14-year-old baker dreams big; now Mall of America’s youngest food vendor

BLOOMINGTON, Minn. — It’s one thing to phone Mall of America with a sales pitch.  It’s another when a preteen leaves the voicemail.

“It leaves you speechless,” Barb Ross-Hayes, a MOA food and beverage manager, says.  “How wild is it that an 11-year-old girl cold-calls the Mall of America to see if she can sell her product here.”

Three years later, MOA has introduced Edyn Esparza’s cake pops at Nickelodeon Universe, the mall’s indoor amusement park.

The 14-year-old baker becomes the mall’s youngest food vendor. 

“I was a little bit intimidated,” Edyn says of the approval process. “I just felt like I had the determination to do it.”

Before Eden gained approval, she made two in-person presentations to MOA management.

To help her comply with food safety laws, Edyn’s parents helped her rent space in a commercial kitchen.  

She was also required to pass a test to gain her state food production license.

“I studied for like three hours every day for two weeks straight,” Edyn says.

She took the test from home, under the close supervision of an online proctor, who asked to see Edyn’s driver’s license.

Her mother, Sharon Esparza, told her daughter to “tell them you’re only 13.”

Edyn presented her 7th grade school I.D. 

“And she passed it,” Edyn’s mother says proudly.

It wasn’t the first time Edyn has shown her kitchen creativity.

By age 3, she was spending an inordinate amount of time in a play kitchen.

By 5, she was making her own cooking show videos.

By 8, Edyn was hawking her homemade cupcakes by cart at a car dealership.

“We were buying a car, and she thought, great opportunity,” her mother says. “She went to every cubicle.”

But, then, Edyn grew up with a good mentor.

In 2007, Edyn’s older brother Ethan was featured in a Land of 10,000 Stories segment as the 12-year-old peddled lemonade, dressed in a black suit and tie, along busy 50th Street in southwest Minneapolis.

Today, Ethan owns a business in the real estate field.

“I want to be like him, I want to be an entrepreneur,” Edyn says.

Enrico Esparza, Edyn’s dad, says his children share a similar drive.

“We’ve always been the type of people that tell our kids, if there’s something you want to go after, we’ll do whatever we can to support you,” Enrico says.

Supporting Edyn means her parents recently spent an unscheduled Saturday rolling 600 dough balls in their daughter’s rented kitchen, because her cake pops were selling more briskly than the mall expected.

 Edyn’s mother shrugs it off.

“Hugs and good grades, that’s her payment method,” Sharon says.

Edyn admits to having never made a cake pop before leaving her first phone message at the mall.

“I was just like, I think I could do it,” she says.

Edyn taught herself with a few online videos and a lot of trial and error.

In February, the mall introduced three of Edyn’s cake pops, frosted in Nickelodeon-themed green, orange, and purple.

Priced at $3.50 each and sold at the amusement park’s Coaster Café, Edyn’s cake pops were an instant hit.

“I might work for her someday, honestly I joke with her about that,” Barb says.

Edyn is quick to point out she wouldn’t be in this position without Barb’s guidance.  

“Without her calling me back none of this would have happened,” Edyn says, glancing affectionately at the food manager.

“I’m so proud of you,” Barb says in return.