Family recipes deliver new bakery to Central City

CENTRAL CITY — A bakery in Central City is bringing long-held family recipes to the public in northern Linn County.

Simply Homemade Sweets and Treats, started as a home-based bakery by owner Hailye Johnson, has quickly grown over the last two years with a few signatures. In March, she moved into its Main Street location.

Now, you can get them from the bakery’s brick-and-mortar location serving as Central City’s only bakery.

For more than 50 years, Johnson’s grandmother, Debbie McCoy, has been baking the same recipes tested by trial and error over generations in their family.

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Like any good cookbook, the favorites are the pages most stained. In theirs, each page is noted with who enjoys the recipe the most — a collection handwritten by McCoy’s mother as she battled cancer.

“I’ve searched high and low for these recipes,” said McCoy. “Food was love in Missouri. If someone needed to feel good, you always baked them their favorite thing. You always knew what their favorite pie was, or their favorite meal.”

Now, Hailye — three generations after McCoy’s mother — brings some new twists.

“She’s taken them to a whole other level,” McCoy said. “And I’ve never known how to decorate.”

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Johnson, who previously worked in finance for six years, took up baking during the pandemic to make treats for friends and family from home after having her second son in 2021.

“I decided to be a stay-at-home mom,” she said. “Then, I got bored.”

But quickly, the home-based endeavor grew. The bakery’s current space is the second she’s operated from, outside her house.

“It was a jump off the deep end kind of thing. I was getting busy with orders, and people were asking me to make stuff all the time,” Johnson said. “With two kids at home, it started to become a lot at home.”

Now, her three children range in age from under a year to 5 years old. But the endeavor still remains fun — most days.

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At Simply Homemade, the cinnamon rolls sell out daily, artisan bread is popular in a variety of options, and there’s no shortage of creative flavors for cheesecakes. The business is seeing significant growth in catering and weddings with cakes and cheesecakes.

Cinnamon rolls have evolved beyond their standard spice in Johnson’s kitchen, too. Find her rolls in varieties like red velvet, strawberry, pecan and orange.

“We try to put our own twist on things,” said Johnson, 27.

Johnson’s cupcakes are complimented for their American standard vanilla buttercream’s consistency — not too sweet — and cookies are recognized for royal icing decorations that look almost too perfect to be handmade.

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“They look really good, and they taste really good,” she said. “A lot of cookies people get might look good but not taste the best.”

The rest — cupcakes, cookies, muffins, bars and kolaches — can be found six days a week at the store’s front counter. There, you also can order hot breakfast sandwiches handcrafted coffee drinks and, soon, biscuits and gravy.

Comments: Features reporter Elijah Decious can be reached at (319) 398-8340 or elijah.decious@thegazette.com.