Baldwin ? Karen Bayer remembers when a simple, family trip to a little doughnut shop in her hometown of Paola was a big occasion.

“It was magical, a special event. We had to take two cars, because there were eight kids. We would go for doughnuts maybe once a month,” says Bayer, recalling that money was tight back then.

But things are different today, with small-town stores selling homemade baked goods, once a fixture in such communities, fading largely into memory.

“Now people go to the supermarket and buy a machine-made cake, wrapped in plastic with a list of chemicals it contains,” she says.

Bayer is busy these days trying to resurrect that joyful experience of growing up in Paola and savoring those once-monthly visits to a shop for fresh-baked treats.

Only she has much more than just doughnuts on her mind. Bayer has an ever-changing repertoire of cookies, muffins, pastries, brownies, croissants, breads and special-order wedding cakes. Lunch items include empanadas, calzones, quiche and pizza.

On June 30, Bayer opened Baldwin City Baking Co., 215 N. Sixth St., a short distance from Baldwin High School. The business, which is in a 103-year-old, renovated home, is her attempt to bring the time-honored tradition of a small-town bakery to Baldwin.

“I love living here. This is the first place I call home. And I felt this is what Baldwin was missing,” says Bayer, who was laid off from her job as a computer programmer in Overland Park in March 2001.

It seems like she’s on to something, because there aren’t many places around town where Baldwin residents can buy fresh-baked goods, other than the shipped-in Krispy Kreme doughnuts sold at a local convenience store.

Gailen Murray, left, and David Moore, both of Baldwin, stop into the Baldwin City Baking Co., 215 N. Sixth St., for sausage rolls and cinnamon rolls. Wes Richardson, whose mother, Karen Bayer, started the bakery, serves the early morning patrons.

“Mrs. Chubb makes the most fantastic pies, and she lives here. There’s a lovely lady who sells breads and carrot cakes at the farmers market downtown. She’s a customer of ours, and we’re one of hers,” Bayer says.

Other than that, the Baldwin City Baking Co. appears to have found its own niche.

“Business is surprisingly good. It could be a lot better, but for a startup, we’re doing really great,” she says.

She and her husband, Robin Bayer, have lived in Baldwin for the past three years. Her son, Wes Richardson, 18, works part time at the bakery.

Her daughter, Kristen Kinsch, 22, is a massage therapist with an office right above the bakery.

Asset to the community

Karen Bayer

As with any small-town bakery — even though it’s brand new — Bayer’s store has already built a devoted following of regulars.

Like Baldwin resident Gailen Murray.

“I always open ’em up in the morning. I get coffee and a pastry. I’m partial to the pecan cinnamon rolls,” says Murray, sitting on one of the garden benches he makes and sells around Baldwin.

Bayer has let him put a few pieces of his wooden, outdoor furniture on the front porch of the home where the bakery is.

David Moore, Baldwin, is another regular. Moore, who works for Baldwin-based Hilco Mortgage Corp., comes in about twice a week to buy baked goods for the business’s employees and customers.

“Her products are just delicious. Brownies, cinnamon rolls — whatever she has out here (in the bakery cases), we buy. She’s definitely an asset to the community. She adds something we haven’t had in years — fresh baked goods,” he says.

Then there’s Elizabeth, whom the bakery employees call the “cherry lady.”

Erin Wyatt, a part-time bakery employee, cuts brownies at Baldwin City Baking Co. The business opened on June 30.

“Every day, she comes in and asks, ‘What do you have with cherry in it?’ And there’s the cheddar loaf guy, Steve. He comes in for the cheddar cayenne loaf every day. I offered to sell him the dough (used to make the bread), but he said he didn’t want to turn his oven on — it was too hot outside,” Bayer says.

Word of the little bakery is getting out.

“We have people who live in Baldwin and work in Lawrence who will buy a box of assorted pastries and cookies to bring to work. Then their co-workers will drive down (to patronize the store),” she says.

Bayer’s plans for the future are modest.

“We want to stay small. Our facilities are small, and we don’t want to outgrow them. My hope for this place is that we can become self-sufficient, that we can offer our goods and services at a reasonable price,” she says.

Labor of love

So what does the bakery have that’s good?

Among the most popular items are the store’s sausage rolls, which employees liken to the familiar “pigs in a blanket” (dough-wrapped miniature wieners).

“We can’t make enough of them. People come in, and that’s what they want,” Bayer says.

Erin Wyatt, a part-time bakery employee who lives in Lawrence and attends culinary school at Johnson County Community College, concurs with her boss.

Hot cookies are stacked in a row ready for the moring customers.

“My dad is obsessed with them. I have to bring him some sausage rolls every day that I work,” she says.

The bakery’s pecan cinnamon rolls are often mentioned by customers as a favorite, and Bayer’s specialty breads have been in demand, too. The store offers two varieties each day.

Among the kinds offered are: cheddar-cheese cayenne loaf, whole wheat hearth bread, cinnamon raisin swirl, wheat germ, onion batard (an oblong-shaped loaf, shorter than a baguette) and whole wheat sandwich bread.

Six kinds of pastries fill the bakery cases each day, plus muffins (blueberry, cherry, cream cheese, chocolate chip, orange-cranberry), brownies (chocolate ganache and rocky road) and a rotation of different types of cookies (peanut butter, oatmeal walnut, pecan and coconut, among them).

Turning out baked goods like these are a labor of love for Bayer, who is self-trained in the kitchen.

“By the time I was 7, I was already sewing my own clothes and baking,” says Bayer, who grew up with four older sisters among her seven siblings.

“It’s something that I enjoy. After 20 years in the computer field, I needed a change. So I chose something I love to do,” she says.