MsPatti Cakes Is Not Your Grandma's' Pancake Mix

Creating a healthy alternative to a family favorite turned into a business birth for Patti Igoe-Betts, founder of MsPattiCakes.

- Gennie Taylor

“It began when my grandson, Kayden Hamlin, was restricted to eating gluten free foods due to Celiac disease,” Igoe-Betts said. Kayden’s mother, Lauren Miltner, always called her mother, Patti, “PattiCakes;” hence the company name, MsPattiCakes.

Igoe-Betts said she became dissatisfied with the gluten-free products she found on the market to feed Kayden.

“Thus I began the purchasing and experimenting with foods I had never in my life used,” she said. “I began with gluten free flours that I could find, and added to the shelf product my concoction to bring the texture and flavor to where I would enjoy it as well. This became a work of love when it took 11 ingredients to get a pancake and waffle mix right.” Once Igoe-Betts landed the right “mix” to meet the standard she desired, Igoe-Betts said Kayden “gobbled them up.”

“That’s when I decided to make it available to others,” she said.

Yet, Igoe-Betts said she had to overcome the obstacle of locating a health department approved kitchen.

“I began to scour the city (Jackson) and surrounding areas for an incubator kitchen,” she said. “I hounded the health department for their help and they had nothing for me to work out of. I must have hounded them enough because they made a phone call to Mr. Joe Donovan, managing partner or the Donovan consulting group and faculty at Millsap College.”

Donovan provided Igoe-Betts with names of others in the food industry who had experience kicking off in the industry.

“Talking to other entrepreneurs was very helpful and eventually I ended up sharing a kitchen with another food vendor,” Igoe-Betts said. “That was the open door I needed to build a Web site and sell to stores.”