By Richelle Putnam, Magnolia Tribune
(Photo courtesy of Anderson’s Bakery)
It’s around 3 a.m., and the lights have come on at Anderson’s Bakery, 2033 Market Street in Pascagoula. The workday is about to begin—with doughnuts.
By the time most residents along the Mississippi Gulf Coast are waking, baked items are filling the shelves, cakes are being decorated, and the scent of freshly baked delights drifts through the small coastal business known for 50 years as Anderson’s Bakery.
Today, customers still wait for the doors to open at 6:00 am, eager to step into the delicacy den for fresh, daily doughnuts. Whether the day’s craving is a slice of dobash cake or a puff pastry, there are plenty of choices. You’ll certainly have a difficult time deciding between that slice of white cake with buttercream icing and a chocolate cake with chocolate icing. Life’s short. Get them both and throw in the rainbow cookies for the grands coming this weekend and cream horns for your bridge club.
“People who have moved away, when they come back to town, they make sure they come by Anderson’s and get their sweet treats,” said Melissa Morales, the bakery’s manager.
That long-term loyalty was evident when Anderson’s Bakery recently celebrated its 50th anniversary. Although the bakery offered free cupcakes to its first 100 customers, the celebration carried a deeper meaning for the community than just free dessert.
Customers lined up as usual before opening time, but this time they brought flowers and cards. Some stopped by to offer congratulations.
“In a small town, everybody knows everybody,” Morales said. “The community was very proud.”
Mary and Robert (Bob) Anderson founded Anderson’s Bakery in 1976 after buying Cooper’s Bakery and renaming it. The bakery has always been a family affair. Their four sons, Steve, Bobby, David and Tom, grew up around the business, with David eventually taking over the baking operation alongside his father.
Now, that family story continues into its next chapter.
Morales has worked in the bakery since 1985. She, her husband Javi, and their daughter and son-in-law, Kaitee and Jeremy Smith, are set to purchase the business from David Anderson upon his full retirement later this year. This transition marks the next chapter as the Morales family assumes ownership and continues Anderson’s legacy.
“Everything will be the same,” Morales said. “No recipes are changing.”
That promise matters to customers who have ordered their favorite treats for decades.
The bakery’s signature rainbow cookies — iced sugar cookies decorated for each season and holiday — remain one of its biggest draws. Customers travel from across Mississippi, Alabama and Florida for them, with some driving from Pensacola to pick up a cake.
“The recipe hasn’t changed since 1976,” Morales said. “When you eat it, it’s the same as you remember.”
Of course, maintaining that consistency hasn’t always been easy. Over the years, changing ingredient regulations required making minor adjustments, including reformulating recipes when trans fats were removed from the shortening they used.
“We just had to tweak it,” Morales said. “Now you can’t really tell.”
The most delicious secret ingredient in Anderson’s Bakery, however, may be good old-fashioned trust.
Morales’ connection to the Anderson family began when she was a teenager. Her mother had gone to school with Mrs. Anderson, and a chance meeting eventually led to her lifelong career. Over the decades, Morales said the Andersons became more like family than employers.
Mrs. Anderson taught her how to decorate cakes. Later, David Anderson entrusted Jeremy with the recipes and techniques that built the bakery’s reputation. Jeremy and Javi do all the baking.
“We don’t treat it like a job,” Morales said. “It’s always just been their family, and we’re here to carry it all on.”
That family atmosphere extends to the bakery’s daily operations, where the team creates between 20 and 80 custom cakes each day for birthdays, anniversaries and graduations, making customers feel part of the family.
“We’ve done their kids’ cakes and their grandkids’ cakes,” she said. “You develop relationships that are unique and something you don’t find every day.”
Beyond treats, the bakery gives back to the community. Each Christmas season, Anderson’s hosts free photos with Santa, providing cookies, decorations and a professional photographer so families can create holiday memories at no cost. Morales compares this holiday tradition to something out of the television show Gilmore Girls — warm, nostalgic and frozen in time.
That nostalgia keeps customers coming back year after year.
In an era of chain stores and mass production, Anderson’s Bakery remains proudly old-fashioned: a place where recipes are made from scratch, customers are greeted by name, and the people behind the counter remember your favorite order.
As the Morales family prepares to take ownership, they reaffirm a commitment to tradition: there are no plans to reinvent what has worked for half a century. There may be new pastries, fresh paint and a few updates to the building, but the heart of Anderson’s Bakery will stay the same.
“It’s just a small hometown bakery,” Morales said. “You can’t get anything like it anywhere else.”
Bakery Hours: 6 am to 5 pm – Tuesday through Friday