If you’ve ever wished your postpartum snack could actually *do something* for your milk supply and taste amazing at the same time, this episode is for you.
I’m sitting down with Dominique “Nika” Spencer, cake artist, mom of two, and founder of A Whisk Worth Tasting, a licensed home bakery right here outside Philadelphia in Lafayette Hill, PA, to celebrate the nationwide launch of her lactation cookies. That’s right, these incredible hand-crafted cookies are now shipping straight to your door, anywhere in the US.
Made in small batches with organic oats, brewer’s yeast, and organic flaxseed (ingredients I talk about all the time as a certified lactation counselor), these dark chocolate chip cookies are designed to naturally support milk production while actually tasting like the treat you deserve after a sleepless night with a newborn.
We’re talking about how Nika brought this product to life, what makes these ingredients so powerful for breastfeeding moms, and why having a stash in your freezer might just become your favorite postpartum ritual. Whether you’re pregnant, newly postpartum, or shopping for a mama you love, you’ll want to hear this one.
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Website: https://www.whiskworthtasting.com/
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Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/whiskworthtasting/
Episode Highlights:
- How do lactation cookies help support a breastmilk supply?
- What are the ingredients that support breastfeeding?
- How many do you need to eat to see results?
Sleep Struggles Solved + Results Guaranteed
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Welcome to the Kid Sleep Show podcast, where we dive into the magical world of sleep and all things parenting. Join us as we embark on a journey filled with expert advice, practical tips, and heartwarming stories that will transform your little ones into sleep superheroes and empower you to navigate the beautiful chaos of parenting. I’m your host, Courtney Zents, and I’m on a mission to change how the world views sleep and provide accessible sleep coaching resources for all families to build healthy sleep habits in their home for children and adults of all ages.
As an award-winning speaker, author, and pediatric sleep expert, myself and my team of consultants work intimately with families around the world to teach healthy sleep habits to children and adults. I believe wholeheartedly that sleep is the foundation for which a happy home is built, so let’s sleep together. Hey, everyone.
Welcome to this week’s episode of the Kid Sleep Show podcast. I’m your host, Courtney Zents, and I am joined this week by the founder of A Whisk Worth Tasting, Ms. Nika Spencer. Thank you so much for joining me.
Hi, Courtney. So happy to be here. Thanks for having me.
I am excited to talk about your journey because I will tell you, as a dedicated Instagram follower of you for many years now, I was like, oh my gosh, she’s in Lafayette Hill, which was like right where I grew up in my 20s in my stomping ground of Contrahockin before I moved into suburbia with kids. And so it was like, oh my gosh, I feel like kismet spirits that we are doing this today because I love what you’re doing with the business. I love watching all the custom cakes you make, but recently you launched something new.
So let’s start with where A Whisk Worth Tasting started, and then let’s talk about some of the fun things you’ve got that you’ve recently rolled out that I know our new and expecting parents are going to enjoy. Awesome. Yeah.
Thank you so much. I’m actually sort of new to the area. It feels like I’m still new because everyone here has been around like forever, but my husband and kids and I moved here about six years ago from Washington, D.C. So I had a whole other career and life before I started my home bakery.
But as we all know, motherhood and parenthood changes everything. So I have a background in international affairs. I even got my master’s degree from Columbia in New York.
I did a lot of work and research abroad in the Middle East, researched, traveled, taught there. And yeah, and then I had my daughter and my priorities shifted. I realized I no longer had that same tolerance for like workplace politics and all the stuff, you know, that comes with going into an office every day.
And this was pre-pandemic, but I kind of was reevaluating my life and my priorities. And I decided to try working at a bakery in Washington, D.C. I’ve always loved baking. My husband at the time was in law school and we knew that we were going to be moving up to the Philadelphia area.
And I did some research and I saw that you can be a licensed home baker in the state of Pennsylvania. I was very excited because, you know, I like to do things above board. And as I mentioned, my husband is a lawyer, so I try to try to follow the rules.
But the fact that I could be a licensed home baker, that just sent fireworks going off in my brain. So I figured, well, if I’m going to try to start my own home bakery, I better learn how to run a bakery. So I started working in a bakery in Washington, D.C. I convinced them to hire me with no background in the industry.
They put me through a really grueling trial shift, which I somehow survived and then showed up the next day. So I had the 4.30 a.m. morning baker shift and I was at the bottom of the totem pole in this bakery, like refilling the 50 pound heavy bags of flour. They would yell at me constantly that I wasn’t moving quickly enough.
So I learned to be really fast, which if you’re your own boss, you know, time is money. So in the end, like I did learn a lot. But yeah, I was there for four months.
