KANSAS CITY, MO — Since its early days as a 600-square-foot brick-and-mortar bake shop with a small menu, Magnolia Bakery has leveled up time and again, broadening its menu to nearly every area of the baking discipline. Its experiential nature keeps customers coming back for more.
“Being 30 years old means that we’re generational,” said Bobbie Lloyd, the company’s chief brand officer and chief baking officer. “We have people coming in who came with their parents when they were kids and are now bringing their children. They want their kids to have the same experience they had when they were four, five, six years old.”
Since its founding in 1996, demand for Magnolia Bakery has persisted, evident by the line of eager customers snaking through the bakery’s cozy storefront, musing at the cakes, cupcakes and cookies filling the case. Behind the counter, employees garnish — and package — everything from slices of chocolate cake to single-serve cheesecakes to pints of banana pudding.
Meeting customers across markets
Even with an ever-growing footprint, Magnolia Bakery finds new ways to connect with customers outside the bakery. One way is through partnerships in and out of the food space. Teaming up with other brands such as Ess-a-Bagel and Glossier allows the bakery to expand on its mission — “Make today sweeter than yesterday” — and offers more ways for people to engage with Magnolia Bakery. This can be everything from apparel and accessories to exclusive baked good creations.
“I don’t want to do a collaboration just to do it,” Bobbie said. “It’s got to be something that we care about and matches our ethos as a brand.”
This approach extends into its CPG ventures. In addition to debuting Banana Pudding Cookies in grocery chains nationwide in 2024, the bakery made waves with its Frozen-to-Thaw Banana Pudding, which took three years of R&D work.
Two storefronts are supported by a commissary in Long Island City, NY, however, many baked goods are created on-site at its various shops, such as the Rockefeller location.
“One of the cool things about the way we bake is we don’t need big kitchens,” she said. “We have a prep kitchen downstairs and a three-compartment sink here, and then we have stations out front. It’s experiential: Employees are icing cupcakes and cakes in the front window where people can watch and see the product we’re making.”
The bakery is taking this experience one step further. Magnolia Bakery is incorporating build-your-own banana pudding bars, which first debuted in 2025, in select stores. Interactive, personalized options such as this grant people the power to create an individualized flavor experience at their respective visit. Each menu evolution emphasizes Magnolia Bakery’s commitment to meeting the interests of its customers.
“We’ve expanded our cupcake offerings to be much broader and more expansive, doing all different kinds of cakes and buttercream,” Bobbie noted. “We’ve also expanded into better quality ingredients because the consumer profile has changed.”
Franchising ahead
To meet growing demand beyond NYC, the company recently established its franchising program, which brings the Magnolia Bakery experience to cities across the US, including Salt Lake City, Las Vegas and Louisville, KY.
“Part of our reason for going into franchising is kind of like why we started shipping e-commerce nationwide or why we ended up in grocery: It’s meeting consumers where they are,” Bobbie explained. “The continual request is, ‘How come you’re not in this town?’ We don’t have the bandwidth to open all these company-owned stores, but franchising means that we can bring our brand to more customers.”
By balancing its origins with what its customers seek, Magnolia Bakery creates an evergreen nostalgic experience, one swirled cupcake at a time.
This bakery was featured in the March 2026 Craft to Crumb special edition mini-mag. Read the full Roadshow in the digital issue here.
