Dwelling at the intersection of LGBTQ+ advocacy, queer immigrants, and some of the most mouthwatering cookies, brownies, and snickerdoodles ever baked, Wunderkeks employs a different business philosophy and sees making a difference as an essential ingredient.
Hans Schrei and Luis Gramajo are more than just bakers and business partners. The couple immigrated from Guatemala to Austin to live their dreams of getting legally married and proudly running a queer-owned bakery. Wunderkeks was founded on the streets of Guatemala City in 2012 and centers around the idea that childlike joy is something worth embracing and celebrating. Its mission statement is to “nurture the inner child.”
This past June, Wunderkeks gave back to the community in a big way when it teamed with the LoveLoud Foundation, the LGBTQ+ youth support and advocacy group from Imagine Dragons frontman Dan Reynolds. Wunderkeks commissioned Guatemalan artist Muxxi to design the colorful custom packaging for the collaboration.
“To us, cookies are a way to spark joy while delivering an important statement, by way of a big, colorful box of hand-crafted cookies made with love,” Gramajo said, noting the collaborative effort served as the “impetus to proliferate the urgent message of unconditional love and acceptance for our LGBTQ+ family.”
The couple was also happy to recently update us with some more good news: Wunderkeks will be providing some tasty treats for the official Oscar goodie bags to be given out to celebs and insiders at the upcoming 94th Academy Awards ceremony.
Here is a snippet from our recent chat with Schrei and Gramajo, where they discuss their childhoods in Guatamala and their inspiration for starting Wunderkeks (which was featured on our daily web news update, Pride Today):
This piece originally ran in Out Traveler print magazine. The Winter 2022 issue is now available on newsstands.