And then we then the pandemic hit. Unfortunately, the bakery where I was working had to close. But we moved up here to the Philadelphia suburbs and I got licensed as a home bakery by the Department of Agriculture.
I had my annual inspection and got my license to sell from my home. And so I started baking cakes and I was shocked when people bought them. So I started making cakes and cupcakes for folks in my community.
And soon enough, word of mouth spread. I had my son. So now I have two kids at this point, but two under two.
But I had to get child care because the demand was so high for my cakes and cupcakes in the beginning. It was wild. I was like, what is happening? Well, I followed you for, you know, a while now.
And I’m like, yeah, I love her content. I love her cakes. And I was telling you a little bit before we started recording, like I try to bake with my daughter, but I’m like, OK, we can make a unicorn cake.
I’m like, you know, trying to rig things. Yeah. And it comes out like always decent, but definitely not like bakery quality.
It tastes good. But, you know, it doesn’t look aesthetically as pleasing sometimes as a professional baker. But there’s a lot of effort and time and planning that goes into that.
100 percent. So much planning. You know, I take custom requests.
So people tell me, you know, they want a minion standing on top of a spaceship. I’m like, OK, I can make that happen. And then I lose sleep at night, like thinking, oh, my God, how am I going to make this happen? You know, but but I love it.
It is. I’ve always been a baker my whole life. But then once I opened my home bakery, I had to learn how to make it look good.
So I spent hours and hours on Instagram, on YouTube, watching cake decorating videos, learning how to do it. So I’m self-taught as far as decorating goes. And now the amazing thing is I now teach people how to decorate, which, you know, five years later after starting my own business is just an amazing, amazing full circle moment.
So I know I was thinking, like, as you’re talking, I’m like, I need to pay Nika to build a course that’s a one hour follow along with me so that when my kids come over for a birthday party, I can make the cupcakes and have them. And then I can put you up on the big screen and be like, everybody follow me. I’ll happily pay you for the course because then you’ll have the cupcakes that actually look good versus mine where the buttercream is like.
Yeah. Like, oh, my God, so much trial and error. Oh, my gosh.
So many wasted batches of buttercream. I mean, I really I didn’t know what I was doing, but I stuck with it because of the passion behind it. And yeah, it’s it’s just been an amazing now.
And so, you know, you’ve got this really great business. You’re doing all these awesome cakes. The reviews are fabulous.
Right. And then just recently in the fall of last year, you launched something that’s going to interest our audience. So why don’t you tell us what that is and then why you decided to do it? Because as someone who relied on those very much in my postpartum journey, they’re super good.
Absolutely. So I make lactation cookies. And in September, I launched nationwide shipping and local pickup.
So every single week I am available to make these lactation cookies. They’re delicious. They have organic oats as the number one ingredient and also brewer’s yeast, organic flax seed, unbleached flour, all those good and wholesome things.
But they’re still a cookie and they still taste so amazing. But they help new moms meet those calorie needs, which are crazy in the beginning. Five hundred to six hundred extra calories per day a breastfeeding mom needs.
So, you know, that’s a big part of it. But anyway, I started making them for family members and for friends. And similar to my case, word of mouth started to spread.
People started to say, wow, these are really good. And actually, I was able to pump so much so much more or I was able to feed my baby for much longer last night. Like these are amazing.
How can I get more? So as a mom myself and an entrepreneur, someone who’s, you know, growth minded, I said, you know what, this is sort of ticks all the boxes for me as far as baking being my love language. I love to bake delicious things for people. But also these help new moms like in the most vulnerable, one of the most vulnerable time periods of your life when you’re trying to figure out how do I feed myself so I can nourish my baby? You know, there’s so much that goes into that.
And I’m just so happy to be able to support new moms with these lactation cookies. Well, and I think it’s to your point, right? Something that when a child comes into the equation, if you’re pregnant right now and listening to this, like there’s a lot that happens those first weeks. Right.
And if you’re trying to establish a supply and maintain some semblance of sleep and sanity as you learn your child’s new needs. Right. It can be very overwhelming.
And I think it’s very easy for us to forget to eat sometimes or you get so busy that you’re just kind of grazing on the wrong things that aren’t nourishing your body. And so lactation cookies are one of those things that I love because your point, you need the extra calories, but you also need wholesome ingredients. Right.
And so, you know, the fact that a cookie at two in the morning, you could, you know, have, if you’re up for a while, you have to nurse and then you’re pumping or whatever your situation or journey looks like. Right. It can be something that’s portable that doesn’t need to be heated or cooled down.
You know, it’s like, oh, I can have some of them right now and, you know, and feel like you’re getting a little shot of some nutrition, which is good, you know, and it tastes good. Right. But that also has the added benefit.
Like for somebody listening who doesn’t know what a lactation cookie is, explain the point of it. Sure. So it is a cookie that’s just for mom.
