11-year-old's 'business' shut down by health department

Chloe Stirling, 11, didn't mean to make the news. All she wanted to do was make some cupcakes.

Chloe was saving to buy a car (her mom promised to match whatever she raised by the time she was 16) and only sold her treats to friends and family.

Then, a local newspaper ran a story about Chloe and the Madison County Health Department shut her down.

In the state of Illinois, you can't prepare food out of your home for the public without a certified kitchen. Chloe would have to cook up her cupcakes in a separate location, or the Stirlings would need to build an additional kitchen onto their home if Chloe wanted to keep selling her treats legally. She estimates that she made about a hundred cupcakes before getting the ax.

Even if Chloe wanted to get the necessary permits, she isn't old enough to take the classes.

The original story on Chloe's cupcakes was supposed to be a 'feel good' report about a delivery of her snacks to a local nursing home, but 'it caught the attention of the wrong people, and all this happened,' Chloe's mom explained.

Chloe and her mom refuse to place blame on any one person at the health department and totally understand why Chloe was shut down.

For now, Chloe's family is trying to find a space where she can keep the local government off her back and legally whip up batches of her beloved Oreo-stuffed cupcakes.