MADISON — Martina Silva, a Catholic student at UW-Madison, took the opportunity this summer to pursue a dream. 

She started a gourmet stuffed cookie business that offers stunning, uniquely flavored cookies. 

Her company is called Sweet by Martina.

A passion for food

Silva has been passionate about cooking for a long time. 

“I started cooking and baking in the kitchen when I was three years old with my mom.” 

When she was 11, she was a top 50 finalist in MasterChef Junior, which further spurred her interest.

It was in her senior year of high school that her Faith also became a passion. 

“That’s when I started to practice [my Faith], and realizing that the Lord has so much more in store for us, and that there’s so much to following His call, rather than our own.” 

Last summer, she was out in California, her home state when she’s not at school, and was working two jobs. 

But she was still trying to get to Adoration and Daily Mass, making time to listen to God.

“I’ve always had a passion for food, and I’ve always known that I want to have a food business, and the reason for that is because I want to be able to help other people.”

In the midst of the summer, that dream got stronger. 

“As I was working those other jobs, I just felt this call, and I was like, I have the opportunity to start something right now . . . I didn’t want to ignore the opportunity that God’s giving me.”

As she pondered starting her own food business, she thought, “‘What is stopping me from starting right now?’ Because I think a lot of the time we put off something till later, when in reality it’s something that we could be doing currently in this moment because we have the opportunity to do so.” 

So, she seized the opportunity. 

Staying close to the Lord

As she began to make concrete plans, she settled on cookies because she loves to bake and cookies are accessible to everyone.

Her summer was very busy, but she balanced the new business with her commitments to prayer and other responsibilities. 

“I really think it’s important to go to Adoration, have time for the Lord, [pray] your Rosaries, all that stuff. I was really trying to balance how to be a faithful Catholic while following the Lord’s call for me.”

Silva maintained her business as she moved back to Wisconsin to start the school year. 

As a student at UW-Madison, she’s involved with Saint Paul’s Catholic Student Center, and she volunteers with Food for Thought, a student organization that provides meals to the homeless.

Food for Thought

One of the emphases of Food for Thought is that they don’t just hand over a meal — they stop and listen, learn the person’s name, and hear their story. 

They offer the love of Christ to someone who is hungry not only for food, but to know that someone sees them and cares.

For Silva, she wants to keep doing that in her own work one day. 

“I think the idea that I can help somebody in the future keeps me going, because the entire purpose of this business, right now, is to be able to make the money to someday open an even bigger business, maybe like a restaurant . . . it’s only me, at the apartment, right now, making cookies, but in the future hopefully it can be something bigger, where I can give [food] to those who need it, and I can make food for those who are actually hungry and help them and teach them about the Lord.”

For now, she’s dedicated to the work in front of her. 

“I wake up every morning, and I pray for discipline,” said Silva. 

“I do think that a lot of the time, people can get really overwhelmed and very stressed with everything that they have, with being a full-time student, being involved in either a club, or their Faith life, and going to daily Mass and praying the Rosary and Morning Prayer and all of that. And so every single day I pray for discipline and to not give up, because there are going to be times where things don’t work out, and you have to be able to have resilience.”

One of the saints she admires is St. Joseph. 

“He stayed humble. And I think a lot of the time we can, when we gain these opportunities, we tend to overestimate everything that we can do, but the whole point about being servants of the Lord and getting these opportunities is to stay humble, and be His servant, and to protect, and to be with our families, and to still make time for Him. And I think St. Joseph is a great example of that.”

While she’s still a full-time student, Silva operates on a weekly schedule to ensure sufficient time for a high-quality product. 

She accepts orders online, Sunday-Tuesday (or until the weekly cap is reached), and then makes the dough on Wednesday. 

She bakes and decorates cookies on Thursday and Friday morning. 

Customers pick up their orders on Friday.

She offers decadent and unique flavors, such as the Black Forest cookie, a chocolate cookie with cherry filling, white chocolate chips and drizzle, and a cherry on top; the Strawberry Matcha cookie, a matcha-flavored cookie with strawberry filling and white chocolate and strawberries on top; and the Nutty Caramel cookie, a peanut butter cookie with caramel and peanut butter inside, and caramel and peanuts on top.

Her most popular cookie? 

“It’s the Kitchen Sink, which is potato chips, pretzels, dark chocolate, and then it’s stuffed with a homemade caramel cornflake filling. It sounds like a lot, and everybody gets scared of it at first, because there’s a lot going on, but then everyone tries it, and then they’re like, ‘I never knew that I needed pretzels or potato chips in a cookie!’” 

One advantage of owning her own business is that she can play around with flavors; recently, she rotated a S’mores cookie and a White Chocolate Raspberry cookie into the lineup. 

Other flavors include Lemon Blueberry and Nutella Filled.