Amycakes was in 417 Magazine! Read the article and Q&A session called "Sweet Success" here.
Sweet Succes
Learn how the 24-year-old Amycakes Bakery owner got her start.
Amy McGehee was around 7 years old when her parents bought her an Easy-Bake Oven. A few years after she baked her first Easy-Bake Oven cake, Amy developed a custom recipe for two peanut butter cookies, which she baked after school every day. She dreamed of opening her own bakery since childhood.
Years later, shortly after she graduated from Drury University, McGehee purchased the former The Bakehouse location and opened Amycakes Bakery (308 West McDaniel St., Springfield, 417-831-6095, sweetsbyamycakes.com). The Bakehouse came with several recipes, but most of the recipes served at Amycakes Bakery came from Amy’s grandma or were developed by Amy herself. The bakery sells cupcakes, cookies, sweet rolls and customized cakes.
A Q&A with Amy McGehee
What’s the first thing you ever baked?
“The first thing I baked was little cakes in my Easy-Bake Oven, but I kept wanting to make peanut butter cookies in the real oven. My mom didn’t want me to make full batches of peanut butter cookies, so I made my own peanut butter cookie recipe that made two cookies, and I would make that every day after school.”
What’s your favorite thing you’ve ever made?
“I’m kind of a choc-o-holic, I have a chocolate butter cake that is my grandmother’s recipe actually, it has a mocha frosting-it’s really moist chocolate cake with frosting.”
What has been your biggest baking disaster?
“Well, our frostings are made with real butter, so if it’s super hot outside, they will start to get soft. On a really hot day I had a cake start to melt away, but I had enough time to redo it, so it wasn’t a complete disaster.”
What’s your favorite dessert?
“Probably our monster cookies. They have peanut butter, oatmeal and chocolate chips, so they’re a good combination.”
What’s your favorite unexpected ingredient to use?
“We use cinnamon in some things that you wouldn’t expect-even our peanut butter cookies have a hint-and I think it really makes them pop.”
What’s your favorite baking tool?
“An icing spatula.”
What’s your favorite show on Food Network?
“My favorite show is Chopped, but I also watch Good Eats and Ace of Cakes.”
Who taught you how to bake?
“My grandma, a lot, I can remember her showing me cobblers and pie crusts and all that, she’s the one in my family who really has a passion for baking.”
Do you like cooking?
“Yes, I do.”
What’s your favorite cookbook?
“I have an entire bookshelf of cookbooks in my apartment, but I don’t know what my favorite one would be.”
What’s your favorite bakery (other than your own?)
“We used to go to Supreme Bakery a lot. They have really good kringles.”
Where do you get your inspiration?
“I did a lot of art in college, I was an art minor in addition to be an arts administration major, so I like the artistic side of baking too. I think that just baking is an art form, in addition to decorating, so that inspires me.”
What’s your food weakness?
“Well, I eat so many sweets here since I have to taste things as I’m making them, so I’m pretty much done with sweets by the time I leave, so if I’m craving something, I’m usually craving salty things. If I were to indulge myself, it would probably be on something that’s really bad for me, like French fries that are really salty and delicious.”
What’s your favorite cake/icing combination?
“Our chocolate cake with our homemade peanut butter icing is awesome. It tastes like a Reese’s peanut butter cup.”
Who is your favorite celebrity chef?
“I like Giada De Laurentiis; all of her stuff tastes really good. If I want to cook something, I know her stuff will taste good.”