SALEM, Va. – If you walk into Julie Parson’s house on any given day, chances are you’ll find her baking a sweet treat.
“Originally I thought that I would never want it to be a so-called job, but I would love that,” Parsons said.
Parsons is the owner of “Nannie Cakes” — named after her grandmother she lost in 2020.
“I was so heartbroken when I lost my Nannie, but I also wanted to honor her and carry out her legacy,” she said.
Armed with dozens of handwritten pound cake recipes her nannie left her, Parsons got to work.
“Obviously, these are all of the things that I like, that my nannie would make for me when I was little,” she said.
Right now, Parsons sells on a person-by-person basis, but is working towards getting a Cottage License — that allows a home business owner to sell their goods on a small scale, without going through food safety officials.
“I want to share Nannies not just in my home but maybe with vendors and small country stores,” she said.
Cottage licenses have been in the spotlight over the past few months, after a cake-pop baker in Richmond was served a letter from Virginia officials warning her that she could not sell her cake pops at a vendor fair, or promote her products on Facebook.
Governor Youngkin got a hold of this and said it was a violation of the First Amendment.
Monday, he signed a bill into law called the “Cake Pop” bill — clarifying that advertising or promoting goods on social media doesn’t count as selling them and broadens the range of local events where these goods can be sold without food safety inspection.
“It’s just me. So, I think it does make it simpler and more self-explanatory for what you can and cannot do,” Parsons said.
For Parsons, she’s happy this law will allow her to share her Nannie’s Cakes with more people to enjoy.
“It’d be amazing. It would just give me the opportunity to share my Nannie. She was one of the greatest loves of my life. She was precious,” she said.
