It started as a Christmas gift gone wrong.
Stella Buckley ’22 never asked for an ice cream maker — but that’s what she unwrapped on Christmas 2022 after her boyfriend and his mother accidentally bought her the same gift: a pasta maker. Scrambling for a replacement just days before the holiday, her fiancé, Noah Backman ’22, made a quick switch — and landed on the ice cream maker.
“It was a super happy accident that I ended up getting that gift,” Buckley says.
It eventually led her to launch Stellie’s Ice Cream in Madison, Wisconsin. The ice cream that Buckley first made in her apartment kitchen for family and friends is now a business that includes catering for weddings and special events, sales at America’s largest farmers’ market, and a brick-and-mortar store that opened in June 2025. The ice cream is also sold in Wisconsin supermarkets.
Based on her original recipes, Buckley’s ice cream flavors have built a loyal following. They include dark chocolate sea salt, strawberry buttercream, honey vanilla bean, peanut butter with cookie dough chunks, and salted caramel swirl with candied pecans.
"The way I like to describe it is that it feels like the flavors are bouncing on your tongue,” she says.
From Baker to Ice Cream Maker
The Vero Beach, Florida, native always enjoyed baking for her family but never considered a hospitality career. She was on the rowing team in high school and chose Lehigh because it offered strong academics while allowing her to continue to compete in the sport. She applied early decision, entered Lehigh’s IDEAS program studying bioengineering and environmental science, and later switched her major to earth and environmental science.
Her parents, who each own their own business, showed foresight about her eventual career as they encouraged her to continue baking. “My parents would ask, ‘Are there any cooking classes or baking classes you can take at Lehigh?’” she recalls.
After graduating, she pursued a master’s degree in biotechnology at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. It wasn’t the right fit, so she dropped it and took a job with a biotechnology company while considering her career options. By then, she had started to make ice cream.
She began bringing it to friends’ parties. It was a hit, and soon she received requests for specific flavors. Then came orders from strangers.
“It went from being super casual to somebody emailing saying, 'I got your email from so-and-so who knows so-and-so,’” she recalls. She started charging for the ice cream and catering events on weekends, then purchased a cart pulled by a bike to take to events. It became synonymous with her business.
“It was easy, all word-of-mouth. I didn’t have a website, a business card — nothing,” Buckley says.
Side Hustle Becomes the Main Hustle
The move from side venture to business required an investment. Making larger amounts of ice cream in her tiny apartment kitchen wasn’t sustainable, so she became a member of Madison’s Food Enterprise and Economic Development (FEED) Kitchens, which allowed her to rent commercial kitchen space. She also obtained a commercial food license and a license for her cart. She was initially wary of the $8,000 that would cover the combined fees.
“I came home and talked to Noah,” Buckley recalls. “He said, ‘You are working at your current job as a temporary solution until you find something that you really love. So is this something you really love to do?’ I said yes, and he said ‘What are you waiting for?’”
To keep up with demand, she quit her job and began making ice cream full time in March 2024. Her sales accelerated when she began going to the Dane County Farmers’ Market in April 2024. Held on what is known as The Square around the Wisconsin State Capitol Building, it is reportedly the largest producer-only farmers’ market in the country. While still working her day job, she rose at 4 a.m. Monday through Friday to make enough ice cream to sell at the market. Buckley would sell out in a couple of hours.
Pride in the Product
The quality of her product has been the key to her success. “It’s really soft and smooth. Customers have said, ‘I don’t know if this is ice cream. It kind of tastes like gelato,’” Buckley says. “It doesn’t have any gums or artificial flavoring in it. It’s something that we pride ourselves on — that we have really good ice cream.”
On June 1, Stellie’s Ice Cream opened its first store at 1815 East Washington Avenue in Madison. She also contracted with a Missouri facility to produce her ice cream to sell in supermarkets and meet increasing demand at events. The store will serve as home base for walk-in traffic, ice cream-making parties, and customer pickup for special orders. The latter includes fraternities and other tailgaters at University of Wisconsin football games who get their ice cream in coolers emblazoned with the Stellie’s Ice Cream logo. Weddings are now the largest part of her catering business, with one booked every weekend from May through mid-December.
Having a physical storefront will bring Buckley more opportunities and more faces, like the Mountain Hawks she sometimes sees at events.
“I was working a corporate event, and I had a Lehigh hat on. At least four people came up to me and said, ‘I went to Lehigh,’” she recalls.
While she’s enthusiastic about the growth of her business, what still means the most to Buckley is the look on her customers’ faces as they savor her ice cream. “Ice cream is such a simple pleasure,” she says.
