Mimi’s Magic Kitchen: The Great Brownie Bake-Off Disaster follows two children who enter a baking competition where they are challenged to make brownies with some very unexpected ingredients. Where did the concept come from, and why brownies specifically?

Really, the concept came from my love of food and cooking. I’ve always been a foodie. I love food, I love cooking, and I especially love baking. At that point in my life, I decided I wanted to spend more time doing things I genuinely loved, so I started getting back into cooking and baking again and sharing some of it online. That’s when I realized how much I wanted to encourage kids and parents to get back in the kitchen together more often. Some of my favorite memories growing up happened around the kitchen and homemade food, and I felt like that experience was slowly disappearing a little because life has become so fast and convenient.

Once I had the idea to make a children’s book centered around baking, the brownie idea came together pretty quickly because I already had this brownie recipe I’d been making for years that everyone always loves. The brownies are super easy to make, really forgiving, and honestly just really good, which made them perfect for the story.

Then I realized the unusual ingredients in the recipe sounded strange enough to become the actual story itself. That’s where the bake-off disaster idea came from. I thought it would be funny if the “normal” brownie ingredients people usually think of when making brownies disappeared, and the kids had to figure out how to make brownies using all these unexpected replacements instead.

Emma and Archer actually became the two kid characters in the book because they’re my real kids. My son was 9, and my daughter was 6 while I was writing it, which felt like the perfect ages for the world and audience of the story. They also have very different personalities, which made them really fun characters to write and helped bring a lot of personality into the story.

From there, everything else kind of grew naturally: the baking competition, the little educational section about ingredients and kitchen tools, and the real recipes in the back of the book. One thing that was really important to me was making sure the recipes were recipes families would actually want to make again and again, not just recipes meant to keep kids busy for twenty minutes.

The baking tips and ingredient explanations make the book feel interactive and educational without losing its playful tone. How did you balance storytelling with hands-on learning?

From the beginning, I already knew I wanted the book to be a mix of story, education, and real recipes. But honestly, once I wrote the story and really developed Mimi’s character, the rest of it kind of fell into place naturally.

I completely fell in love with her while I was writing. She’s funny, a little chaotic, creative, confident, and somehow always seems to know how to handle things without getting too flustered. She’s the kind of person kids would want to hang out with and the kind of fun, comforting adult I think a lot of us wish we had around growing up. She really became the heart of the whole book.

Once her personality started coming to life in the story, it became really obvious to me how I could make the educational parts and recipes feel fun too. I never wanted kids to feel like the story suddenly stopped, and now it was time for “learning.” I wanted it to feel like they were just continuing along with Mimi into her magical little kitchen world.

So I started writing the educational tips and recipes in her voice, with all her little comments, humor, and personality sprinkled throughout. I still remember testing some of the early recipe drafts on my daughter after I had rewritten them in Mimi’s voice. She was completely entertained by them and genuinely wanted me to keep reading the recipes out loud, which honestly made me laugh because what kid gets excited about hearing a recipe? That was the moment when it really clicked for me that this approach was working.

After that, I leaned into it even more. I wanted the whole experience to feel lighthearted, cozy, creative, and fun for both kids and parents. In my opinion, people do their best cooking when they’re relaxed, using their imagination, making memories together, and ending up with something delicious they can’t wait to make again.

This book feels designed to continue after story time ends, especially with the real brownie recipes included afterward. Why was it important to make the baking experience part of the book itself, and did you hope the story would encourage more family cooking and baking together?

Absolutely. One of the biggest goals of the book was to make the experience continue after the story ended. I didn’t want it to just be something kids read once and put back on a shelf. I wanted it to turn into something families could actually go do together afterward.

I also really wanted kids to feel more confident in the kitchen. I think a lot of people grow up believing they “can’t cook” just because they had a few bad experiences or messed something up once and got intimidated by it. But honestly, cooking and baking are messy sometimes. I’ve had complete disasters in my own kitchen, and I love cooking. That’s just part of learning.

That’s why the story itself became so important to me. The kids in the book get overwhelmed when everything starts going wrong, and then Mimi comes in with this attitude of, “Okay, so we’ll figure it out.” She teaches them that there’s usually a solution, even if it means thinking outside the box a little.

That’s a huge part of cooking to me. Some of the best things happen in the kitchen when you experiment, get creative, substitute ingredients, or make something your own. I’m notorious for taking recipes and scribbling all over them, changing ingredients and amounts until they become my version of the recipe. I wanted kids and parents to feel like the kitchen could be a place for imagination and creativity instead of pressure and perfection.

I also really wanted families to make memories together through the experience of the book itself. Read the story together, laugh at the chaos, learn a few things without it feeling overly serious, then go make brownies together and maybe make a little mess while you’re at it. Honestly, who cares if flour ends up all over the counter? That’s part of the fun.

My hope was that families would walk away not only feeling entertained but feeling proud of what they made together. Because when kids make something genuinely delicious that other people love too, it gives them confidence. That’s the kind of confidence that makes them want to get back in the kitchen and do it all over again.

Will Emma and Archer return to Mimi’s Magic Kitchen? If so, what other baking disasters might be waiting for them there?

Absolutely. Once I created Mimi, Emma, Archer, and this magical kitchen world, I honestly did not want to leave it behind. I always intended for this to become a series, which is why the book ends with “to be continued.”

The biggest inspirations for me were the kinds of worlds I grew up loving, things like Candy Land, Strawberry Shortcake, and The Magic School Bus. I loved those imaginative, colorful worlds as a kid, so a magical world filled with funny food creations, baking disasters, strange ingredients, and things you don’t totally understand yet just felt like such a fun place for kids to explore.

Once I finished the first story, I remember thinking, “Oh my gosh, this could be a whole world.” Not just one story, but an actual Mimi’s Magic Kitchen world with all these different places, food adventures, kitchen experiments, and lessons hidden underneath the fun. That’s something I really want to keep expanding more and more throughout the series.

The next story is actually already in the works, and it’s centered around homemade sodas, which is why the first book ends with “it’s about to get bubbly.” While I was finishing the brownie book, my kids and I started experimenting with homemade sodas and fermentation at home, and we had so much fun with it that I immediately knew it needed to become the next adventure.

We made things like ginger bug sodas, fruit syrups, and homemade versions of drinks that still felt exciting and magical for kids. I loved the idea that something as simple as making soda at home could turn into this big creative kitchen experiment where kids are learning new things almost without realizing it, because they’re too busy having fun making bubbly drinks.

I also love the idea of helping families realize that homemade things can still feel exciting and special. You don’t have to be some hardcore health person to enjoy making things from scratch. I just think there’s something really special about kids getting into the kitchen, experimenting, making a mess, and getting excited because they made something themselves that tastes amazing, and bonus, is so much better for them than anything at the store.

I already have ideas for more adventures after that, too, possibly even something savory after the bubbly adventure. But really, the biggest goal with all of it is just continuing to create experiences that kids and parents can genuinely have fun with together. I want families to get immersed in Mimi’s world, laugh at the stories, learn a few things along the way, and then feel excited and confident enough to go try something new together in the kitchen.

Honestly, I had an absolute blast writing the first story, and I’m having just as much fun working on the second one. I’ll definitely keep everybody posted on when that adventure might be coming next. But in the meantime, I really hope families enjoy stepping into Mimi’s Magic Kitchen world together, and I can’t wait for them to see what adventure is waiting for Emma and Archer next.

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