“Outrageously good” were the first words I used to describe the pound cake I received in a care package from Elisa’s Cake by the #Pound. As a first year student at Northwestern, I had been lucky enough to receive one of Elisa’s homemade care packages for college students.
Elisa Knotts is a self-taught home baker. She began baking in 2014 when she made a cake for her daughter’s fourth birthday party. From there, Knotts baked goods for friends and family, until she began baking full time with “make your own cupcake” kits during the pandemic. She moved to Chicago in February 2022 to work at a bakery. However, she ended up leaving to focus on her own business, Elisa’s Cake by the #Pound, which is one of Travel Noire’s top 50 best Black-owned bakeries in the U.S. While she specializes in a variety of colorful cakes, cookies and other sweets, for college students, Knotts’s university care packages are the perfect treat.
Knotts first started making the care packages when she lived in New Orleans. The packages contain around six sweet treats, such as cookies, mini cheesecakes and pound cake. She dropped off the packages at Tulane University and Loyola University New Orleans. When she moved to Chicago, she continued her business and dropped off care packages for students at Northwestern University, Depaul University and Loyola University Chicago. Knotts sells the care packages roughly once a month. For Northwestern students, the packages are dropped off at Schapiro and Allison Residential Halls.
She said one of her favorite parts is getting to read the notes loved ones who send care packages to students want added on the box.
“It’s the little things that count,” Knotts said. “It’s a way for them to connect to you, and I find so much joy in reading them, like you never know where it’s going to go.”
She also said that she enjoys dropping off the care packages because she can connect with others and take on a care-taker role for the students. “It gives me joy to step in where a mother or a parent can’t be and make that day a bit special,” she said.
And it is easy to see how these treats do just that. Her regulars include silky cookie butter cheesecakes, buttery slices of cream cheese pound cake and white chocolate sprinkle cookies. Seasonal treats such as pumpkin spice latte cookies and heart shaped mini cookie cakes make appearances for the holidays.
Knotts sees her creativity with baked goods as a gift she can use to explore an endless amount of possibilities, since “it’s something that was inside of me… I just feel like now, sky’s the limit,” she said.
Her self-created recipes take inspiration from trends in baking and elements from her surroundings. For example, many of her recipes are inspired by the seasons, such as using berries and lemons during the summer months.
For Valentine’s day, Knotts’s care package included a personal sized, two-layer cookie cake. I had the chocolate chip cake delivered, which was perfectly chewy and not too sweet. Chocolate chips added a perfect crunch to the soft dough, and the frosting was sweet, but not too sweet. I also tried Knotts’ King Cake for Mardi Gras, which was buttery and rich from the cream cheese frosting.
Chocolate chips added a perfect crunch to the soft dough, and the frosting was sweet, but not too sweet. I also tried Knotts’ King Cake for Mardi Gras, which was buttery and rich from the cream cheese frosting.
She is unsure of her future plans for Elisa’s Cake by the #Pound, but she does know that she will continue to connect with those around her through her baking.
“I have my hand in so many pots but they’re all working and it’s all things I like to do,” said Knotts. “[I’m] just trying to figure out what’s next. What is it that I want to go towards?”
For the remainder of the 2023 school year, Knotts said it is likely she will offer care packages for St. Patrick’s day and finals week. Orders can be placed on her website.