sutton said. “(She) definitely is great with delegating, she steps in and tells me when I’m doing things wrong, and she’ll fix it. She’s a manager/tester, and she does it well.” 

Through this business, Matthew and Megan Sutton hope Emma learns about responsibility, patience and how to interact with people from all different walks of life. 

“One of the things that I really want her to learn is something that my dad has taught me: Making people happy is never a bad thing,” Matthew Sutton said. “You can’t go wrong with making someone smile.” 

On nights and weekends, you can find the Suttons baking cookies and trying new flavors in their home. 

“It’s not just her face on the logo, she’s putting in the work,” Matthew Sutton said. “That’s really inspiring to me. We’re all putting everything we have into (the business) and it really shows.” 

RECIPE FOR SUCCESS

Matthew Sutton has been bringing homemade cookies to real estate closings and local events for years, constantly receiving praise from clients, friends and neighbors. 

“My friends are my friends, so they tell me things I like to hear,” he said. 

While he was told he should sell his cookies, he never took it seriously. 

Until Emma showed desire to sell them, too. 

She brought them to school for her friends and teachers, and they were a big hit. 

The Suttons knew then they needed to make it happen. 

Not for profit — but for Emma. 

But starting a business comes with its own challenges. 

“It’s all the regulations you don’t think of,” Matthew Sutton said. “It’s not as simple as, ‘Hey, I made a cookie, would you like to give me $1 for it?’ There’s a lot more that goes into it.” 

Figuring it all out was by no means easy, but they were determined. 

On Saturday, April 18, the Suttons brought Melted Morsl cookies to the Village Lantern Coffee Co. pop-up market in Oakland, showcasing their cookies for the first time. 

Baking nearly 100 cookies for the event, they sold just under that, Matthew Sutton said. 

It was a huge success. 

“Everyone just thought Emma was cute as can be,” he said. 

She was involved as much as she wanted to be, drawing the menu, selling cookies, cashiering and managing her parents. 

“The majority of the feedback were people saying the cookies were delicious, they loved the packaging and they just love that Emma is the one out here working at the market alongside us,” Matthew Sutton said. 

It was a lot of dedicated nights and weekends to make Emma’s dream of opening a cookie shop come true, and they now all are so proud for their commitment and tenacity in making it happen. 

SWEET SUCCESS

This is just the beginning. 

While the business has been up and running for a month, it has been a blessing already, and the Suttons hope to continue their Melted Morsl business for as long as possible.  

“With everybody’s responses and feedback, I feel like we’ll still be doing what we’re doing (in the future), just on a larger scale,” Matthew Sutton said. “We want to stay true to our roots. … We deliver the cookies when people order it, and I think that’s been our bread and butter.

“What’s been so successful for us is I’m out in the town physically handing people cookies, more of a guerrilla marketing style, and I think that’s where we want to stay — word of mouth and reference, getting out and seeing people versus sitting in one stationary spot,” Matthew Sutton said.

It’s more personal — more their style. 

“We’re a family making cookies,” he said. “We’re not trying to be the next cookie conglomerate. We’re just trying to teach our daughter some valuable life skills and have fun while we’re doing it. At the end of the day, it’s a cookie. It’s really fun all the way around and we’re really excited about it.” 

Emma loves baking so much, she hopes to become a baker when she grows up. 

All she wants to do is bake cookies and eat them, too.