The “secret ingredients” in Sarah Sullivan’s baked treats aren’t exactly secret, but they are sure to lift your spirits because, well, they are spirits.

The Oregon District resident’s love for baked goods and good bourbon led her to launch Bakery 21 last November.

“The word is spreading and that is great,” Sullivan said. She recently shipped an order overseas.

A Miami Valley resident since 2011, Sullivan sells alcohol-infused treats ranging from coconut cake — coconut rum, coconut milk and coconut flakes finished with white chocolate, cream cheese, butter cream frosting and toasted coconut flakes — to bourbon truffles — butter cream, pecans and bourbon covered in bitter sweet chocolate.

She makes a mean lemon tart as well.

Her “desserts for the adult palate” are mixed and baked fresh in her home kitchen and her menu advices people to “eat responsibly.”

Sullivan has logged several orders and her treats are sometimes featured at the recently relocated Ohio Coffee Co. and Century Bar’s monthly bourbon tastings.

The Spokane, Wash. native said she was inspired partly by the downtown Dayton bourbon tavern and her mother Sally’s love of baking.

“Hands down, my mom is the best pie maker ever,” Sullivan bragged with a smile. At family gatherings, “there would always be homemade desserts.”

Sullivan’s mother now sometimes call her for baking advice.

“It’s a great compliment,” said Sullivan, who was her family’s ‘Chief Biscuit Baker’ when she was a child. “The mentor and mentee positions kind of swapped.”

Although she aspires to one day open an Oregon District cafe, for now at least, the bakery is only a side project.

“Now it is a balancing act working full-time and doing the bakery stuff, which I am passionate about,” Sullivan said.

Her day job finds her far away from the kitchen.

Sullivan is the regional coordinator for the Department of Defense’s Hearing Center of Excellence and a researcher for Battlespace Acoustics Branch at the Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.

She first embraced the power of baking while working as a research manger at the The University of Arizona. She baked for friends and conferences.

“More and more people told me they came back to this conference for my (baked goods),” Sullivan said. “All of my friends and coworkers said ‘you should sell your stuff’.”

Sullivan got her feet wet in a professional kitchen working as an assistant pastry apprentice at Kingfisher Bar and Grill in Tucson, Ariz. under pastry chef Marianne Banes.

“At the end of that, I finally felt confident I could bake,” she said.

Her bakery’s name is a play on the 21st Amendment to the United States Constitution, which ended prohibition in 1933. Also, 21 is this nation’s legal drinking age.

Sullivan’s prices vary and items can be made with or without booze.

Generally, she sells boozy cupcakes for about $20 a dozen and cookies containing alcohol for $16 a dozen.

It is certainly more expensive than anything you are going to get at the (super market), but these are high quality ingredients,” she said. “It is a speciality item. It is gourmet.”

The alcohol in her treats typically burn off, but not always. Sullivan said the booze lingers in items such as her Irish whiskey cake.

Bourbon isn’t the only intoxicant Sullivan uses, but it is her favorite.

She prefers Wild Turkey 81 or 101, saying it is a sweet, but not too sweet tastes adds flavor to several recipes.

“It is a great bourbon without breaking the bank,” Sullivan said.

She said her goal is to make great desserts with great ingredients.

“I always want to bake something and it has be the best version of that thing,” she said.

Details:

Bakery 21

228 Green St., Upper N0. 1

Dayton, OH 45402

937-751-6686

bakerytwentyone@gmail.com