We were lucky to catch up with Elizabeth Toepfer recently and have shared our conversation below.

Elizabeth , thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today One of the things we most admire about small businesses is their ability to diverge from the corporate/industry standard. Is there something that you or your brand do that differs from the industry standard? We’d love to hear about it as well as any stories you might have that illustrate how or why this difference matters.

Our bakery is a real bakery. What I mean is that we actually bake every product, from scratch, in store without preservatives or mixes. We do not ever make donuts, because we are a bakery, not a donut shop.

Customers commonly ask who made all the products, where they came from, and why we don’t have ready made cakes, and whole pies available daily.

As a made from scratch bakery, we pride ourselves on using real fresh ingredients like fresh cream,
AA butter, eggs, fresh fruit, and freh Vegetables.

Elizabeth , love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

Lizzie is a self-taught baker with an Associates and Bachelor’s degree in Business Management. She learned to bake at the age of 12. Her Aunt Marilyn owned The Pie Pantry in Belleville, IL from the 70 s to the late 80’s. Lizzie Bob’s is a combination of her and her husband’s names. Lizzie Bob’s is a woman owned, Veteran family run business. The business started in 2013 by selling a loaf of banana bread at a farmers market stand.

Lizzie is known for her pies, cookies, jumbo cinnamon rolls, pecan sticky buns, scones, cheesecake, custom cakes, and more. Bob is the bread baker, making lots of varieties of homemade yeast breads. Lizzie started making homemade ICE CREAM in 2018, and it is available year round, in store, by the container, as well as on the MOBILE BAKERY TRAILER for events. Lizzie and Bob are always creating new and exciting products and services for their customers.

Our NEW GLUTEN FREE MENU ITEMS are now available in store, made fresh to order, and available on our Mobile Bakery Trailer for events! Our daughter Isabella, diagnosed with celiac disease, LOVES all of our NEW GLUTEN FREE products. She is the official taste tester. While we are NOT an Allergy Free Bakery, we do have a separate, dedicated kitchen area, and dedicated mixing bowls, utensils, and measuring cups when making Gluten Free products because we fully understand the effects gluten has on someone with celiac or gluten sensitivity. Our home is celiac friendly, with separate toaster, waffle maker, butter, peanut butter, and we all eat gluten free at home to support our daughter and her diagnoses. While we offer gluten free pastries at the bakery, we also offer lunch and breakfast items, including our Crustless Quiche and containers of homemade Chicken Salad. Checkout our FB and Instagram for daily offerings at the bakery.

Lizzie Bobs Bakery has been offering FROZEN MEALS to go from their in store freezer since 2020. A homemade meal is readily available every Tuesday-Saturday. Just defrost, heat, and serve. They are perfect for busy professionals, families, couples, and available in single serve or service for 4. Our New Bigger Better location also offers Friday Night Family Meals, where you can pre order fresh hot lasagna, take and bake pizza, Roast Chicken Meals, and more. Pre Order before Thursday each week, and we will have your meal ready for pickup by Noon on Friday. We offer our Meals in Regular and Gluten Free.

Essentials like Local Raw Honey and Local BBQ Seasoning and Sauce are available on our Small Business Shelf, as well as lip balm, New Tote Bags, New Coffee Mugs, and more. We plan on adding more Small Business Items during the holidays as well.

Fresh Take and Bake PIZZA can be Pre Ordered 48 hours in advance for pickup in store before 3 PM. Make any night pizza night with Bob’s Fresh pizza or his frozen pizza dough so you can have your own pizza party at home.

You can purchase directly ONLINE through our E Commerce site, lizziebobsbakery.com under the SHOP NOW tab with 48 hour notice for pickup in store during business hours.

Lizzie Bobs Bakery MOBILE BAKERY FOOD TRAILER, is available for events, markets, birthday parties, neighborhood parties, fundraisers, teacher appreciation, Back to School Bash, Trunk or Treat, Ice Cream Socials, corporate events, and business luncheons! Contact us at 618-589-3770 to reserve. A non refundable $50 reservation fee is required when booking your date. Simply choose a date, Pre pay for products you want us to bring to your event, and then we will have extra items for sale based on your event type. We can bring sandwiches, cookies, cake pops, ice cream, scones, gooey butter cake, carrot cake, cheesecake, brownies, and even hot pepperoni rolls.

Lizzie Bobs Bakery is located at 5500 North Illinois Street Suite C on HWY 159.

Lizzie Bob’s Sweets From Scratch appreciates the opportunity to be of service to you for all your Sweets, Catering, Meals, and Party needs.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

2020 was devastating for a lot of small businesses in the food industry. Lizzie Bobs Bakery pivoted instead of closing. We never closed our door, and started making homemade freezer meals, fresh pizza, and offering crust side pickup and local delivery.

Due to our quick thinking outside the box, we ended 2020 with a 20% increase in sales!

We are just a 2 person team running a small business with the occasional help from our teenagers when they aren’t in school.

We are super proud of our woman owned, veteran family fun small business and all that we have accomplished in almost 10 years in business.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

As a small business owner, customer service has always been priority number one when building relationships with our clients.

We make every customer feel welcome as soon as they enter the bakery. We want them to become a member of the Lizzie Bobs family.

We treat everyone with kindness and respect, and offer to help in any way possible going above and beyond a simple hello and thanks.

True business relationships are built on trust. When your clients trust you, their loyalty becomes a pivotal part of your business success.

We have been making birthday cakes and cookies for some families since we started almost 10 years ago.
We are so proud to be the trusted bakery clients refer to others.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://lizziebobsbakery.com/
• Instagram: instagram.com/lizziebobsbakery
• Facebook: www.Facebook.com/lizziebobsbakery
• Linkedin: www.LinkedIn.com/elizabethtoepfer
• TikTok: www.tiktok.com/@lizziebobsbakery