Cookie baking becomes a business for local woman
Robbins turned hobby into a passion through ‘Cookie By Gina’
Describing her childhood growing up in Dayton as “very average,” Gina Robbins of Tipp City spent summers at Phillips Aquatic Club, went to private school and graduated from Chaminade Julienne High School in 1991.
“My mom was single and raised my brother, my sister and me,” Robbins said. “Our grandparents were very involved, and they were influential in how I turned out.”
Robbins went on to Sinclair Community College and then Wright State University. She always loved children and hoped to have a large brood of her own, but also wanted to teach.
“I thought education was the way for me to go so I could be around kids,” Robbins said.
Throughout her school years, she played volleyball, basketball and soccer. But another love was interior design.
“I was very particular with my bedroom and how it was set up,” Robbins said.
But she admits she didn’t think about a career in designing early on. Eventually she decided to major in interior design in college. Today, she still loves designing but fell into another creative business she never anticipated or expected.
“In college I started working for a bank and I always worked part time at Hara Arena,” Robbins said. “That’s where I met my husband, John.”
The couple married in 1997 and had two children, two years apart, while still living in Dayton. Friends living in Tipp City and Robbins’ brother and sister-in-law had moved to Tipp and were encouraging Robbins and her husband to move too.
“We wanted to move to an area that had a highly rated school system,” Robbins said. “That was important.”
In 2005, the family moved to Tipp City with 4-year-old Lauren and 2-year-old Nick. Robbins said they were delighted to find that the streets in their
new neighborhood were “full of kids riding bikes and playing outside,” similar to the one they left behind in Dayton.
“I felt bad moving away from my grandparents in Dayton,” Robbins said. “But we thought it was a good time to make the move while the kids were still preschool age.”
Robbins always loved to bake but didn’t do as much of it while raising her young children and working at the bank. Then in 2004, her daughter’s kindergarten teacher gave her an opportunity to watch her newborn baby. Robbins jumped at the chance to stay home and spend more time with her family.
“My grandma always let us bake cookies at Christmas and Easter,” Robbins said. “I really wanted to do that with my kids.”
She started the tradition of baking cookies with her children on holidays, only making decorated sugar cookies, and refining her techniques as she went.
“I get embarrassed when I see pictures of the first cookies I did,” Robbins said. “I started watching videos and picked up tips along the way.”
Then in 2008, Robbins started “Cookie by Gina,” and the sweet new business took off.
“My friend at our elementary school suggested I bake cookies as a business,” Robbins said. “I would do them for holidays and as gifts and people loved them.”
Now that her children are college age — Lauren is 23 and attending Bowling Green University and Nicholas is 21 and going to the University of Cincinnati — she has more time to bake, though she admits she often gets overwhelmed, especially over holiday times.
“I’m very picky about my cookies so I can’t really hire anyone to help me,” Robbins said. “So I’m limiting the number of dozen that I will do so I can have a life outside of cookies.”
Neither of Robbins’ kids have shown a desire to help with the cookie business and Robbins is now babysitting only one child, who will be her last. She plans to focus on her cookies and figure out how to achieve good balance in her life.
“I am constantly refining and tweaking,” Robbins said. “I changed my cookie recipe once and work to stay up on the latest bags and icing finishes, including edible glitter.”
Robbins said there is one secret ingredient in her cookies that makes them perfect, but she keeps that one to herself. And she knows she has competition — especially in the sugar cookie department.
“I see so many gorgeous cookies out there,” Robbins said. “But having them look good but also taste good is essential to me.”
And the feedback she receives reaffirms that her cookies are both. Her busiest time of year for cookies is from fall into the Christmas holiday season, when she not only bakes cookies to order but also puts together do it yourself cookie kits for novices who would like to include cookie decorating in their own holiday celebrations.
“I did 82 DIY kits in December alone,” Robbins said. “That ended up being top of my custom orders.”
Robbins never dreamed that baking cookies would help put her children through college. But that’s exactly what has happened.
“The future is definitely about cookies,” Robbins said. “My first love is interior design but for now, It’s cookies – baking, decorating and sharing them with everyone.”