The Business of
SASSY RED’S BAKERY
Medicine
Building
Sassy Red’s Bakery takes a Redefin
sweet road
Shelters
to entrepreneurship
STORY AND PHOTOS BY MIKE ELSWICK
T
he road into entrepreneurship for
Cindy Lindsey has been a tasty
trend of baking, decorating and of
putting the finishing touch on treats which
keep customers coming back.
Sassy Red’s Bakery, Bookstore, Coffee
and Gifts, now located at 1000 Tenaha
Street in Center, got its start on the
downtown Center square in September
2014 inside what was then the Little Fox
Martketplace.
Cindy opened Sassy Red’s, fulfilling
her dream of owning her own bakery and
catering company, on September 23, 2014,
on the Center Square. At that time, she did
everything herself.
“Circumstances were just right there,
everything came together there,” the
Timpson High School graduate says. “It
was just me then making cookies and
cupcakes and cakes.”
Over the course of the
past five years, she has expanded Sassy
Red’s lineup and added staff, including her
mother Margaret Freeman.
While the business started in downtown
Center, Cindy’s love of baking and creating
edible works of art got its start much earlier
in her life.
“I just always enjoyed baking and seeing
the results,” she says. “I enjoy people
enjoying what I make.”
Cindy honed her skills through trial and
error. Her on-the-job experience came from
working in the restaurant business and in
working with her former mother-in-law in
the bakery business in Longview.
“I didn’t go to school for it, it’s been the
school of hard knocks,” she says. Cindy’s
skills improved to the level she taught
classes in decorating while still located on
the square.
“I always like to experiment in the
kitchen and see what works,”
Cindy says. In May 2016,
Cindy moved to her current
location on Tenaha Street and
her mother, Margaret, moved
Margaret’s Lamb and Lion
business into the location.
The bookstore has been in
, Cindy Lindsey, Margaret
From left Karen Freeman
22 Business MATTERS | 2020 Spring Edition
Freeman
business since 1988.
Not only can clients purchase delicious
treats and coffee, but they can find a wide
collection of spiritual books, cards and
Bibles.
Cindy and her team make traditional
bakery items such as cakes, pies and
cookies but they can also be creative with
dessert selections such as offering cake
pops and cookie bouquets, just to name a
few, she says.
Cupcakes and cookies are always
in stock for a quick pick up treat, and
she usually has a weekly special. As far
as decorating cookies and cakes, only
her skills and the limits of her clients’
imagination set the boundaries.
“Just about anything people can come
up we can do,” she says. From birthday
cakes in the shape of a fish to ornate
wedding cakes, Sassy Red’s can probably
do the job.
“It’s amazing how the trends change for
wedding cakes and birthday cakes,” Cindy
says.
One area in which she and the staff
cannot replicate are popular characters
which kids see on television and want but
which are copyrighted.