Baking by the Book: East Librarian Jennifer Robinson runs her own side bakery business and culinary school

From baking for family and friends to now owning her own bakery and culinary school, East librarian Jennifer Robinson has been covered in icing and sprinkles for eight years.

Her baking career was only a hobby, until she brought ice cream cone-shaped cookies to her daughter’s kindergarten class. After receiving praise from parents for her intricate designs, baking turned into a full on career, rather than just a casual interest.

“It’s kind of fun to hear when you do something good,” Robinson said. “And [baking is a] fun thing to do, and so [my baking career] just took off from there.”

Robinson started whipping up cookies more and more, just for fun, over the last few years. When COVID-19 hit in 2020, Robinson spent the extra time on her hands folding cookie dough and taking her baking to the next level by selling cookies on her website. 

“When COVID hit, and we [were] all stuck at home, two of my friends wanted to learn how [to make cookies], so I taught them how,” Robinson said. “Then I decided, well, maybe I’ll try to sell them.” 

Whether it be Christmas, a wedding or even a celebration of the new Hocus Pocus movie, Robinson has baked and decorated it all. 

Once Robinson has an order request submitted to her through her company’s email, she bakes the cookies and either sends them for delivery or organizes a pickup. In addition to this website, Robinson takes a dozen cookies to the Yellow Brick Bakery in Olathe to sell every week.

Balancing time between lending out books in the East library and icing cookies in her kitchen has become routine for Robinson. An average weekday means coming home from school and starting on this week’s dozen and then finishing up the orders on the weekends.

“I do have to keep my orders to no more than 12 dozen a week so I have time to read books for the library and keep up with my kids at home,” Robinson said.

Along with decorating and selling her intricate cookies, Robinson and her husband established their own culinary school, Taste Buds Kitchen five years ago at 151st and Nall, that offers classes for both kids and adults. 

However, Robinson mainly focuses on her cookie business as she has many employees that work there now. Robinson will always enjoy icing each cookie and picking out colors, regardless of the status of her business

“Cookie decorating is something I love and will always be a hobby of mine, [even] if there comes a time that I don’t want to have it as a business anymore,” Robinson said. “I plan on retiring [from East] within the next 8 years and hope that I can do even more decorating once I’m retired and have more time.”