Hi – I’m Lisa – The Yummy Yank. I’ve been making and selling a range of authentic American brownies (authentic, in that I am an American!) for nearly 20 years. We do food and drink events, a little wholesale and have an online presence. While this business has traded successfully, it has not generated the levels of income that we need to support the production and promotion of my Brownie Snap products, particularly the challenge that we currently face.

Having appealed in various ways to my lovely, loyal customers for help, many have suggested that we try a fundraiser, like this. We are not getting any younger (Mr Yummy and me), and we believe so passionately in the potential for Brownie Snaps. I am not comfortable doing this, but respect the suggestion and so here it is.

ABOUT BROWNIE SNAPS

Brownie Snaps were invented by me, during COVID – we worked long and hard to come up with a novel, tasty product that could get The Yummy Yank into wholesale. Post COVID, the brownie market has been swamped by new, younger businesses – so much more in tune with the social media savvy than I am. This, coupled with the endless rise in costs of raw materials, which we do not compromise on, labour and general overheads, has made supporting the manufacturing issues we are presented with insurmountable.

We launched our Brownie Snaps in 2021, a fully packaged product, with a years’ shelf life to much acclaim – winning a Great Taste star, a Great British Food Silver award, Farm Shop & Deli Show Product award and Gold and Silver Quality Food Awards. These are all peer awards that have given us great confidence in the product’s potential.

THE ISSUE

Unfortunately, our manufacturing capability has been stopped, due to regulations surrounding safety guards on the mixing machine that we used. We cannot make the Snaps without a powerful, heavy duty mixer – we used an 80qt Hobart Planetary mixer. Whilst we have sought alternative manufacturers – investing much of 2025 in doing so – we have failed to come up with an alternative. The has been a huge drain on our time and resources.

So we are left with only one option if we are to continue with a product that we have so much belief in – and that is to source a replacement mixer which meets the safety levels required.

FINANCES

We have invested all our available income in developing Brownie Snaps over the years to the extent that, as a very small business (we are a partnership), we do not show the sort of returns needed to qualify for business loans.

We use a business overdraft to help with the peaks and troughs of trade – unfortunately needing to call on this to the maximum over recent times, due to events challenged by poor turnouts, weather and overbooking of similar products.

WHAT WE NEED

To source, deliver and commission a refurbished machine is estimated at costing £10,000. That’s a lot of brownies – but there are a lot of you out there. So if you are able to “buy” us one for £5, (or two, or more) by donating to this appeal we will be more than grateful and, eventually, find some way of thanking you.