Kimberly Fansler

Hometown: Winston-Salem, North Carolina

Age: 36

Artistry: Baker, owner/operator, Mid City Bakery

Online: midcitybakery.com, @midcitybakery on Instagram

Taste and memory are tied tightly together. If something is delicious, our brains naturally file those details away for safekeeping, or perhaps survival, and in some cases, complete obsession.

Growing up in North Carolina, Kimberly Fansler’s grandfather would keep a box of Little Debbie snack cakes on the counter, and Oatmeal Creme Pies were their shared favorite.

Now the cottage baker behind the whisper-worthy goodies machine, Mid City Bakery, counts her childhood-inspired “Big Deb”—a saucer-sized pair of doughy oatmeal cookies filled with, of course, an airy vanilla cream—as her best-seller.

“People love that thing—and no chemicals, no preservatives—it’s really good,” Fansler says. “Fair warning, it might ruin Little Debbie’s for you forever.”

With degrees in psychology and fine art, Fansler settled in Baton Rouge in late 2019 with her partner, Sam Goldstein, and had plans to pursue a post-baccalaureate degree in ceramics at LSU. Instead, her mother, a NICU nurse who baked cakes for supplemental income, and her own efforts helping launch a bake house back home, inspired the launch of Mid City Bakery.

While working at the local franchise of Smallcakes during the pandemic, Fansler says her anxiety spiked, so she would switch the ovens on at 3 a.m., bake a day’s worth of desserts, then leave before customers arrived.

Now she loves connecting with shoppers at pop-ups and delivering custom orders, but Fansler still feels most creative early in the day. “Mornings aren’t overwhelmed by everything that’s happened by nighttime,” she says. “It’s like everything’s fresh—including me.”

Her menu includes espresso and rum-infused tiramisu cookies, classic chocolate chips, a variety of muffins and glazed hilltop cinnamon rolls. And though she loves creating eclairs and other more time-intensive pastries, the basics are selling well in Baton Rouge, so she’s pouring into those.

“Getting my hands back into clay after 10 years has been awesome, too,” Fansler says. “Ceramics is a passion for me. And there are so many similarities between clay and baking. You’re kneading, you’re shaping, you’re doing all of these things that are very tactile and very detailed.”

Government Street patio bar Pelican to Mars, and the House Brew coffee pop-up nested inside, both stock her creations, as does nearby Red Stick Reads. Last summer, Mid City Beer Garden asked Fansler to fuel its dessert menu with her strawberry swirl cheesecake and key lime pie, though her offerings there will pivot with the seasons.

“I want to focus on what we’re doing, do it well, and then maybe get one or two other accounts, and that’s all,” Fansler says. “I really care about the quality, and I’m only interested in putting out a product that makes me proud.”