“What do you call a deer with one eye?… A bad ideer!” The joke cracks up Rosie, 22, the official egg cracker at SweetAbility Bakery. The dad jokes run all day long at SweetAbility, but this bakery is the love story of a mother and her daughter.
Chelle Baldwin, a master woodworker by trade, started baking fancy cakes and cookies about 15 years ago. That’s when she got the idea that a bakery could employ her autistic daughter, Rosie, and other kids with limited employment options.
A decade ago, Chelle converted a mother-in-law apartment into a large baking kitchen and started off making elaborate cakes, including one that looked like Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital. Over time, she expanded her baked offerings to include cookies, rolls, pies—and heavenly lemon bars—and spent seven years converting an old warehouse into a modern bakery.
In their commercial kitchen in Woodbine, Chelle and her team bake for clients including Produce Place and The Picnic, which, notably, relies on SweetAbility’s fluffy rolls for Thanksgiving.
SweetAbility operates as a nonprofit with a mission of empowering people with disabilities. Next time you see their scones or cookies, grab one. They’re delicious and a great way to help expand opportunity to people with employment challenges.
SweetAbility Bakery is located at 2853 Logan St., Nashville, Tenn. 37211. For more information, visit sweetability.com.
