On a summer morning in Woodbury, I stepped into Dorothy Ann Bakery and was met with a wave of warmth and sweetness. The air carried layers of scent – yeast from rising dough, chocolate from cookies cooling on trays, and the unmistakable fragrance of cinnamon.

The place already felt full, even before it got busy.

That’s the kind of experience the Conway family has quietly perfected over the past four decades.

Founded in St. Paul in 1951, Dorothy Ann Bakery has passed through generations, first Ed and Dorothy Ann Durin, then longtime Twin Cities baker Wally Grochowski, and now, Steve and Joan Conway. The Conways’ daughter, Colleen Cicalello, is preparing to take over as the family’s third generation of bakers.

“The bakery’s always been a part of our family, and now our family is a part of so many others,” Steve Conway said.

—

The space gradually buzzed with activity during my visit.

Steve and I sat among the customers at a table near the front of the store. A family sat at another table adjacent to us sharing donuts, moving the youngest child to grin broadly between bites of a frosted long john. 

Behind them, a screen propped along the wall cycled through images of cake-decoration examples (unicorns, roses, zoo animals), prompting excited reactions from the kids as they pointed at their favorites.

Joan Conway, tucked into the back corner of the store, sat beside a young bride flipping quietly through wedding cake designs.

At one point, one of the bakers, clad in a heavily streaked and floured apron, approached Steve and advised him that the price of the ginger snaps seemed too low. Steve agreed and ordered a change.

—

Steve’s path to Dorothy Ann Bakery was far from conventional. Joan introduced him to her family’s shop when he was a business grad working for Xerox in the early 1980s.

“I ditched all that stuff for a bakery apron,” Steve said. “Crap on my hands, scraping floors, making bread. We immersed ourselves in it.”

Now 74 years into the business, the Conways are navigating the challenges of modern baking: soaring ingredient costs, labor shortages and national competitors selling cheap donuts. Still, they insist on quality.

“I refuse to compromise,” Steve said. “Butter used to be $1.25 a pound. Now it’s over $4. Vanilla is $350 a gallon. Eggs were five times what they were a year ago.”

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Producer Price Index for bakery products rose 10.5 percent between May 2022 and December 2023, even as wheat prices dropped more than 44 percent during the same period.

That disconnect underscores a bigger issue: flour and dough prices may have softened, but the cost of producing baked goods continues to climb. Prices for soft cakes have risen 7.3 percent, bread 13.2 percent, cookies and crackers 4.0 percent, and other sweet goods 14.6 percent.

Eggs have been another challenge. Prices skyrocketed 248 percent in 2022 due to the highly pathogenic Avian Influenza outbreak, which decimated supply chains and scrambled availability across the industry.

And while some ingredient costs have stabilized, prices for spices, sugar and flavoring extracts remain elevated. Labor shortages and retention issues have only compounded the pressure. 

Despite all this, Dorothy Ann’s commitment to quality remains strong.

“We still put in real butter,” Steve noted, for example.

Along with rising costs and logistical headaches, Steve said the decision to keep the bakery’s standards high is about more than just business. It’s about consumer trust.

“We’re doing our absolute best to keep it fair and deliver the best product we can,” he said. “We want people to walk in here and know they’re getting something special.”

Dorothy Ann’s current location in Woodbury’s Crossroads Commerce Center opened in 2005, its third Woodbury home since the Conways moved the bakery from Sun Ray Shopping Center in 1988. The new space doubled their footprint again, allowing them to expand both their retail offerings and their production capacity.

Today, the bakery is home to about 45 employees, including high schoolers getting their first jobs, part-time moms and long-tenured staff like Elizabeth Barton, who started behind the counter 25 years ago as a teenager and now leads the baking team.

The family-first culture is no accident. Dorothy Ann Bakery has employed thousands of teens over the years, many of whom return for their wedding cakes or bring their own kids back for treats.

“It’s really rewarding,” Steve said. “We’ve made a lot of friendships here. When someone says we made their child’s birthday or wedding day special, that hits me in the heart.”

The business’s lasting success is also founded in tradition. Colleen, the Conways’ daughter, has worked under her parents since she was a child. Now she manages social media, meets with brides, decorates nearly every cake and teaches baking classes.

In other words, if it’s coated in sugar or needs to be sugar-coated, see Colleen.

—

After my interview with Steve, I walked into the back of the bakery and found Colleen decorating a cake. I asked to take a photo, but she hesitated. She suggested cleaning up and bringing out a new cake instead, something with flowers and a message. I assured her that readers would understand a little flour on her apron. 

Still, she returned with a fresh cake. As she constructed intricate floral designs from the tip of her icing bag, I asked, “How is it working with your parents?”

She paused, then replied with a question of her own. “How would you think it is?”

I gave a quick thought to my own parents.

“A little frustrating at times, but mostly worth it,” I said.

She looked up and smiled. Steve, a few feet away, overheard and chimed in, “You think working with me is frustrating?”

I clarified that my response was for me, not Colleen, whose constant, silent smile spoke volumes as she continued sliding decorative flowers onto the cake.

—

For the past couple of years, Steve and Joan have been gradually stepping back, preparing Colleen to take full reins in the coming years. A talented cake decorator and organizer, she has carried on the family legacy while making a name for herself, appearing multiple times on news spots, including “Twin Cities Live,” to demonstrate her decorating skills.

“She’s creative, talented, a real go-getter,” Steve said of his daughter. “She’ll build on this base and take it in new directions.”

No matter what’s trending on social media, though, Dorothy Ann Bakery remains rooted in the classics. It’s still best known for its breads, butter-rich cookies and pastries, and beloved paczkis, a Polish donut so commended by regulars that it’s now sold year-round, not just around Mardi Gras, where it originated.

That kind of loyalty to a business’s core strengths is often rare in today’s food landscape, where many restaurants open and close in metro areas after experimenting with their menu items to appeal to changing demands. 

Dorothy Ann’s steadfast method speaks for itself. If you ask the Conways, they’ll credit their endurance to the bakery’s symbiotic relationship with Woodbury.

“We’re proud to be part of this community,” Steve said. “We’re glad that we’ve had a real positive impact. That’s all we wanted to be.”

The loyalty showed during the COVID-19 pandemic, when Dorothy Ann Bakery pivoted overnight to online orders and curbside pickup. The community rallied in return, flooding the bakery with orders during what could have been its darkest days.

“It’s not all been, you know, bunnies and duckies,” Steve said.

“As far as giving back, we’ve always probably done way too much, but we’ve always believed that our customers are very important, so we give back as much as we can.”

—

As our interview wrapped up, Steve handed me a ginger snap – by now, we’d talked about them more than once since I’d arrived. The ginger snap was still warm. I covered it and slid it into my pocket.

I thanked the Conways for their time and walked out. The air outside was thick with humidity and wildfire smoke from up north, but I could still pick up notes of brown sugar and butter from inside. I reached back into my pocket.

I didn’t say anything right away. I just stood there, chewing slowly, thinking about everything that had come out of this place, the weddings, the birthdays, the bustling mornings, the smiles. Then I nodded.

“This is a pretty damn good cookie.”