Sugar Spun Run

Samantha Merritt, Founder

Baltimore, MD

Samantha Merritt comes up with recipes that deliver, one cookie at a time.

2025

Sugar Spun Run is helping home bakers find recipes they can trust

Samantha Merritt launched Sugar Spun Run in 2012 from her own kitchen in Maryland, driven by a lifelong love of baking and a desire to share recipes that actually work. The site began as a side project but soon transformed into a full-time business thanks to Sam’s devotion to research and rigorous testing, not to mention, a few recipes that went viral. Today, millions of readers turn to her site, looking for reliable, well-tested desserts.

A sweet start

For Samantha Merritt, the journey to building a successful online baking empire started in a modest Maryland kitchen, with a lot of sugar, a bunch of dishes, and above all, a love for baking.

Sam has always loved to bake — a love that started way back when she was homeschooled as one of six siblings. “We’d finish school early and just bake all afternoon,” Sam remembers fondly. “My mom made everything from scratch, so that definitely stuck with me.”

Then fast forward to 2014, when Sam was craving a creative outlet. “I started Sugar Spun Run as just a hobby,” she says. “I was a newlywed working full-time in a cancer research lab with a long commute. The blog was something I did in the evenings and weekends.”

She even came up with the name “Sugar Spun Run” using a bit of creativity. “I loved the sound of ‘Sugar Spun’ — like spun sugar, like you’re crafting something sweet from scratch. But that domain was taken. So being a runner at the time, I decided to add ‘Run’ to the end. It had a nice ring to it too.”

And just like any runner, she persisted on this marathon she had started: building out the site herself, honing her photography skills, and testing recipes nonstop.

“It wasn’t anything fancy at first,” Sam says. “The website looked rough, my photos weren’t great, but I treated it seriously. I’d publish two recipes a week, test like crazy, and do everything myself, usually late at night.”

Meanwhile, her husband was a constant supporter by her side — scrubbing baking pans, taste-testing cakes, and cheering her on from the sidelines, especially when her recipes started to gain traction online.

“Some of my photos and recipes went viral on Imgur,” Sam recalls. “And then they got picked up by online publications. That’s when I realized people weren’t just reading my blog, they were baking my recipes — and loving them.”

Sam's blueberry muffin cookie: golden on the outside, bursting with blueberry on the inside

Rising to the occasion

As her audience grew, Sam faced a crossroads common for many online creators: on the one hand, she didn’t want to charge readers or lock content behind subscriptions, but on the other hand, she needed some way to cover the costs of running her ever growing website — from groceries and equipment to web hosting and most importantly, time.

“I didn’t want to put up paywalls,” Sam says. “But I also couldn’t keep doing this at scale for free. I needed a way to keep my recipes accessible to everyone, and without burning out or going broke.”

That’s when she realized that an ad-supported model for her business made the most sense.

Google AdSense was the obvious first step. “In the beginning, nobody was going to pay me for what I was sharing,” Sam says candidly. “I didn’t have premium videos or a fancy newsletter or anything. But I learned how ads worked, and realized that I could keep my content totally free, and still support myself with ad revenue.”

Then, being true to her research background, she started to experiment with a few ad networks here and there, eventually joining Raptive, a Google Certified Publishing Partner. And that’s when her business really went into sprint mode.

“I’m very grateful for Raptive because they handle all of the ad management,” Sam says. “And because I am able to monetize with a great ad company, I don’t need to focus on sponsors or subscriptions and am free to focus on creating great content for my readers.”

Today, ad revenue makes up the bulk of Sugar Spun Run’s income — and Sam wouldn’t have it any other way.

“It’s a win-win,” she says. “People get access to high-quality recipes without a paywall. And I can afford the groceries, the testing, the camera equipment, everything that goes into making each post.”

Thanks to this steady revenue from ads, Sam was even able to make a life-changing decision in 2017: she left her job as a full-time cancer researcher to run Sugar Spun Run full-time. And then within a year, her husband joined the business too.

Now with their powers combined, the blog has really hit its stride — both in terms of traffic as well as behind the scenes. Today, Sugar Spun Run is no longer a solo act. The site has a tight-knit team of five employees: all local, all incredible, and many of them family.

“Two of my sisters work in the kitchen with me,” says Sam. “They help test recipes, film videos, and, of course, maintain the kitchen, which is a never-ending task. Another employee handles video editing. One manages most of the social media. And one is a content specialist who preps the blog posts and manages the newsletter.”

“It’s a win-win. People get access to high-quality recipes without a paywall. And I can afford the groceries, the testing, the camera equipment, everything that goes into making each post.”

Whipping up trust one recipe at a time

Sam doesn’t want to be just any baking blogger though. She wants to be the most trusted baking blogger out there, a goal she takes very seriously.

“I don’t publish a recipe unless I believe it’s the best version out there,” she proclaims. “The amount of research and testing that goes into each one is... well, let’s just say, it’s a little intense. But I want people to know that if they come to Sugar Spun Run, they’re going to get something that works, each and every time.”

And it’s that trust that keeps readers coming back too, sharing the site with others. Take Sam’s most popular recipes: her fluffy homemade biscuits, creamy potato soup, and a popular chili that’s taken home hundreds of cookoff trophies (yes, really — hundreds).

“I hear from readers all the time who say, ‘I made this for my family and it turned out amazing,’” says Sam. “They’re the reason I keep doing this.”

With millions of monthly pageviews, and over 1.3 million followers across her social platforms — it’s safe to say that Sugar Spun Run has become a staple in many kitchens all over the world.

Sam is proud of what she’s built, and she’s far from done, but also grateful for what the ad-supported model has been able to help her accomplish.

“This isn’t just a job for me,” she says. “It’s a dream. I get to create something meaningful, connect with readers, and provide them with something that makes their lives a little sweeter. And I get to do it on my terms, with my family by my side.”

About the Publisher

Samantha Merritt is the founder of Sugar Spun Run, a trusted baking blog known for its rigorously tested desserts and approachable recipes. A former researcher and lifelong baker, Sam brings scientific precision along with personal warmth to every dish she shares. Based in Maryland, she now runs her business full-time with the help of her husband and a small team — including two of her very own sisters.

Behind the scenes at a Sugar Spun Run shoot