Creating Sweet Content with Grandma B's Mini Treats
An inside look at Grandma B’s Mini Treats: a business that makes vintage-inspired, homestyle treats in miniature form!
If you’re not fully involved in baking Instagram, then you’re missing out. From the bright colors and sweets so pretty you can almost taste them, baking Instagram is a constant source of pure joy and sugar. But when it comes to creating a unique brand or personality to stand out amongst the thousands of other baking Instagrammers, it can be hard to differentiate yourself from the crowd.
If you just so happen to scroll through Grandma B’s Mini Treats on Instagram, you’ll immediately be surrounded by uniquely bright, lively colors and adorable baked goods. It’s so easy to differentiate Grandma B’s content from other brands, as the absolutely joyfulness and play involved in the creation of their brand is so distinct! Baking Instagram might be sweet, but Grandma B’s Mini Treats is the absolute sweetest!
A while back, our founder attended Alt Summit: a conference held for creators, Etsy owners, small business owners, and the all-around female entrepreneurs. There, we met Emily Barrata: founder and owner of Grandma B’s Mini Sweets!
Grandma B’s uses our stop motion app, Life Lapse, to create imaginative and playful content to stand out throughout the baking Instagram world! So, we reached out to Emily to learn more about her creative process and her experience using our app for her baking Instagram brand.
Grandma B’s Emily Baratta is based in Portland, Oregon, where she started the business in December of 2018. She goes by Grandma B (she has three grandchildren). We love the whimsical nature of everything Emily creates, such as tiny pop-tarts, 🍩mini donuts 🍩, and tiny twinkies. Emily says “my treats are neither gourmet, nor refined, but they will always be filled with love and nostalgia and will bring about a smile!”
Get to know Emily with us!
How did you get started?
Baking has always been my happy place. For as long as I can remember, it has been what I do to “de-stress”, clear my mind, and —if I’m being honest— when I wanted to procrastinate (which happened often). After a corporate career of 18+ years, the idea of baking as a business came from my family (my stepdaughter in particular— she made this happen). My family means everything to me and making them smile through treats is the best feeling. It’s a feeling my own Grandma gave me with her baked goods, and something I wanted to share with my grandkids, and now the world. Although starting it as a business was very scary, it was a natural step. When you love something this much, you want to share it. That is what I try to do every day!
What is your favorite treat?
I get asked a lot what my favorite treat is, and it’s so hard for me to answer. All treats make me jump up and down! But, if I had to pick one right this moment, it is one off of the ‘spicy’ menu I am developing— a mini Spicy Lemon Cake. It sounds crazy but I’m telling you, it’s to die for (If I do say so myself 😉)
What keeps you inspired?
There are three things that inspire me to keep baking:
The excitement that lights up my grandkids’ eyes when they see a mini pop-tart, twinkie, or cookie waiting for them on the kitchen counter.
The joy I see in my customers and followers when they take a bite of a treat or see a picture/video of a childhood treat and a fond memory comes rushing back.
Making everything mini or tiny— it just makes it that much more fun and special! I suppose all of the above boils down to one main inspiration, and that is bringing joy to people in some small way: there’s nothing more fulfilling!
What is your process when it comes to creating content for social media?
My process for creating content for social media is simple. Bake something I love and present it in a fun, bright, and whimsical way! I hope that every person that sees a post or video of my treats can feel my excitement, love, and silliness. We have so much seriousness in everyday life, and I want my content to be a break from all that.
I still have so much to learn about creating content, food photography, and stop motion video. My content is far from perfect, but that’s part of what I love about it. The process, the progression, the learning, and the imperfection of creating. That’s one of the reasons I love the Life Lapse App so much— it allows me to do all of those things in an uncomplicated way!
Show us your favorite stop motion videos:
What do you like about stop motion? Have you seen any surprising results from using stop motion?
Stop motion provides so much personality to your content! I had no idea how it could apply to a small baking business like mine until I attended a workshop by stop motion artists Colette Peri and Chelsea Andersson using the Life Lapse App. It changed everything! They demonstrated how stop motion can bring life to just about anything. It adds a little extra “oomph” to every creation, and the possibilities are endless. You can make a stop motion as simple or as complex as you like, and it will always be entertaining. I love that Life Lapse makes it accessible and easy to create from new or existing photos. I love that you can do it all with your phone! Really, anyone can create in this app— how wonderful is that?!
Even though I was inspired to experiment with stop motion from the workshop and Life Lapse, I could never have imagined the response I would get from sharing them on social media. People love them! I may be small but Life lapse and stop motion have opened up a new world of content creation and relationships. It has brought my treats and brand to life.
The best part? I am far from an expert and may never be one, but that Life Lapse stop motion content get such enthusiastic responses. It’s that delightful break to the seriousness of day-to-day life.
What other apps or tools do you use when taking photos for Instagram or social media?
Life Lapse is my main tool for creating videos. And, I can do it all with my phone! It is truly amazing for non-photographers like me. It gives me so much variety.
In addition, I use Adobe Lightroom for photo editing and Adobe Spark for fun Instagram stories and videos. All these apps are fun and easy to use— what I consider accessible for novices like me. I have learned that a good tripod and a Bluetooth remote are crucial! And lastly, the most crucial tool for all my photos and videos...sprinkles! Sprinkles everywhere is the Grandma B way 😘
Where can people follow you?
Here is my Instagram, Facebook, and Website.
We hope you enjoyed this interview with Emily Barrata of Grandma B’s Mini Treats as much as we have. Let us know in the comments below if there are other content creators you would be interested in learning about!