So actually I thought about anyone could eat them. First of all, don’t tell your husband that, but anyone can eat them. They’re made with wholesome, delicious or ingredients.
But they are really for mom to, like you said, feel satisfied to eat the right things that are going to help maintain and boost a healthy milk supply. So the fact that organic oats is the number one ingredient is huge. The brewer’s yeast is a specialty ingredient that’s specifically meant to boost the milk supply and then organic flaxseed as well.
And it does not hurt that they’re absolutely delicious. So they meet so many, you know, needs, like you just said, often like grazing, not knowing what to not knowing what to eat or, you know, like a bag of chips. That’s really not going to, you know, help boost your milk supply.
But a lactation cookie truly will. I’ve had so many positive testimonials from mom saying how they help their supply. The great thing, too, is it’s good to eat like one to two per day to maintain a healthy milk supply.
But if you find that your supply has dropped, whether that’s from sickness, you know, I’ve had moms had mastitis and they’re struggling or like they get their first period and like, you know, the fluctuations that come or they go back to work or whatever it is, the cookies, if you eat like four to five per day, you really will see an increase in supply. So even I’ve had a mom friend of mine, her baby was 11 months old. And a lactation consultant told me that the lactation cookies are most effective in establishing healthy supply within the first six weeks after having your baby.
So I gave them to my, you know, my mom friend. This was back before I launched Nationwide Shipping because I just wanted to see what would happen. I was like, can you eat these and tell me if if your supply goes up? I know your baby’s like 11 months old.
It might not have that much of an impact. She was like, oh, yeah, I gave the milk to my mother in law the next day to feed the baby. She was like, what happened? Like she she produced like six ounces more per day just eating the cookies.
So they do work, which is phenomenal. But if you know, I’m not going to make a blanket statement and say they absolutely will work for everyone, of course. But it won’t it won’t hurt because they are made with those wholesome ingredients and they are delicious.
So if you’re struggling with supply, I always say you might as well give it a try. And I think they make a great gift for any friends, like maybe you’re past your lactation journey and you’re listeners of newborns, infants, toddlers, school age kids, you name it. But I feel like they’re great because you ship weekly.
Right. And so I tell people about like the ordering process, because you can ship weekly, you can ship in bulk, you can send them as a gift. They don’t you know what I mean? If you’re past that journey, it’s also a nice like, you know, I always think like, what do I get that’s a good gift? You know, something that’s like this is such like a caring, you know, thing I feel like to do to send your new mom friend who’s going through those early days, or, you know, I don’t know, maybe she even has like a two, three month old and you want to like boost her spirit.
She gets a bag of cookies. That’s just for her. That’s going to help her feed her baby.
It’s just like win win, you know. But yes, we ship nationwide every week. All you have to do to order is order on my website, whiskworthtasting.com. And I work with another mom owned business, Wrapping Papered.
Her name is Gabby. And she ships them for me. So we’re a team.
And she packages them with care. She’s a mom of two as well. And we can also do gift wrapping.
So we can write a beautiful message, a card, ribbon. They come really nicely packaged. And that’s something that I’m really proud of, too, is it really is a sweet treat to make someone feel cared for in the best way, I think.
And I’m a huge like women owned, mom owned, you know, entrepreneurial business. I’m 11 years into this. And there are weeks where I’m like, what am I doing? And then other weeks, I’m like, Oh, my gosh, I could not imagine doing anything else.
So it’s, you know, it is, there’s just so many pieces to being an entrepreneur. You’re the front of the business, the back house of the business, the accounting of the business, and all the stuff in between. So I love that you’ve partnered with another business that does cool stuff with wrapping paper.
So I’ll link her into, into the show notes as well, just because it’s always, you know, a big thing to support others. But, you know, it had me thinking my girlfriend in the neighborhood got breast cancer. God love her.
A little over a year and a half ago now. And she went through the double mastectomy and she had radiation and all this different stuff. And I had a double mastectomy about seven years ago.
And I again, we were talking a bit about my humor. And so I had made boob cookies for her. I just made circle cookies and made them look like boobs and shipped them to, to, or packaged them.
She lives in the neighborhood. Like packaged them up all nice and cute, a little card and left them in her mailbox. And it was just, you know, kind of a nourishing cookie that is also a bit of levity and that you’re getting a dozen boobs delivered in a box to your door, you know? I mean, what more could you want? Yeah.
I feel like you could, you could expand into the breast cancer space and ship boob cookies at some point, but mine are definitely not as pretty as yours would be, but it was just always something where it’s like, again, you’re using, I feel like people cook, right? When somebody dies, you cook somebody sick, you cook when somebody is transitioning into, you know, a new house or has lost a loved one or brings home a baby you cook. Right. And I feel like cooking is food for the soul, right? Like that used to be that book, chicken soup for the soul.
