photograph by michael donahue
Queo Bautista with trays of gingerbread men.
Four dozen gingerbread men are made by hand daily at Kay Bakery. And only one cookie cutter is used.
“We make them every day and just enough for the day,” says Queo Bautista, who, along with his brother, Misael Bautista, bought the bakery in 2007. Queo, 44, was born in Acapulco, Mexico, and moved to the United States when he was 17.
“I was a baker when I was 18,” he says. “I started working for a Mexican bakery in Chicago and I found that I liked to do that. I was working all the time until I got this bakery in 2007 with my brother. I was the one baking and he was the one that was helping me.”
The cookies are made from the original recipe, which the Bautistas acquired when they bought the business, Queo says. They originally had three of the original gingerbread men cookie cutters, but now they’re down to one. And that one, which is a little bent, may be on its last aluminum leg.
photograph courtesy key bakery
Original owner Leona Kay
“We couldn’t find any cookie cutters similar to the original ones,” Queo says. “When they break, they’re gone. We’ve got to take care of that cookie cutter.”
Customers love these cookies, which are made from a batter that highlights the flavors of brown sugar, ginger, cinnamon, and honey. They’re especially popular during this time of year.
“Christmastime, people order 40 to 60 dozen at a time,” Queo says. “Businesses. Schools.”
When they purchased the bakery, they received close to two dozen of the original recipes, Queo says, and “we took all of them.” Items they prepare from those recipes include vanilla, chocolate, and lemon petit fours; brownies; chocolate pie; chocolate-chip cookies; and “chocolate drops,” a shortbread cookie.
The bakery fills special orders of the gingerbread men. Each is decorated the same way. Cookie dough forms the body, but they add red food coloring for the two eyes, nose, smiling mouth, three buttons, boots, belt, and hat. Everything is just a dot, except the belt and hat, which are lines.
They’ve always been decorated that way, Queo says, and he doesn’t think it would go over too well if he made any changes to them. “They’d know that it looks different,” he says, “and they’d probably say, ‘You changed the recipe!’”
photograph by michael donahue
The last cookie cutter.
Kay Bakery dates to 1932, Queo says. So, those gingerbread men probably have a long history at the bakery, which was founded by the late Leona Kay.
The original bakery was on Jackson Avenue, as far as Queo knows. Then it moved to its current location on Avon Road, just north of Summer, which was in operation 12 years before the Bautistas bought it.
When they purchased the bakery, they received close to two dozen of the original recipes, Queo says, and “we took all of them.” Items they prepare from those recipes include vanilla, chocolate, and lemon petit fours; brownies; chocolate pie; chocolate-chip cookies; and “chocolate drops,” a shortbread cookie.
Their white wedding cakes also are from “back in the day” when all-white — vanilla white cake and icing — wedding cakes were popular, Queo says. “This bakery was more traditional.”
Many members of the older generation who ordered this type of wedding cake have passed away. But Queo sees a resurgence of young people ordering white wedding cakes. They grew up in homes that knew about this cake, so “they know where to get them.”
photograph by betty finger / smithsonian institution
Proof that the bakery is a Memphis institution — executive editor Michael Finger’s first birthday cake, which came from Kay Bakery. He won’t tell us the year.
The Bautistas have added traditional Hispanic baked items, including sweet bread, milk or “tres leche” cakes, and their rosca de reyes or “king cakes” for Epiphany. They also make the traditional king cake for Easter.
Originally, the employees were just Queo, who still bakes, Misael, and Isaac Brown, who retired after working at Kay for years before the Bautistas bought it. Now they have 14 employees, Queo says.
And only one gingerbread man cookie cutter.
Kay Bakery is located at 667 Avon Road, 901-767-0780.
