Baking Legacy Carries On the Family Business

Susie Gentemann could be called a baking legacy. She said she has been in the bakery business all her life. Her father, Ernie Zimmermann, who owned Cottage Bakery in St. Charles and Dutch Mill Pastry Shop in South St. Louis, taught her to bake and decorate pastries.

In 2000, Gentemann opened her own bakery, , with her father’s help.

A Family Affair

“I love decorating cakes and it just seemed like the right time,” Gentemann said. “I grew up in bakeries, so I knew I would have support from my family.”

She said that the bakery is a “family-run cake shop that specializes in drawings.” She works there with several family members, including her daughter, who manages the bakery and her brother, who does much of the baking. Her father also helps with some of the baking.

Gentemann is still the main decorator at the bakery, and said she loves her work.

“We consider every cake a work of art and take extra care and time to make each one special,” she said.  “Our butter cream icing is made from scratch along with our shortbread cookies, gooey butters and more.”

Baked Goodness

In addition to specialty cakes, Susie G’s offers cookies, cheesecakes, gooey butter cookies and cakes, brownies, “chewies” and a variety of other items, including wedding cakes.

“Our team of decorators put every effort to decorate every order with a flair that you will find nowhere else,” states Susie G’s website. “Each decorator has their own style that they like to show.”

The bakery can create cakes in nearly any shape, color and flavor, and it specializes in custom hand drawings and piped items. Several different filling flavors are also available, and Gentemann said she can also accommodate special requests for custom flavors.

“We also have a bunch of different figures and edible images available,” Gentemann said.

Food-Allergy Friendly

Gentemann said that Susie G’s is peanut-free, because she and her staff understand how hard it is for people with peanut allergies to find safe foods to eat, especially sweet treats.

“We wanted to make sure that those people have a little something fun to eat also,” Gentemann said.

The bakery also offers many items that are tree nut-free, and makes egg-free cookies that can be decorated the same way as the regular cookies.

But while the store is completely peanut-free, Gentemann noted that there are eggs and tree-nuts used in the bakery, so she can’t guarantee that there will be no trace of eggs or tree-nuts in those products.

A Worthwhile Commitment

Gentemann said that while she struggles with having a social life outside of the bakery, she’s able to spend plenty of time with her family since many of them work with her there.

She said she truly values her employees and her customers as well.

“I am blessed to have such wonderful people working for me,” she said. “Most of them have been with us for years. I also cherish the friendships that I have made with some of our customers.”

The Holidays at Susie G’s

Gentemann said that the bakery has a wide variety of Christmas cookies, all made by scratch by her father, using the recipes from his bakeries.

“The Christmas cookies are delicious,” she said. “We also have Christmas-decorated cookies and cupcakes that are so cute with Santa, Rudolf, Christmas trees, elves, candy canes, holly leaves and more.”

She said that this year, Susie G’s is offering Christmas cookie tins, which have proved to be very popular.

To learn more about Susie G’s Specialty Cakes, located at 2679 Hwy K, visit her website. You can also visit Susie G’s on Facebook for special holiday offers.

Would you like to see your locally-owned business featured in this column? Email Patch reporter and social media miner Angela Atkinson at angela.atkinson@patch.com to arrange for a brief interview.