Allison Nelson uses caffeinated baked goods to fuel ISU students.

Nelson, owner of A Snack in the Face, 2414 Lincoln Way, wants her product to be on the counter of every college book store in the country.

“This is really an incubator for our product that we will manufacture,” Nelson said. She hopes to have her food produced for mass retail soon.

“Our products need to be more convenient,” she said. “Right now, people have to come to us.”

Despite the slight inconvenience of people having to take the time to visit her bakery, Nelson said she enjoys working in Campustown.

“It’s a good place to be; it’s a good place to test out our product,” she said. “Caffeine is a good match for students.”

Even though it’s located so close to students, Nelson gets a wide variety of clientele in her shop. Young professionals and people who want to experiment with caffeinated baked goods also frequent A Snack in the Face.

“These days, it’s go, go, go,” Nelson said. “That mindset took over our world. Every once in a while you want something that tastes good and gets you through your difficult day.”

Nelson had always loved baking. Her family owned a catering company, and she grew up baking and learning the ropes of running a business.

“I grew up on the job,” Nelson said, because she did not go to college, her experience is how she has been able to successfully handle her own business.

“I always did baking as a hobby,” she said. “I’d do wedding cakes and pies and stuff for the family business as a side gig. I guess I always had this desire to bake for people.”

Nelson, who worked as a marketing manager before opening A Snack in the Face, owned several other small businesses with her husband, who now works in the ISU Research Park. However, this business in particular has been a special project of theirs.

“I took a combination of things important to me. I wanted people to experience what I did when I was a kid,” Nelson said.

She grew up with “real” ingredients, and old recipes that were “not necessarily good for you, but they were real and decadent.” These days, Nelson said, people hardly ever taste real food, settling instead for cakes made from a box or fast food.

As for the caffeine aspect of her food, Nelson never liked coffee and didn’t enjoy having to chug large amounts of soda all day.

“I wanted to find a different caffeine delivery system. This place is unique: There’s no such thing as a caffeine bakery.”

A Snack in the Face can customize and caffeinate everything, Nelson said. She experiments with whatever her customers ask her to caffeinate.

“Our customers are comfortable enough to ask us,” she said, “and we get a number of requests for things.”

Those requests have included puppy chow, which Nelson said flew off the shelf, and gummy bears. She said that is the beauty of her incubator bakery.

“We get to experiment all over the place, and with such an intimate place, we can take the time to chat with people.”

All products are developed based on feedback from customers, and many have evolved from core products. Those core products stay on the shelf every day, while the unique, and often experimental, creations are daily specials.

Nelson said she can take a great sense of pride in her job.

“I’m in charge of everything. It’s a dream of everyone’s to have something you call your own.”