Hi, I'm Kaci — and I know exactly what it feels like to say no to dessert.

For ten years before that, I didn't know what was wrong. Chronic pain. Inflammation that wouldn't let up. A bone-deep exhaustion I'd half-convinced myself was just how my body worked. Doctors didn't have answers. I kept pushing through, hoping it would eventually make sense.

When I finally found out I'd need to go gluten-free, I wasn't just adjusting a diet — I was grieving something. The warm cinnamon rolls on Sunday mornings. The birthday cake everyone else was eating. The chocolate chip cookies at every celebration while I quietly passed the plate. Food is memory. Food is togetherness. And suddenly, a whole world of it didn't belong to me anymore.

I tried the store-bought options. You probably have too. The ones that crumble before you get them out of the bag. The ones that taste like cardboard made a wish. The ones that are technically gluten-free, but nothing about them feels like a treat. I was tired of settling, and I suspected I wasn't the only one.

So I started baking.

Not because I was a trained pastry chef or because I had some grand business plan — but because I believed gluten-free deserved better. I spent months in my kitchen testing, failing, adjusting, and testing again, until I landed on something I was genuinely proud of. Treats that didn't need a disclaimer. Treats that could hold their own on any dessert table. Treats worth getting excited about.

Bake Against The Grain was born right here in Elmira, NY, out of that stubbornness and that love. Every batch is small. Every order is made with intention. The kitchen is 100% dedicated gluten-free — no shared equipment, no cross-contamination risks, no cutting corners. I know what's at stake for those with allergies and celiacs disease, and I take that seriously.

But more than safety, I want you to feel something when you open that box. I want you to feel the thing I felt the first time I bit into a cinnamon roll that actually tasted like a cinnamon roll again — that quiet, surprised joy of getting to say yes.

Yes to dessert at the birthday party. Yes to the holiday treat box. Yes to the Tuesday morning mini donut just because you felt like it. Yes to being fully, happily included.

That's what this is about. Not just baking gluten-free treats — but giving people back the moments they thought they'd lost.

I'm so glad you're here. Welcome to the community. Now let's get you something good.

— Kaci, founder of Bake Against The Grain
Made locally in Elmira, NY