Trina Fornoff has opened Nonnie’s Specialty Cupcakes and Cookies in Main Square Plaza at 44 N.E. Division St. in Portland, Oregon.
“I like to decorate cookies and see them turn from a flat surface to a two-dimensional cookie,” she said. “It’s fun to watch the kids’ reaction when they see them for the first time.”
A resident of Gresham for 18 years, Fornoff opened the bakery to expand her home-based operation, naming the business after her great-grandmother, who died in 2007 at 107 years old.
In addition to customized cupcakes and sugar cookies, Nonnie’s offers coffee and espresso, smoothies, flavored energy drinks, scones and what Fornoff promises as “one special surprise item every day.”
Those may include cookies of different shapes, frosted brownies or perhaps peanut butter bars. So far, Fornoff’s daily unveiling of home-crafted sweets is a hit among the mostly word-of-mouth clientele, including a steady stream of students from the nearby Gresham High School.
“It’s been great,” she said during her second week of operations in mid-March. “I’ve basically been selling out every day. It’s exceeded my expectations.”
Nonnie’s took over from a short-lived thrift store that occupied the space after Sweet Cakes by Melissa closed in August 2013.