Mitten Raised
1331 E. Grand River AvenueWe’ve gotten in to the travel sports phase of life. I always assumed it would be something like softball or soccer, but L went a different direction. She found ice skating and has fell in love with it.
We’ve done Learn to Skate at Wings West off and on for about four years now. She always liked it and really wanted to learn how to skate but as she got in to the higher levels and started learning more advanced moves, it really became something.
As we were walking out of a Learn to Skate lesson last fall, we were handed a sign up for for the Greater Kalamazoo Skating Association’s Holiday Ice Review. We figured, “what the heck.” They had a group for her Learn to Skate class and it would be fun for her to get to perform.
“What the heck” turned in to “this is the thing we’re going to do.” L fell in love with ice skating from that experience and started begging us to get more involved with the club. We went through another level of Learn to Skate then finally realized it was time to join the club and get a private coach.
We started private lessons just before competition season started a few weeks ago. L and her coach were able to get a program together for the first tournament of the season in Mt. Pleasant the first week in March. It was a learning experience. It didn’t go as well as she had hoped but we knew what to expect from ice skating competitions now since none of us knew anything about the sport two months ago.
We figured since we entered her in one, it was probably best to enter her right away in a second one just to keep the momentum going. The next one on the calendar was the VanCamp Invitational in East Lansing.
Ice skating competitions are long days. L’s practice was at 11:40. Her first event was at 1:20 and her second event was at 6:05. That’s a long day just for her but we also drug B along so we had to find ways to keep him entertained for the 8+ hours we were going to be in East Lansing.
We got L to Suburban Ice East Lansing and I stuck around to make sure her skates were tight and everything was good during her practice. We let B bring his tablet and his Switch to keep him entertained while his sister wasn’t skating.
He and I kind of hung out in the lobby. He was playing Minecraft and I was scrolling through my phone. Once L was done with her practice, I asked B if he wanted to go get some treats. He assumed I meant the vending machine but I had a better idea.
We headed back towards Grand River Avenue to a bakery called Mitten Raised. The shop is in the Brookfield Plaza on the corner of Grand River Avenue and Hagadorn Road in East Lansing near the Michigan State University campus.
As we were getting out of the car, B asked if they had donuts. I said they do but they also have cookies and other sweets and he could get whatever he wanted.
The bakery is set up like a pretty typical cafe. The is an order counter near the middle of the space with a display case showing off all of their creations.
The rest of the building is a variety of seating areas. The cafe was pretty packed around noon on this Saturday afternoon. Lots of laptops open next to coffee cups and lots of collaboration going in what appeared to be groups of MSU students.
There were a few people in front of us when we walked in so that gave us time to peruse the display cases. There was so much to choose from but B was instantly drawn towards the donuts.
I went a different direction and headed straight for the cookies.
When the cashier was done with the person in front of us, she came over to B and asked what he wanted. We ended up grabbing 3 donuts and 5 cookies and a cookie sandwich. The total cost of our box of treats was right around $23.
Some of this was for B and I but we were also going to share with J and L who were still back at the arena.
B picked out the Chocolate Funfetti donut because…well…funfetti. The donut was covered in mini chocolate chips and a chocolate frosting. The best part though was in the donut. There was a ring of cinnamon sugar between the two halves of the donut and B called this “the best donut I’ve ever had” because of that cinnamon sugar surprise.
The other donut I picked L ended up eating later in the day. It was the Almost Famous. This chocolate cake donut has vanilla frosting, a chocolate drizzle, peanut butter cup pieces, and peanut butter. I took a bite just for a quick taste but she was hungry and this helped a little bit with some hangriness.
I let B pick some cookies too because that’s what I really wanted. We got two M & M cookies and the cashier threw in a Biggie Smalls which is also topped with M & M’s because she said if he liked the M & M’s cookies he would love the chocolate one too. We also got two Chocolate Chunk cookies because I’m basic and I like simple pleasures.
The last thing I grabbed was a Cookie Sandwich. I picked the Unicorn Dreams because B used to like anything Unicorn. I guess he’s kind of grown out of that phase. J ended up taking this one for herself. The sandwich is two Funfetti cookies with a sweet vanilla frosting between them.
Mitten Raised is kind of awesome. We got a huge box of sweets that lasted us pretty much all day. The donuts were super rich and I don’t think anyone ate a whole one in one sitting but they were super delicious too. The cookies were amazing. I loved my simple Chocolate Chunk and B could get enough of the M & M topped one.
I really needed a distraction for B and this was a good one early in our day. We got out of the arena for a little bit but still got back in time to see L skate. Plus, we got some delicious treats.
SW Michigan Dining 