Dough Lady
“My mom’s famous sayings are, ‘The kitchen is a lab,’ and ‘If you can read, you can cook.’” Long before Amy Lund opened Dough Lady, Sundays in her childhood home in Sandy were spent in the kitchen with her mother and two sisters. They made homemade bread, brownies, cookies, zucchini bread, and banana bread, experimenting as they went. In a household where sweets were otherwise limited, if the girls wanted a treat, they made it themselves.
More than the food, Amy remembers the time together. Sundays were family days, her mother was almost always in the kitchen, and the three sisters naturally joined her. “We just baked a lot. It was something that we loved to do together.”
It became something Amy loved to do on her own as well. At Utah State University, where she studied public relations with a minor in marketing, her roommates became accustomed to finding her in the kitchen. Baking was her outlet, particularly during difficult moments. When her parents divorced while she was in college, she found herself baking even more. “When I’m happy, I bake. When I’m sad, I bake. Everywhere in between.”
After graduating in 2014, Amy began a career in public relations and corporate communications, eventually working in brand strategy. She had good jobs, bosses she respected, and colleagues she enjoyed, but something never quite fit. During team-building exercises when employees were asked what they would do if they could choose any other profession, Amy always had the same answer - she wanted to own a bakery. Then came Eric Lund.
The two had crossed paths at Utah State without ever really getting to know one another. Eric, who grew up in Blackfoot, Idaho, had studied accounting before earning a master’s degree in healthcare administration and moving to Texas. Amy happened to meet Eric’s brother at a gym in Utah. Recognizing the family resemblance, she mentioned that she knew Eric. Eric’s brother promptly called him. “You have to take Amy Nelson out on a date.” There was one complication. Eric lived in Texas.
When one of Amy’s closest friends later moved to Texas, Amy went to visit and reached out to Eric. They went on a date, began a long-distance relationship, and spent the next year largely falling in love over FaceTime. Eventually, Eric moved back to Utah. “It’s still the nicest thing that anyone has ever done for me,” Amy says. “I always wanted to marry somebody who was good, and he is the definition of good.” They married in 2020 in the middle of the pandemic, with a small wedding that already hinted at the partnership to come. Amy made cookies. Eric made salsa.
Only a few months later, the newlyweds began talking about side hustles. They both had full-time careers, but Amy had begun wondering whether the corporate world was really where she wanted to spend the rest of her working life. At first, they considered bottling Eric’s salsa. Then, they learned enough about the complexities of doing so to abandon that idea.
Meanwhile, Amy was doing what she always did when life felt uncertain. She was baking. Eric, who has Type 1 diabetes, began encouraging her to get some of those baked goods out of the house. Amy had always dreamed of a bakery, and during the pandemic, an informal world of home bakers and food businesses was flourishing. They began wondering whether they could simply sell something online. They settled on cinnamon rolls. Amy had never found one that tasted quite the way she thought a cinnamon roll should. She wanted more filling, soft dough that was never dry and cream cheese frosting. She began tinkering until she had one she loved.
On November 20, 2020, sitting in the parking lot outside their nephew’s basketball game, Amy created an Instagram account for Dough Lady and prepared to make their first post. She hesitated. “It felt so vulnerable to have something that you made by hand, put it out, and hope that people buy it.” Eric would not let her go inside until she pressed the button. So, she did.
They announced that they were taking orders and hoped a few friends and relatives might buy cinnamon rolls for the holidays. Amy would bake after work, Eric would help, and together they would arrange pickups and make deliveries throughout the valley. Their first product was frozen, take-and-bake dough - practical for their tiny home kitchen, but also perfectly suited to Amy’s love of the experience surrounding baking. “I love the act of pulling things out of the oven,” she says. “The nostalgia that it brought, because I grew up with those types of smells in my house - it just felt very comforting and familiar.”
Their first order came from a friend. They celebrated anyway. Then another arrived. Soon they received an order from a name neither recognized. “We were giddy,” Amy remembers. “We actually did it. We don’t know this person.’” The giddiness has never entirely gone away. “I still get excited when new customers come in and say, ‘We heard about you from a friend,’ or ‘We saw you on social media.’ It’s just as exciting to us.”
Thanksgiving was considerably busier than expected. Christmas was busier still. Amy and Eric found themselves baking until two in the morning - an almost unimaginable hour for two self-described early birds. One night, surrounded by cinnamon rolls and exhaustion, Amy looked over at her husband. “This is my dream,” she told him. “I’m baking with my husband. What a treat.” Eric remembers that particular hour somewhat differently. His primary thought was getting enough done so that he could go to sleep.
It is a difference between them that has ultimately served Dough Lady well. Amy describes herself as a “delusional optimist,” someone who fundamentally believes things will work out even while occasionally doubting herself. Eric is the one who thinks through the numbers, logistics and all the ways something might go wrong. Over time, some of Amy’s optimism has rubbed off on him, while his accounting and business background has given structure to the company growing around them.
In the beginning, however, neither was thinking particularly far ahead. They filled one side of their home freezer and were amazed by the volume. Today, they laugh that everything they produced during those first two holiday months might amount to a busy day’s production now. “The early days were just fun,” Amy says. “It was a passion project that we were doing together.”
By June 2021, they had begun selling freshly baked rolls at pop-ups, beginning at Roots Coffee. Amy was terrified no one would come. The owners there, along with other local businesses that welcomed Dough Lady for subsequent pop-ups, became early champions, offering advice, encouragement, and a place to reach new customers. That generosity left an impression on both Amy and Eric. Today, when other small food businesses ask them for guidance, they try to offer the same support. “A rising tide raises all ships,” Eric says. Amy agrees. “If you’re generous to people, people are going to be generous back.”
