Miamisburg, Ohio

Mamaw Knipp's Bakery — home bakery in Miamisburg, Ohio

Recipes from my family.
Baked for yours.

I'm Ava. I bake out of my own kitchen in Miamisburg — vintage buttercream cakes piped by hand, cupcakes by the dozen, and cookies you'll end up hiding from your own family. One baker, one oven, however long it takes.

Ask about your date See the prices

Or just call me — (937) 823-2983

A deep pink buttercream cake piped with a shell border, finished with dark red ribbon bows and the number 21

A box of cupcakes piped with pink buttercream roses

Made to order, never sat in a case • Pickup from my kitchen in Miamisburg • Local delivery across the Dayton side • @mamawknippsbakery

What comes out of the kitchen

Three things, done properly.

There's no case of whatever didn't sell yesterday. Everything gets baked the week you asked for it, in the flavor you asked for, and then it leaves.

No. 1

Vintage buttercream cakes

from $35

The piping is the whole point. Shells, ruffles, pearls, ribbon — the way cakes were decorated before everything went smooth and beige. Tell me a color and what it should say, and send me a picture of anything you've seen and liked — I don't sketch, but a photo tells me more than a drawing would.

Four inch up to a sheet cake that feeds fifty
Lettering piped by hand, never a printed topper
Six flavors, eight fillings, mixed how you like
About two weeks' notice, longer in spring

Buttercream cakes →

A lilac buttercream cake covered in fine white lace-style piping and silver pearls

A navy and cream buttercream cake with piped roses and gold pearls on top

No. 2

Cupcakes, by the dozen

from $24

Same buttercream, same piping, just small enough to hand around. They travel better than a cake and nobody has to stand there cutting.

Half dozen, dozen, or as many as you need
Rosettes and swirls to match the cake
Boxed flat so nothing shows up sideways

Cupcakes →

No. 3

Cookies, and the Cookie Club

from $10

Small batch, made the week you want them. Seven kinds of cookie, and iced sugar cookies piped by hand for whatever the occasion is. Then the Cookie Club — four specialty flavors I only bake that month, boxed together.

Seven cookie flavors, half dozen and up
The Cookie Club — four specialty flavors, $12 a box
Trays for showers, offices and funerals

Cookies & the Club →

Trays of Ava's decorated sugar cookies cooling on wire racks

Weddings

Only a few weddings a year, so yours gets a whole week.

Tiered cakes, tasted before they're chosen and set up by me at the venue. We start at my kitchen table with six flavors in front of you, and you send me the pictures of what you want it to look like.

How weddings work →

That one is a twenty-fifth anniversary cake — pearls piped all the way around.

An ivory anniversary cake covered in hand-piped pearl work and tied with a black silk ribbon

Rows of Ava's iced snowman sugar cookies cooling on a wire rack

The Cookie Club

Four flavors I only bake this month. $12 a box.

Every month I pick four specialty flavors that never make the normal list — the ones I actually want to be making — and box them together. On the first they're gone and there are four new ones. Nothing to sign up for, nothing to cancel.

Four flavors, every monthFour specialty flavors I don't bake the rest of the time. New four on the first of the month.
The four are the fourYou get the box as it comes. I can't swap one out — making them in one batch is the only reason they can be what they are.
$12 a boxOne box, one price. A fancier flavor or a bigger box costs more, and I'll tell you what before you pay.

How the Cookie Club works

Ask me what's in it —
this month's four are set.

Everything I've made

Take a look through.

All of it photographed on my own counter, because that's where it was. There are more of these than will fit on one page.

An eightieth birthday cake in butter yellow with a heavy piped shell border — Eightieth. She wanted yellow.

A lilac cake with white lace-style piping and silver pearls, lettered Seventeen — Lace piping. Two hours, and worth it.

A pink buttercream cake with piped shell borders and a hand-piped twenty-first message — Twenty-first. Pink, obviously.

A yellow-bordered cake hand-piped with a classic car and the words Not Old Just Classic — "Not old, just classic."

A dusty rose cake with piped ruffles, green leaves and a hand-piped birthday message — Eva's, with the leaves piped on last.

A green and blue pond cake with piped frogs and lily pads for a twenty-second birthday — The frogs took longer than the cake.

A white cake ringed with rose gold balloons and a gold Happy Birthday topper — Rose gold, all the way around.

A cream cake with peach bows and hand-piped happy birthday lettering — Peach bows, piped one at a time.

The whole gallery →

So who's Mamaw?

The recipes came from my family. The rest I worked out myself.

Mamaw was my grandmother, and most of what I bake started on a card in her handwriting — the yellow cake, and the buttercream I still haven't managed to improve on. I've added plenty since. The piping is all mine. The cookies got completely out of hand.

I work out of my own kitchen here in Miamisburg. One oven, one person, so I take a set number of orders a week — I'd rather turn a job down than rush yours.

Ava Knipp — owner and baker

More about Ava →

Mamaw Knipp sitting in her armchair at home with her three grandchildren gathered around her, all smiling — Mamaw, and the three of us.
She's the reason for every bit of it.

A golden loaf cooling on a wire rack set over the stove in Ava's kitchen — There is nearly always something cooling on that rack.

How ordering works

Three steps, and one of them is eating it.

FIRST

Tell me your date

The form takes a minute. Date, roughly how many people, and anything you've already got in your head about how it should look.

THEN

I'll price it

Send me a picture of anything you've seen and liked — I don't do sketches, but a photo tells me more than a drawing would. You get a real number before anything is baked, and changing your mind now is free.

LAST

Pick it up, or I'll bring it

From my kitchen in Miamisburg, or delivered locally. Wedding cakes I set up myself.

Delivery & pickup →

Before you ask

The things people always want to know.

How much notice do you need?

About two weeks for a cake, and three or four in April, May and December because those fill up first. Cookies I can usually turn around faster. If your date's tight, ask anyway — sometimes I can move something.

Do you deliver, or do I pick up?

Most orders get picked up from my kitchen here in Miamisburg. I'll deliver locally — Springboro, Centerville, West Carrollton, Kettering, Moraine, Dayton — for a small fee, and I set up wedding cakes myself so nothing arrives leaning.

What flavors do you make?

Cakes and cupcakes come in chocolate, vanilla, strawberry, red velvet, lemon and carrot, and you can fill them with buttercream, chocolate ganache, lemon curd, strawberry, raspberry, caramel, cookies and cream or peanut butter. If you've got a recipe from your own family, send me the card and I'll bake that instead.

How much is a cake?

A six inch is $55 and feeds eight to twelve, an eight inch is $70, and a sheet cake that feeds a room is $100. Add ten dollars if the decoration is a big job. Every size and every flavor is on the prices page.

Can you work around an allergy?

I can leave the nuts out and I make an egg-free frosting. But I bake in my own home kitchen, so I can't promise you anything is completely free of a trace of something. I'll always tell you straight if I'm not sure.

Do you do wedding cakes?

Yes, and we start with a tasting at my table so you're choosing between flavors you've actually eaten. Get in touch early — I only take a handful a year, so each one gets the week it needs.

Is there a minimum on cookies?

Half a dozen for a normal order. The Cookie Club is separate — that's a box of four specialty flavors for $12, and it changes every month.

So — when is it for?

Tell me the date and roughly how many people, and I'll come back to you today if I can.

Tell me your date Call (937) 823-2983