But I feel like it’s just a nice, thoughtful gift and something like lactation cookies, especially when you’re so overwhelmed and so strung out kind of coming home with a baby, you know? And I just love the fact that the ingredients are solid for a mom as a lactation counselor and someone in the space of it’s all connected, you know, and you can’t have a good milk supply if you’re not nourishing your body with what it needs to make the milk milk is supply and demand. So there’s aspects of it where, yes, the milk has to come out for your body to know, to make more, but if it’s running on an empty gas tank, it’s not going to have what it needs to, to make it, you know, and then I think that you’re going to feel depleted. Right.
And I was just going to say, and it leads to a spiral of like depletion and then the mental load, right? So many parents are like trying to do everything they can. I mean, I know my nursing journey was crazy because I was so overwhelmed, Nico, with the pressure of being the perfect mom and the perfect maternity leave participant at the time of like still working mom, a team of 40 maternity leave. I need to love parenting and I love being on maternity leave.
I didn’t, it was not a graceful journey for me having my first son. And I’m not ashamed to say that because I think there’s realism to the fact that like I struggled because I tried to be this picture perfect new parent and it mentally exhausted me. And I was trying to make sure I was pumping every time I fed.
And then I was nursing and I was doing all these things. Oh, and keeping the house sorted and managing the garden and cutting the grass and taking my baby for a walk and teaching him to sleep. And then my husband, you know, with his little briefcase, like, how was your day? I’m like, I want to punch you, you know, and all this load is like one thing a mom doesn’t have to do, you know what I mean? It’s like, oh, you know what, these are for me and they’re going to help me to feel better and less overwhelmed in this already expansive parenting journey.
So I just love what you’re doing. And so people can order them. You can freeze them, right? Yes.
Yes, you can. If you freeze them in an airtight container, they’ll be good for up to three months. And then you just let them thaw.
Also, if you microwave them just for 10 seconds, you’ll get those gooey chocolate chips. So that’s a little added tip I like to throw in there. But yeah, so I also offer bulk rate shipping.
So if you order four dozen or more, you get a discount and then we’ll create a custom shipping invoice for you. You know, Gabby and I will sort that out and then send those off to you. So we yeah, we and I want to meet moms, you know, where they’re at, if they have another idea for something, I’m happy to do that.
But you mentioned like the food, we cook food for someone, you know, going through a hard time or something like that. Actually, a client of mine who always gets her daughter’s cakes from me, ordered lactation cookies to be shipped out to Colorado as part of a meal. She was like, oh, instead of the meal train, because I’m not there, I’ll order the lactation cookies and have those sent to her.
And you know, of course, we made it a gift. And that’s just a really nice way to make somebody feel special. Yeah, I love it.
I’m so excited. So I’m in love with your cakes. I am in love with everything you do.
So I’m just really honored to have you on the podcast today. Because I know, you know, it’s nice. We’re close in distance, you know, miles apart.
But I know at some point, I’ll meet you in person. But I’m just excited for you. I think this is such a cool natural progression for the business and something fun you could do to support moms in a vulnerable time, which I think we all need help, you know, and sometimes admitting that, especially for me, is not the easiest, but to like have these delivered and feel really special and thought about I think is really, really cool.
So I love that you’re doing lactation cookies. I love that you make the most amazing cakes. And thank you.
I will continue watching for your cupcake workshops, because I know you do those locally you’re in Lafayette Hill, right? So for those of you listening that are in the Philly area, you can pay attention because Nika does different classes and cupcake workshops, because I saw you had one that was snowed out and you did it at your house. I’m like, oh my god, yes, I signed up for that. But I just love it.
And I think it’s so fun. I’m like, I gotta bring my daughter to do something fun. So definitely check out a whisk worth tasting because she does some cool stuff around here.
Thank you so much. Yes, we are, you know, going strong over here in 2026. So thank you, Courtney.
I really appreciate all your support. It’s great to meet you, you know, through screen, but one day in person. Yeah, definitely.
Well, I appreciate it. For those of you listening, all of the links to Nika and a whisk worth tasting will be on the website and in the show notes and we’ll share it out on social and you can leave a nice review about how amazing that she is on the podcast and certainly check out all of her lactation cookies that she’s shipping all over the US because you will not be disappointed. So thanks so much for tuning in.
One more thing before you go. Don’t forget to subscribe, leave a review, or share this episode with someone you know who could use a little more sleep in their life. For tips and resources, be sure to visit us at tinytransitions.com or follow us across social media.
Here’s to better sleep, brighter days and healthier, happier families.
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