Bonnie Ray’s Bake Shoppe

This week’s Small Business Spotlight is on Bonnie Ray’s Bake Shoppe in Oxford! They specialize in all types of baked goods, including custom cakes, cream horns, pastries, cookies, cheese straws, even chicken salad!
The store is located at 1225 Snow Street and you might even see their food truck out at local events! Owner Bonnie Martin took some time to speak with me about the business that her mother and aunt began 28 years ago!

• Tammy (T): How and when did Bonnie Ray’s Bake Shoppe begin?
• Bonnie (B): We opened in 1993 in Jacksonville, so we’ve been open for 28 years! My mom and my aunt and grandparents opened it when I was only 8. It was always family run and we still have a lot of family here and we also have some really great employees.
• T: Tell me about your location here in Oxford.
• B: We opened this location 4 years ago. It was slow to begin with but it’s been really busy the last couple years!
• T: What kind of things do you sell here?
• B: Custom cakes is our big thing here, lots of wedding cakes. We’re known for our cheese straws, our cream horns, decorated cookies, and pastries. We also do other stuff like chicken salad!
• T: What kind of customizing options do you have for your creations?
• B: A lot of people go on Pinterest and find something crazy cool and we do our best to duplicate it! We do a lot of fondant and butter cream for cakes. As far as pastries, we can customize anything, we do thumbprint cookies. We get creative and try to do anything that’s brought to us.
• T: Tell me about the local events you participate in.
• B: We always do OxfordFest and we’re doing the Noble Street Festival in 2 weeks. We’re also doing the Sweet Potato Festival. I have had a food truck for 2 years so it keeps me busy! I just recently had it wrapped by Freestyle Graphics, which did a great job. We take it everywhere, it’s so much better than setting up a tent.
• T: Where can people find you in store and online?
• B: We’re closed Sundays and Mondays, we’re here Tuesday through Saturday from 8-4. The store is located at 1225 Snow Street in Oxford. We have a Facebook page and an Instagram page. And you never know where you might see the trailer around town!
• T: Anything else you’d like to share?
• B: I really appreciate all the customers that we’ve had in our 28 years and it’s been amazing!

I hope you enjoyed this interview with a local business. Be sure to support small businesses in your community!