(Photo by Mark Brodie - KJZZ)

Melody Larsen is the owner of Sassy’s Café and Bakery in Mesa. She was also a contestant on Food Network’s “Holiday Baking Championship.”

Mixers are whirring in the kitchen of Sassy’s Cafe and Bakery in Mesa leading up to the holidays.

This year they’re being used to make more cookies, cakes and other baked good than in past years – at least in part because of the new celebrity status of Sassy’s owner and pastry chef, Melody Larsen. She was a contestant on Food Network’s “Holiday Baking Championship,” and even though she didn’t win, she did make it more than halfway through the competition.