Cincinnati woman turns love of baking into business

CINCINNATI (WXIX) - A Bond Hill business owner used baking as a stress reliever once upon a time, but today, it has turned into a delicious business.

Christina Davis says after people kept raving about how good cookies were, she decided to turn it into a business by opening Davis Cookie Collection with her husband.

The flavor possibilities are endless at the Davis Cookie Collection dessert shop on Reading Road in Bond Hill.

Davis is the woman mixing up the magic, creating unique flavors like strawberry lemonade and banana pudding.

She says it’s a joy coming in each day, building her family business.

“Just being able to come in here and have the freedom to just use my creativity to create delicious desserts for customers to enjoy; I mean I literally have a ball in here,” describes Davis.

Customers can also pick their own flavor combinations from more than 200 options in cookies, milkshakes, or even ice cream sandwiches.

Davis says this experience is a first of its kind in Cincinnati.

“One of the things that drive me is that I am able to give my customers delicious cookies made from scratch with real ingredients,” Davis explains. “So, I want to give them that experience they had growing up with Grandma or if it was someone in the house making cookies from scratch. I had that experience, so just being able to give that to our customers is what really motivates me.”

While it’s been a gratifying career, Davis says it’s not the path she originally chose for herself.

She was a graduate student at the University of Cincinnati studying social work when others discovered her talent for baking.

“I would bake cookies for fun because grad school was extremely stressful and then I would bring samples of cookies to our class and to our workplace because at the time, I worked at UC Medical Center and everyone just raved about the cookies,” Davis recalls. “They’re like, ‘These are the best cookies I ever had.’ I’m like, ‘Really?’ So then one of my colleagues offered to pay me $15 for a dozen of cookies and at that moment something just clicked for me and I was like, I could probably do this as a business.”

That’s what she did by opening the Davis Cookie Collection with her husband Miles in 2013.

She recently launched their cookie dough at the Kroger in Oakley.

A deal the family was able to secure after partnering with the Mortar Entrepreneurship Program.

Although the business has been a huge success, Davis says it has been a journey to get to where they are now.

“Getting our name out there, so that was very difficult for us,” Davis explains. “We had to do a lot of promotions, free delivery, we did a lot of vendor events. We didn’t miss one vendor event that was going on here in Cincinnati just to get our name out there. We had to walk up and down the streets of Clifton. Barber shops, salons, we visited them; provided cookies for sampling. So, we really put a lot of work in early to get to where we are now. But I’m so thankful that we did put in that work because I feel like it definitely paid off.”

While Davis’ first dream was to help people through social work, she’s proud and fulfilled to deliver another type of comfort.

“We’re able to make a difference in lives,” says Davis. “We have customers come in and they just want to vent or they want to tell us about what’s going on in their family and I’m always a listening ear. And they’ll come here to get a treat to make them feel good during a tough time and that is very rewarding for us.”

As another way to give back, Davis is teaming up with the Talbert House this summer with plans to provide teens with job training.

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