The little side business continued to grow. By October 2021, with another holiday season approaching, Amy realized Dough Lady needed one of them full time. She quit her job. “This was the scariest leap I’d ever taken in my life,” she says. “Starting it was scary, but it’s been way scarier to continue it - to make different leaps and to grow.”
A few months later, Dough Lady moved out of the Lund's thirteen-hundred-square-foot town home, where industrial worktables had replaced the kitchen table, a commercial mixer occupied a corner, and ingredients had overtaken nearly every available space. Amy began baking in a commercial kitchen and, over the next several years, continued to build the business while keeping an eye out for a place of her own. Nothing felt right.
Then, in 2024, four months after giving birth to their son, Jude, Amy learned that a bakery space had become available. She contacted the previous tenant, reached the landlord the following day and soon walked through the building. She immediately looked at Eric. “Oh no,” she said. “This is the place.” They signed the lease that August and opened Dough Lady’s first storefront in December 2024.
The little building is quirky, old-fashioned, and undeniably cozy - exactly what Amy wanted. There is a nook with books, an idea that came from Eric, an avid reader, and a record player inspired by a collection from his late father. Tables invite customers to stay for a while, and on busy weekends they often do. “I didn’t want it to feel like you were walking into just any other fluorescent place,” Amy says. “I wanted it to feel cozy. It’s a very cozy product.” But both Amy and Eric are quick to say that what matters most is not the furniture or décor, it is how people feel when they walk through the door. “The bare minimum is incredible cinnamon rolls and great coffee,” Eric says. “That’s just the starting point for us. People can spend their money anywhere, and it’s an honor that people spend their money with us.”
That philosophy extends to the twenty plus people who now work at Dough Lady. Separate teams bake the rolls early each morning, prepare dough, make frostings and fillings, and work behind the counter and espresso bar. Friendships have developed well beyond the bakery. When one team member married, another officiated and another served as a bridesmaid. “Our team is everything to us. We care a lot about the experience customers have, but we care just as much about the experience our team has.”
Employees are also encouraged to contribute creatively. Dough Lady has developed roughly sixty cinnamon roll flavors, many originating with the staff. An employee is invited to conceive a flavor, test it from beginning to end and, if everyone loves it, watch it appear on the menu. Three rolls remain staples - classic cinnamon, brown butter chai, and blueberry lemon - with a savory roll and several rotating flavors alongside them. The bakery also sells frozen take-and-bake cinnamon roll dough, dinner rolls, and cookie dough, along with a bread pudding Amy devised as a way to use extra cinnamon rolls rather than waste them. Chopped rolls are mixed with custard and frozen for customers to bake at home.
Coffee has become another important part of the shop. Dough Lady uses Sweet Bloom Coffee from Colorado. It also makes many of its syrups in-house and serves rotating specialty drinks, including its popular banana bread latte - another employee creation.
For all the growth, Amy and Eric have deliberately resisted becoming everything to everyone. “We’re very niche,” Amy says. There is no drive-through, no DoorDash and no Grubhub. Customers have to come through the door. For Eric, that is the point. “I feel so passionately about coming in and having a human interaction with us. We’re all disconnected, but yet people crave human connection. If we can be a bright spot in somebody’s day, we’ve done our job.”
Those brief interactions have become one of the most meaningful parts of the business for both of them. Customers have told them Dough Lady has become part of holiday traditions, celebrations, difficult days, and cherished memories. One woman wrote to Amy after her mother died, explaining that the smell of the cinnamon rolls brought back something she thought she had lost. Another customer shared that the bakery had helped her develop a happier relationship with food after an eating disorder. “I can’t believe that something we started for fun has reached so many people,” Amy says. “It’s mind-blowing.”
In May 2025, the partnership behind Dough Lady changed again. Eric had been working in healthcare while helping Amy behind the scenes, but they had long talked about the point when he might join the business full time. When he was laid off, the timing suddenly became clear. For Amy, there was little question. “I never thought he should get another job,” she says. “If we were going to grow, I didn’t have the capacity to do that on my own.”
Eric had already become indispensable. Amy carried recipes, systems and production plans largely in her head - sometimes spread across six sheets of handwritten calculations. Eric gradually convinced her to let him translate those systems into spreadsheets, procedures and processes that could be taught to others. “I just wanted to bake,” Amy says. “This business wouldn’t be what it is without his knowledge.”
It is here that Amy and Eric offer two slightly different descriptions of the same business. Eric is emphatic that Dough Lady is a woman-owned business. “Amy somehow translated her personality into a brand. When you see Amy online, it’s Amy as she is at home, Amy as she is every single day. She made the bakery what she is.”
Amy is equally emphatic about something else. “I hope people know that it’s called Dough Lady, but it’s also Eric building this too. I know people see my face a lot, but behind that is an incredibly kind and supportive and just good person. He’s the reason this exists because he encouraged me to do it.” She pauses before adding, “People love to champion a woman-owned business, but it’s powered by both of us.”
That partnership is now carrying Dough Lady into its next chapter. A second location in Lehi is preparing to open, with its own full production kitchen and the same cinnamon rolls, coffee and warmth Amy and Eric have created in their first shop. For years, Amy had looked at possible locations without feeling ready. Walking into the Lehi space gave her something close to the feeling she had experienced the first time she entered the original Dough Lady. Her gut told her, once again, this was the one.
Dough Lady is a long way from three sisters baking brownies on Sundays in their mother’s kitchen - and perhaps not very far at all. Amy still talks about scent, warmth, family, and the comfort of pulling something freshly baked from an oven. Instead of sharing those things with the people gathered in one childhood kitchen, she and Eric have found a way to share them with thousands of others. “If you would have told us six years ago that this would be our life, I think we would never have believed it. “It’s intertwined in every aspect of our life, and I don’t think we’d have it any other way.”
