How do you mend a broken heart? Teacher, creative baker and animal lover Melissa Schmuke found a good way to soothe that pain. “The Animal Protection Association advertised an event called the Valentine Fling. They wanted people to foster a dog for the weekend to get them out of the shelter and give them time to destress,” she says. “I had just broken up with someone a day before Valentine’s Day. I thought these dogs need help, and I need to keep my mind off the breakup.”
Melissa Schmuke makes treats for dogs
It was a win-win situation, but when Schmuke arrived at the APA the dog she’d chosen online had already been taken, so she looked around. “There was this scared dog in the corner of her cage who looked exactly like my childhood dog. I took her home. By day two I had fallen in love with her.” The dog even got along with her cat, fat Frank. “She was the perfect angel. I knew she wasn’t going back.” Schmuke named her Amora, which means love in Spanish. A few years, she would meet another love — her husband, Aaron.
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Shmuke wanted to give Amora a good life, but the treats she found were full of preservatives and ingredients she couldn’t pronounce, so she got to work making all-natural treats for her girl. “My main love language is gift giving, and cooking is a form of gift giving to me,” she says.
Although she loved to cook, she hadn’t thought of herself as a baker. “My mom is a great cook, and growing up I was her little buddy sidekick, so I learned from her. I didn’t start cooking until college when I moved away from home. I started paying attention to recipes, trying new stuff, and my roommate and I cooked together every single night. What’s funny is I always said I don’t like to bake. I’m not a baker,” Schmuke says.
Schmuke’s two dogs, Amora on the left and Shay on the right, enjoyed a few Christmas treats and toys last month.
Schmuke spent a few months tweaking recipes, trying different textures and bake times for her treats made with human-grade ingredients — pumpkin, bananas, oats, a little flour and honey. She developed full-flavored combinations dogs love like peanut butter and pumpkin, cinnamon pumpkin, and the peanut butter, banana, oats and honey with a touch of flour she uses for the pupcakes and cakes. The frostings are also dog-friendly.
“In 2020, I took a chance, quit teaching and went full time into Schmookies,” she says. “It’s been amazing. I can finish my doctorate and focus on my family — my baby and my husband.”
Schmuke takes orders for her custom cakes through messages on Facebook and Instagram and designs them to fit each pup.
Schmuke is a one-woman show with some production help from her family. Her husband learned to bake when she’s slammed with orders, and her mom, Lisa, makes all the Paw Butter for her. Schmuke likes the work-life balance she’s achieved by working at home.
“It’s all been a learning curve for sure,” she says. “I’m taking it step by step.”
Schmuke’s future plans include finishing her doctoral dissertation. She’d like to use her doctoral degree to teach early childhood development in a university night school setting while she continues to develop Schmookies.
Long term, she envisions moving the business out of her home and into a brick-and-mortar space.
“Starting a family put those dreams to the wayside a little bit, but it is something I would love to revisit. I think there’s nothing better than doing something you enjoy as a career and running a business, especially a small business in your hometown,” she says.
“I’m open to possibilities. I believe that with hard work, whatever you put your mind to can succeed. Beautiful things can happen,” she says.
