What began as a way to feed a growing family on a tight budget has since grown into a full-fledged small business, rooted in love, learning and a lot of yeast.
“I didn’t know how to bake when I got married,” White laughs. “All I could do was boiled rice, salad and cookies.”
But everything changed right before she had her first daughter 25 years ago. With time on her hands and money running low, she turned to a cookbook and started experimenting in the kitchen. Bagels and bread were among the first things White learned to make. She jokes that she went into labor while baking that first batch of bagels.
Over the years, while her then-husband was at work, White cared for their eight children and dove deeper into the world of baking. The more she practiced, the more her confidence grew.
Rolled Out Bakery sells more than cinnamon rolls. Unique flavors include their Rasberry Roll and a Lemon Blueberry Roll.
Mike Madriaga
Rising to the occasion
By 2001, she was baking full-time from home and a friend helped her deliver baskets of muffins and cookies to the Mesa Police Department. Because she couldn’t enter the secure building, the friend would take the treats inside and a mason jar with a hole cut in the lid to collect cash donations. “Each time, she returned with an empty basket and a jar full of money,” White says.
Miles, her second child, was born shortly after. She grew up with the scent of fresh-baked bread filling the house and fond memories of her mom’s kitchen creations.
“My mom always had a knack for baking,” Miles says. “She was always making something for us, and it was always a treat.”
As White's skills evolved, so did her tools. She upgraded to a Bosch mixer, a machine with a unique bottom motor and central post that allowed her to mix large batches. She could make four dozen cinnamon rolls or four to five loaves of bread at a time.
With the family growing into a household of 10, White baked constantly — treating not only her children but also her neighbors in Mesa. That neighborly generosity eventually sparked a business idea, encouraged by friends who told White, “You could sell these!”
“I had little ones in a stroller, and I’d be pushing it down Main Street with a container of fresh cookies, going door to door,” White recalls. “I sold a few, and I got a lot of weird looks.”
Unfazed, she kept baking and making moves — and so did Miles.
“She was always my sidekick in the kitchen,” White says. “Not all my kids picked up on that, but Hannah was always my shadow. She’d say, ‘I want to make this, and I want to make that.’”
Miles also picked up on her mom’s perseverance. While in junior high, her school organized a Washington, D.C., history trip that cost $2,000 to attend.
“It was a lot of money, and my parents weren't going to pay for it. So they’re like, ‘Well, you can go if you earn the money.’" Miles recalls. "I’m like 13 with no real skills, but I knew how to bake, and Mom already had people who would buy. So I’d get up every Wednesday before school to make bread and sell it, and then every Saturday morning I would get up and make cinnamon rolls.”
Miles did this for months until she hit her $2,000 goal and joined her Poston Junior High classmates on the trip.
The signature cinnamon roll
Over the years, the mother-and-daughter team has shared their cinnamon rolls at festivals and food truck gatherings throughout the Valley. They also worked at restaurants, where they learned food service protocol, customer service and marketing — areas where they now thrive. They're warm and welcoming but savvy when it comes to promoting their creations through Facebook, Instagram and TikTok.At the heart of their success is their signature cinnamon roll, a super-rich, fluffy-soft treat packed with flavor from the inside out.
“We use Italian flour labeled as pizza flour,” White explains. This flour gives the rolls their tender texture without the dry or bread-like feel of standard cinnamon rolls. The interior stays moist and gooey while the outer edges turn golden and slightly crisp.
White credits much of her fine-tuning to what she calls “YouTube University,” baking tutorials that helped her become more efficient and understand the science behind the perfect cinnamon roll.
“I learned what the right temperature needs to be, how the dough should feel and how it should look when done,” she says.
Miles adds her own tip for quality control: “The buns become golden brown, and there’s a way you touch them — the middle roll should feel squishy.”
After baking, the rolls are separated and topped individually with smooth cream cheese frosting. Served warm, the $7 treats melt in your mouth. Fans travel from all over the Valley to visit the Mesa storefront or catch them at the Queen Creek Festival on Friday nights and the Arrowhead Farmers Market in Glendale every Saturday.
Customers can stop by the community kitchen daily to pick up Rolled Out Bakery's sweet and savory creations.
Mike Madriaga
Looking toward the future
White and Miles moved into the Our Community Kitchen/The Kitchen Market hub in June 2024. “We love it here in the kitchen,” Miles says. “We care a lot about cleanliness and food integrity; this kitchen meets those standards. On top of that, everyone here looks out for each other.”
The duo shares the kitchen with the staff from Flippin' Rice, Bad Dog Salsa, Fat Man & the Redhead, His and Her Cheesecake and other food makers and artisans. The owner of the shared kitchen and retail space, Jake Kloster, runs the on-site coffee shop, Pura Vida Grinds. He serves Costa Rican coffee and Mexican sodas while also giving tours to prospective food entrepreneurs.
Rolled Out Bakery offers walk-in service with rolls available first-come, first-served unless pre-ordered online. Along with the classic cinnamon rolls, the duo sells unique flavors, including lemon blueberry rolls made with wild blueberries, raspberry rolls topped with cream cheese frosting and savory flavors, including Bacon Ranch and Hatch Green Chile rolls.
With demand growing, White and Miles are looking to expand their team. Looking further ahead, the duo has big dreams.
“I see Rolled Out Bakery vending machines in airports and hotels,” White says, eyes lighting up. “You walk up, it pops out a hot roll — bon appétit.”
While that vision may sound ambitious, White has already shown she can roll with just about anything — tight finances, long hours and the steep learning curve of business ownership.
From homemade bagels that sparked a labor contraction to cinnamon rolls that bring joy to strangers, Rolled Out Bakery is more than just a sweet stop in Mesa.
“This started as a way to feed my kids and give them something sweet,” she says. “But now it’s about giving others a chance too — giving jobs, giving comfort and maybe even giving them a reason to smile."
